Questions & Answers about Demokratio gravas por la socio.
Why is Demokratio not preceded by la?
Because demokratio is being used as a general concept: democracy in the abstract, not the democracy of one specific country or situation.
In Esperanto, you often leave out la when talking about something in a broad, general sense.
- Demokratio gravas = Democracy is important
- La demokratio de tiu lando = The democracy of that country
So here, Demokratio means democracy in general.
What does gravas mean, and why does it end in -as?
Gravas comes from the root grav-, which has the idea of importance or seriousness.
The ending -as is the present-tense verb ending in Esperanto. So:
- gravas = is important / matters
- gravis = was important
- gravos = will be important
A useful thing to notice is that Esperanto can turn an idea like important into a verb:
- Ĝi estas grava = It is important
- Ĝi gravas = It matters / It is important
Both are possible, but gravas is very natural.