La ĵurnalisto petas kontakton kun la konsulo.

In Esperanto, nouns normally end in -o. So:

• ĵurnalisto = journalist
• kontakto = contact
• konsulo = consul

This makes parts of speech very easy to recognize. If you see -o, it is usually a noun.

The -n ending marks the direct object of the verb.

Here, the verb is petas = asks for / requests.
What is being requested? kontakton. So it takes -n.

• La ĵurnalisto petas kontakton.
  The journalist requests contact.

But la konsulo comes after the preposition kun = with:

• kun la konsulo = with the consul

After a preposition like kun, you normally do not use -n. So:

• kontakton = direct object
• kun la konsulo = prepositional phrase, not direct object

Petas is the present-tense form of the verb peti.

In Esperanto:

• -i = infinitive
  
  • peti = to ask for, to request
• -as = present tense
  
  • petas = asks / is asking / does ask

So La ĵurnalisto petas... means The journalist asks... or is asking...

Esperanto verbs do not change for person:

• mi petas = I ask
• vi petas = you ask
• li/ŝi petas = he/she asks

The ending stays -as for all persons in the present tense.

La is the definite article in Esperanto, meaning the.

So:

• la ĵurnalisto = the journalist
• la konsulo = the consul

Esperanto has only one definite article: la. It does not change for gender, number, or case.

Unlike English, Esperanto has no indefinite article. So ĵurnalisto can mean a journalist or just journalist, depending on context.

Kun means with.

Here it links kontakton and la konsulo:

• kontakton kun la konsulo = contact with the consul

So the journalist is requesting contact with the consul, not requesting the consul directly.

This is a very common learner question.

• peti = to ask for, to request
• demandi = to ask a question

In this sentence, the journalist is requesting something: contact. So peti is the right verb.

Compare:

• Mi petas helpon. = I ask for help.
• Mi demandas demandon. = I ask a question.

English uses ask for both ideas, but Esperanto usually distinguishes them more clearly.

The unusual letter here is ĵ.

• ĵ is pronounced like the sound of s in measure or g in genre
• So ĵurnalisto sounds roughly like zhoor-na-LEE-sto

A rough breakdown:

• ĵur ≈ zhoor
• na
• lis
• to

Also remember that Esperanto stress is usually on the second-to-last syllable:

• ĵur-na-LIS-to

In Esperanto, stress normally falls on the second-to-last syllable of each word.

So:

• la ĵurnaLISto
• PEtas
• konTAKton
• kun
• la konSUlo

This stress rule is very regular, which makes pronunciation much easier than in English.

The most neutral word order is:

• La ĵurnalisto petas kontakton kun la konsulo.

That is a normal subject–verb–object order.

Because Esperanto marks the direct object with -n, word order is more flexible than in English. But not every rearrangement sounds equally natural. This sentence is the clearest and most ordinary way to say it.

So yes, other orders may be possible in special contexts, but this version is the standard one for a learner to use.

Not in this sentence, if you want standard grammar.

Since kontakto is what is being requested, it is the direct object of petas, so it should be:

• kontakton

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

Not automatically in the same way many European languages do.

• ĵurnalisto simply means journalist
• konsulo means consul

These noun forms are grammatically just nouns ending in -o. The words themselves do not have to tell you whether the person is male or female unless the speaker chooses to make that explicit.

So in a sentence like this, the focus is on the role or profession, not on gender.