Ŝi volas adopti katon.

the cat

Breakdown of Ŝi volas adopti katon.

• voli: to want
• ŝi: she
• adopti: to adopt

Questions & Answers about Ŝi volas adopti katon.

Why does ŝi have a letter ŝ instead of plain s?

In Esperanto, ŝ is a separate letter, pronounced like sh in she. So ŝi sounds roughly like shee.

This matters because s and ŝ are different sounds and can change the word completely. Esperanto spelling is very regular, so each letter has one consistent pronunciation.

Why is the verb volas ending in -as?

In Esperanto, all present-tense verbs end in -as. So volas means it is in the present tense.

A useful pattern is:

• -as = present
• -is = past
• -os = future
• -us = conditional
• -u = command / jussive
• -i = infinitive

So volas is simply the present-tense form of the verb voli.

Why is adopti ending in -i instead of being conjugated too?