Civitanoj pagas imposton.

Citizens pay tax.

Breakdown of Civitanoj pagas imposton.

• pagi: to pay
• imposto: the tax
• civitano: the citizen

Questions & Answers about Civitanoj pagas imposton.

Why does civitanoj end in -oj?

In Esperanto, -o marks a noun, and -j marks the plural.

So:

• civitano = a citizen
• civitanoj = citizens

The ending -oj is just -o + -j.

Why does imposton have -n at the end?

The -n ending marks the direct object: the thing directly affected by the action.

In Civitanoj pagas imposton:

• civitanoj = the people doing the action
• pagas = pay
• imposton = the thing being paid

So imposton gets -n because it is the object of pagas.

Why doesn’t civitanoj also have -n?

Because civitanoj is the subject, not the object.

Esperanto usually marks:

• subject: no -n
• direct object: takes -n

So:

• Civitanoj = the ones who pay
• imposton = what they pay

If you added -n to civitanoj, it would change its grammatical role.

What does pagas tell me?