La animo estas libera.

to be

Breakdown of La animo estas libera.

• la: the
• libera: free
• animo: the soul; spirit

Questions & Answers about La animo estas libera.

What does la mean here?

La is the Esperanto definite article, meaning the.

So in La animo estas libera, la animo means the soul.

A useful point: la never changes. It does not have different forms for gender, number, or case.

Why does animo end in -o?

In Esperanto, nouns normally end in -o.

So:

• animo = soul
• libro = book
• homo = person

This makes it easy to recognize parts of speech. When you see -o, you can usually expect a noun.

Why is it estas and not a different form like English am / is / are?

Because Esperanto verbs do not change according to the subject.

The verb here is esti = to be, and estas is the present tense form.

So:

• mi estas = I am
• vi estas = you are
• li estas = he is
• la animo estas = the soul is

Unlike English, Esperanto does not use different present-tense forms such as am, is, and are.