La batalo finiĝis hieraŭ.

La is the definite article, meaning the. So la batalo means the battle.

If you said just batalo, it would mean a battle or battle in a more general sense, depending on context. Esperanto has only one article, la, and it does not change for gender, number, or case.

In Esperanto, nouns end in -o. So:

• batalo = battle

This makes parts of speech very easy to recognize. Some related endings are:

• -o = noun
• -a = adjective
• -e = adverb
• -i = infinitive verb

So when you see batalo, you can immediately tell it is a noun.

Finiĝis means ended or came to an end.

It comes from:

• fini = to end / to finish
• finiĝi = to end, to come to an end, to become finished
• finiĝis = ended

The important thing is that finiĝi is intransitive here: the battle itself came to an end. It is not saying that someone ended the battle directly.

This is a very common question.

• La batalo finiĝis. = The battle ended.
• Iu finis la batalon. = Someone ended the battle.

So:

• finis is from fini and usually means finished/ended something
• finiĝis is from finiĝi and means came to an end

The -iĝ- part often gives the idea of becoming or coming into a new state.

-iĝ- is a very useful Esperanto suffix. It often means become or come to be.

Examples:

• ruĝa = red

• ruĝiĝi = to become red

• malfermi = to open something

• malfermiĝi = to open, to become open

• fini = to finish something / to end something
• finiĝi = to end, to come to an end

So in finiĝis, the idea is that the battle became finished or came to an end.

-is is the Esperanto past-tense ending.

Verb tense endings are very regular:

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

So:

• finiĝas = ends / is ending
• finiĝis = ended
• finiĝos = will end

Hieraŭ means yesterday. It is an adverb of time.

It tells you when the action happened:

• La batalo finiĝis hieraŭ. = The battle ended yesterday.

As an adverb, it does not change its form.

Yes, it could go somewhere else. Esperanto word order is fairly flexible, as long as the sentence stays clear.

All of these are possible:

• La batalo finiĝis hieraŭ.
• Hieraŭ la batalo finiĝis.
• La batalo hieraŭ finiĝis.

The version with hieraŭ at the end is very natural and neutral. Moving it can change the emphasis slightly, but not the basic meaning.

A rough English-friendly guide is:

lah bah-TAH-loh fee-NEE-jees hee-eh-ROW

A few important points:

• Stress is always on the second-to-last syllable:

  • baTAlo
  • finiĜIS
  • hieRAŬ
• ĝ sounds like the j in judge
• ŭ is a very short w-like sound, so aŭ sounds roughly like ow in cow

Because the sentence is not saying that someone ended something else. It is saying that the battle itself ended.

So this is a complete intransitive idea:

• La batalo finiĝis. = The battle ended.

If you wanted an object, you would usually use fini instead:

• La generalo finis la batalon. = The general ended the battle.

Here, la batalon is the direct object, marked with -n.

Because batalo is the subject, not the direct object.

In Esperanto:

• the subject has no special ending
• the direct object usually takes -n

So:

• La batalo finiĝis.
  la batalo = the subject

But:

• Ili finis la batalon.
  la batalon = the direct object

Since the battle is the thing doing the action of coming to an end, it stays batalo, not batalon.