Ili vidas la malamikon.

In Esperanto, verbs do not change according to the subject.

So:

• mi vidas = I see
• vi vidas = you see
• li vidas = he sees
• ili vidas = they see

The ending -as always marks the present tense. That makes Esperanto simpler than English, where we say I see but he sees.

Ili means they.

It is the regular third-person plural pronoun and can refer to:

• a group of men
• a group of women
• a mixed group
• a group whose gender is unknown or unimportant

So ili is naturally gender-neutral in the way they often is in English.

The -n is the accusative ending. It marks the direct object of the verb—the person or thing receiving the action.

Here:

• Ili = the ones doing the seeing
• vidas = see
• la malamikon = the one being seen

So malamikon has -n because it is the object of vidas.

Without -n, the grammar would be incomplete or wrong in normal Esperanto.

La is the definite article, meaning the.

So:

• la malamiko = the enemy
• malamiko = an enemy or just enemy, depending on context

Esperanto has only one definite article: la. It does not change for singular/plural or gender.

Also, Esperanto has no indefinite article. So there is no separate word for a or an.

It is made from several meaningful parts:

• mal- = opposite
• amik = friend
• -o = noun ending
• -n = accusative ending

So:

• amiko = friend
• malamiko = enemy
• malamikon = enemy, as a direct object

This is a very common Esperanto pattern: mal- creates the opposite meaning.

For example:

• bona = good
• malbona = bad

Yes, Esperanto word order is fairly flexible because the -n ending shows which noun is the object.

So these can mean the same thing:

• Ili vidas la malamikon.
• La malamikon ili vidas.

Both still mean that they are seeing the enemy, because malamikon has the object marker -n.

That said, Ili vidas la malamikon is the most neutral and natural order.

It already is a plural pronoun by itself.

In Esperanto, pronouns have their own forms:

• mi = I
• vi = you
• li = he
• ŝi = she
• ĝi = it
• ni = we
• ili = they

So you do not add -j to ili. It is already plural.

A simple pronunciation guide is:

EE-lee VEE-dahs lah mah-lah-MEE-kon

A few useful points:

• i sounds like ee
• a sounds like ah
• v is like English v
• stress usually falls on the second-to-last syllable

So:

• Ili → EE-lee
• vidas → VEE-dahs
• malamikon → mah-lah-MEE-kon

Because it ends in -o, the standard noun ending in Esperanto.

In Esperanto:

• -o = noun
• -a = adjective
• -e = adverb
• -i = infinitive verb

So:

• malamiko = enemy
• malamika = hostile, enemy-related
• malamike = hostilely
• malamiki would be a verb form if used in a suitable context

This regular system helps you recognize the part of speech immediately.

You use -n on the direct object, not just after any verb.

In this sentence, see takes a direct object, so la malamiko becomes la malamikon.

Examples:

• Mi vidas la domon. = I see the house.
• Ŝi amas la hundon. = She loves the dog.

But not every verb has a direct object. For example:

• Ili kuras. = They run.

There is no object there, so no accusative ending is needed.