La krizo daŭris unu semajnon.

Because Esperanto often uses the accusative -n to show duration of time.

So in La krizo daŭris unu semajnon, unu semajnon means for one week.

This is a very common pattern:

• Mi laboris du horojn. = I worked for two hours.
• Ŝi restis tie tri tagojn. = She stayed there for three days.

Here, -n does not mean a direct object in the usual sense. It marks a measure of time.

It could, but it doesn’t have to.

Esperanto has two common ways to express duration:

• La krizo daŭris unu semajnon.
• La krizo daŭris dum unu semajno.

Both are understandable. The version without dum is very natural and compact, especially with lengths of time.

So unu semajnon by itself already means for one week.

Daŭris is the past-tense form of daŭri, which means to last, to continue, or to go on depending on context.

The ending -is shows past tense:

• daŭras = lasts / is lasting
• daŭris = lasted
• daŭros = will last

So La krizo daŭris... means The crisis lasted...

Not really in the ordinary English sense.

In this sentence, unu semajnon is best understood as an accusative of duration, not as a normal object being acted on.

So although the noun has -n, the idea is:

• The crisis lasted for one week

not

• The crisis affected one week

That distinction is useful, because Esperanto uses -n for several functions, not only direct objects.

Without -n, it would lose the duration meaning in this structure.

• unu semajnon = for one week
• unu semajno = one week, as a plain noun phrase

So the -n is what turns the time expression into for one week here.

La is the definite article, meaning the.

So La krizo means the crisis, not just a crisis.

Esperanto has only one article, la, and it does not change for gender, number, or case:

• la krizo = the crisis
• la krizoj = the crises
• la krizon = the crisis (accusative)

Because krizo is the subject of the sentence, not a duration expression and not a direct object.

In La krizo daŭris unu semajnon:

• La krizo = the subject
• daŭris = the verb
• unu semajnon = duration of time

Only semajnon gets -n here.

Yes. Esperanto word order is fairly flexible because endings show the grammatical roles.

For example, these are possible:

• La krizo daŭris unu semajnon.
• Unu semajnon daŭris la krizo.

The first is more neutral and probably the most natural for a learner. The second puts more emphasis on the duration.

Because Esperanto often expresses measurements of time directly, without a preposition.

Just as -n can mark motion toward something, it can also mark:

• duration of time
• measure
• sometimes other adverbial relationships

So unu semajnon is a standard and efficient way to say for one week.

They are very close, but there can be a slight stylistic difference.

• unu semajnon is shorter and very typical for a simple duration.
• dum unu semajno is a little more explicit because dum clearly means during/for.

In many ordinary sentences, either works well. Learners should recognize both.

It is pronounced approximately dah-OO-ris, with aŭ sounding like the ow in cow.

So:

• daŭ ≈ dow
• ris ≈ rees with a short i

A rough pronunciation guide:

• La krizo daŭris unu semajnon
• lah KREE-zoh DOW-rees OO-noo seh-MAHY-nohn

Here are the main forms:

• la = the
• krizo = crisis
• daŭri = to last, continue
• unu = one
• semajno = week

In the sentence, two of these are inflected:

• daŭri → daŭris because it is past tense
• semajno → semajnon because it marks duration with -n

Yes, very often.

Examples:

• La kunveno daŭris du horojn. = The meeting lasted two hours.
• Mi atendis kvin minutojn. = I waited for five minutes.
• Ŝi dormis la tutan nokton. = She slept the whole night.

So once you learn this pattern, you can use it with many time expressions.