La riĉa homo aĉetis novan biciklon.

La is the definite article, like English the. It shows that the speaker has a specific person in mind: la riĉa homo = the rich person.

Esperanto has only one definite article, la, and it never changes form.

Esperanto normally has no indefinite article. English distinguishes a bicycle and the bicycle, but Esperanto usually just has:

• biciklo = a bicycle / bicycle
• la biciklo = the bicycle

So novan biciklon naturally means a new bicycle here.

These are very important basic Esperanto endings:

• -o = noun
  
  • homo = person
  • biciklo = bicycle
• -a = adjective
  
  • riĉa = rich
  • nova = new
• -is = past tense verb
  
  • aĉetis = bought

So this sentence is built very regularly from roots plus endings.

The ending -n marks the direct object. In this sentence, the thing being bought is the bicycle, so biciklo becomes biciklon.

Because adjectives must agree with the noun they describe, nova also becomes novan.

So:

• nova biciklo = a new bicycle
• novan biciklon = a new bicycle, as the direct object

Because la riĉa homo is the subject: it is the one doing the buying.

In this sentence:

• la riĉa homo = the doer
• novan biciklon = the thing affected by the action

Esperanto usually marks the direct object with -n, not the subject.

Yes. In Esperanto, adjectives agree with the nouns they describe in number and case.

Examples:

• nova biciklo = a new bicycle
• novaj bicikloj = new bicycles
• novan biciklon = a new bicycle as object
• novajn biciklojn = new bicycles as objects

This agreement is one of the most regular features of Esperanto.

Not necessarily. Homo means human being or person.

If you specifically want man in the male sense, Esperanto usually uses viro.

So la riĉa homo is literally the rich person. Depending on context, some translations may say the rich man, but homo itself is not specifically male.

The letter ĉ is pronounced like ch in church.

So:

• riĉa sounds roughly like REE-cha
• aĉetis sounds roughly like a-CHE-tis

Also, Esperanto stress normally falls on the second-to-last syllable, so:

• ri-ĈA
• a-ĈE-tis
• bi-ci-KLON

The ending -is simply marks past time. In a normal sentence like this, aĉetis is best understood as bought.

Esperanto does not force the same tense/aspect distinctions that English often does. If you need to be more specific about an ongoing action or a repeated action, you usually add extra words or context.

The most neutral order is:

subject + verb + object

So:

La riĉa homo aĉetis novan biciklon.

But Esperanto word order is more flexible than English because the object is marked by -n. For example, you could also say:

Novan biciklon aĉetis la riĉa homo.

That still means the same basic thing, though it sounds more emphatic or stylistically marked.

Yes. Esperanto allows both positions:

• la riĉa homo
• la homo riĉa

and

• novan biciklon
• biciklon novan

However, putting the adjective before the noun is the most common and neutral choice here.

Because la applies to the whole noun phrase, not to each word separately.

So Esperanto says:

• la riĉa homo

not

• la riĉa la homo

The same pattern works elsewhere:

• la nova biciklo
• la novan biciklon

One la is enough for the whole phrase.

Yes. Many Esperanto roots are international or at least familiar to speakers of European languages. Biciklo is clearly related to bicycle.

Esperanto then adds its normal endings:

• biciklo = bicycle
• biciklon = bicycle as direct object

This is a good example of how Esperanto combines recognizable roots with very regular grammar.