Questions & Answers about La firmao estas eksterlanda.
Why is there la at the beginning?
La is the definite article, meaning the.
So:
- la firmao = the company
- firmao = a company or just company, depending on context
Esperanto has only one article, la, and it does not change for gender, number, or case in normal use.
Also, Esperanto has no separate word for a/an. So if you want to say a company is foreign, you could simply say:
- Firmao estas eksterlanda.
But in your sentence, la makes it specific: the company.
Why does firmao end in -o?
In Esperanto, all nouns end in -o.
So firmao is a noun because of the -o ending.
This is one of the most important patterns in Esperanto:
- -o = noun
- -a = adjective
- -e = adverb
- -i = infinitive verb
That means even if you do not know a word yet, the ending tells you what kind of word it is.
Why is estas used here?