Ni legis la financan raporton.

Legis is the past tense form of legi (to read).

In Esperanto, all past tense verbs end in -is:

• legi = to read
• legas = reads / is reading
• legis = read / was reading / did read
• legos = will read

So Ni legis means we read or we were reading, depending on context.

Ni means we.

It is the first-person plural pronoun:

• mi = I
• vi = you
• li = he
• ŝi = she
• ĝi = it
• ni = we
• ili = they

So the sentence begins with Ni = we.

La is the Esperanto definite article, meaning the.

It does not change for number, gender, or case. It is always just la.

So:

• la raporto = the report
• la financa raporto = the financial report

In this sentence, la shows that a specific report is meant.

Because raporton is the direct object, and in Esperanto direct objects take the accusative ending -n.

Also, adjectives must agree with the nouns they describe. Since raporton is:

• singular
• accusative

the adjective must match:

• financa raporto = financial report
• financan raporton = financial report (as a direct object)

So both words get -n:

• financa → financan
• raporto → raporton

In Esperanto, adjectives normally end in -a.

So:

• financa = financial
• bona = good
• granda = big

Here, financan is the accusative form of financa, because it describes raporton, which is also accusative.

A useful pattern is:

• noun: -o
• adjective: -a
• plural: -j
• accusative: -n

The basic form is raporto, meaning report.

Here is how it changes:

• raporto = report
• raporton = report (as a direct object)

So the -n does not change the basic meaning of the word; it just marks its role in the sentence.

Yes, it could.

• Ni legis la financan raporton = We read the financial report.
• Ni legis financan raporton = We read a financial report / We read financial report material, depending on context.

Esperanto has la for the, but it has no separate word for a/an. If there is no article, the meaning is often indefinite or general.

Yes, Esperanto word order is fairly flexible, partly because the -n ending helps show what the direct object is.

For example, these can mean the same thing:

• Ni legis la financan raporton.
• La financan raporton ni legis.

Because raporton has -n, you still know it is the object.

However, Ni legis la financan raporton is the most neutral and natural order for a beginner.

By itself, legi usually means to read in the normal sense: to read a text.

If you specifically want to say read aloud, Esperanto often uses:

• laŭtlegi = to read aloud

So this sentence most naturally means that we read the financial report, not necessarily that we read it aloud.

You keep most of the sentence the same and only change the verb ending:

• Ni legas la financan raporton. = We are reading / read the financial report.
• Ni legis la financan raporton. = We read the financial report.
• Ni legos la financan raporton. = We will read the financial report.

This is one of the nice regular features of Esperanto: tense is very predictable.

Because la never changes.

Unlike nouns and adjectives, la does not take plural or accusative endings. It stays the same in every situation:

• la raporto
• la raporton
• la raportoj
• la raportojn

This makes Esperanto articles simpler than in many other languages.