La hundo ne mordas.

the

Breakdown of La hundo ne mordas.

• ne: not
• hundo: the dog
• mordi: to bite

Questions & Answers about La hundo ne mordas.

Why is there la at the beginning?

La is the definite article in Esperanto, meaning the.

So la hundo = the dog.

Unlike English, Esperanto has only one article: la. It does not have separate forms like a or an. If you want to say a dog, you usually just say hundo with no article.

Why does hundo end in -o?

In Esperanto, nouns normally end in -o.

So:

• hundo = dog
• kato = cat
• domo = house

This makes word classes very easy to recognize. When you see -o, you can usually tell the word is a noun.

What does ne do in this sentence?

Ne makes the sentence negative. It means not.

So:

• La hundo mordas. = The dog bites.
• La hundo ne mordas. = The dog does not bite.

In Esperanto, ne usually goes directly before the word or part it negates. Here it negates the verb phrase, so it comes before mordas.

Why is one word instead of something like ?