La ministro parolis pri la nova leĝo.

In Esperanto, -is marks the past tense. So parolis means spoke or was speaking, depending on context.

The verb stem here is parol- = speak.

So:

• parolas = speaks / is speaking
• parolis = spoke / was speaking
• parolos = will speak

Pri usually means about, concerning, or on the subject of.

So:

• paroli pri io = to speak about something

In this sentence, pri la nova leĝo means about the new law.

This is a very common preposition in Esperanto, and it is often used where English uses about.

La is the Esperanto definite article, meaning the.

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

So:

• la ministro = the minister
• la nova leĝo = the new law

Esperanto uses la when the speaker means a specific person or thing, just like English the.

Because nova is an adjective, and Esperanto adjectives end in -a.

• nova = new
• leĝo = law

So nova leĝo literally means new law.

In Esperanto:

• nouns end in -o
• adjectives end in -a

That makes word classes very easy to recognize.

Because there is no accusative here.

In Esperanto, adjectives agree with the nouns they describe in:

• number
• case

If the noun had -n, the adjective would too.

But here:

• la nova leĝo is part of a phrase after pri
• pri takes its own complement without -n

So:

• pri la nova leĝo = correct
• pri la novan leĝon = not correct in normal usage

Because there is no direct object.

• La ministro is the subject
• parolis is the verb
• pri la nova leĝo is a prepositional phrase

In Esperanto, the -n ending usually marks the direct object. But after a preposition like pri, you normally do not use -n.

So this sentence does not need any accusative ending.

Not necessarily. In modern Esperanto, ministro can be used in a gender-neutral way for minister.

If someone wants to make the meaning explicitly female, they can say:

• ministrino = female minister

Depending on context and style, ministro may be understood as neutral or unspecified.

Leĝo is pronounced approximately like LEH-zho, with stress on the first syllable.

A few useful points:

• ĝ sounds like the g in gem or the s in measure
• Esperanto stress is almost always on the second-to-last syllable

So:

• le-ĝo
• stress on le

Yes, Esperanto word order is fairly flexible, but La ministro parolis pri la nova leĝo is the most natural and neutral order.

This is the standard pattern:

• subject + verb + prepositional phrase

You might see variations for emphasis, such as:

• Pri la nova leĝo parolis la ministro.

That is still understandable, but it sounds more marked or literary. For learners, the original order is the safest choice.

It can mean either, depending on context.

Esperanto’s basic past tense does not force the same distinction that English often makes between:

• spoke
• was speaking

So parolis simply tells you the action is in the past. If the exact nuance matters, context usually makes it clear.

Because that is the usual position in Esperanto:

• la nova leĝo = the new law

Adjectives can sometimes come after the noun:

• la leĝo nova

But that is less neutral and may sound more emphatic, poetic, or stylistically marked. For ordinary speech and writing, learners should usually put the adjective before the noun.

A rough pronunciation guide is:

la mi-NIS-tro pa-RO-lis pri la NO-va LE-zho

Useful pronunciation notes:

• c = ts
• j = y
• ĝ = soft j sound, as in judge
• stress falls on the second-to-last syllable of each word

So the stressed syllables are:

• miNIStro
• paROlis
• NOva
• LEĝo