Ni faras biometrian pasportfoton en la fotobudo.

We take a biometric passport photo in the photo booth.

Breakdown of Ni faras biometrian pasportfoton en la fotobudo.

• la: the
• en: in
• ni: we
• fari: to make

Questions & Answers about Ni faras biometrian pasportfoton en la fotobudo.

Why is faras used here? In English we usually take a photo, not make one.

Faras is from fari, meaning to do or to make. Esperanto does not copy the English idiom take a photo word for word, so fari foton is a normal way to express producing a photo.

In this sentence, Ni faras biometrian pasportfoton means something like We are making/getting a biometric passport photo. In a photo-booth context, that sounds very natural, because the booth is producing the finished photo.

Another common verb is foti, meaning to photograph. That focuses more on the act of photographing someone.

Why do biometrian and pasportfoton both end in -n?

The ending -n marks the direct object in Esperanto.

Here, the thing being made is biometric passport photo, so pasportfoton gets -n.

Because biometrian is an adjective describing pasportfoton, it must agree with it. That means it also takes -n.

So:

• biometria pasportfoto = a biometric passport photo
• biometrian pasportfoton = a biometric passport photo, as the direct object

Why is pasportfoton written as one word?