Breakdown of La prezo estas tro alta por ke la aĉetanto ĝin akceptu.
Questions & Answers about La prezo estas tro alta por ke la aĉetanto ĝin akceptu.
What does por ke mean here?
Here por ke introduces a subordinate clause and is best understood as for ... to or so that.
So:
- La prezo estas tro alta = The price is too high
- por ke la aĉetanto ĝin akceptu = for the buyer to accept it
In Esperanto, por ke is the normal way to express this when the second action has its own subject.
Why is it por ke, not just por?
Because the clause after it has its own subject: la aĉetanto.
A plain infinitive with por does not normally take its own separate subject. So Esperanto prefers:
- por ke la aĉetanto ... akceptu
rather than something like:
- por la aĉetanto akcepti ĝin
The por ke structure is clearer and more standard when you want to say for the buyer to accept it.
Why is the verb akceptu ending in -u?
After por ke, Esperanto uses the -u verb form.
This is often called the volitive form. In some contexts it can sound like a command or wish, but after por ke it is simply the normal grammar of the construction. It does not mean someone is ordering the buyer to accept it.
So here akceptu just corresponds to English accept in the phrase for the buyer to accept it.
Does akceptu mean the buyer actually accepts it?
No. It only expresses the action in the subordinate clause, not a completed fact.
The whole sentence means the price is so high that acceptance by the buyer is not reasonably possible or expected. So akceptu here is part of a hypothetical or intended-result type of clause, not a statement that the acceptance really happens.
What does tro mean, and how is it different from tre?
Tro means too, in the sense of excessively or more than is acceptable.
- tre alta = very high
- tro alta = too high
That difference matters a lot:
- La prezo estas tre alta. = The price is very high.
- La prezo estas tro alta por ke la aĉetanto ĝin akceptu. = The price is too high for the buyer to accept it.
So tro implies a limit has been passed.
Why is it alta, not altan?
Because alta is a predicate adjective after estas, not a direct object.
In the sentence:
- La prezo = the subject
- estas = is
- tro alta = too high
Adjectives used this way agree with the noun in number, but they do not take -n just because the sentence has an object somewhere else.
So:
- La prezo estas alta.
- La prezo estas tro alta.
If the subject were plural, then it would be altaj.
Why is la aĉetanto not marked with -n?
Because la aĉetanto is the subject of the subordinate clause.
Inside por ke la aĉetanto ĝin akceptu:
- la aĉetanto = the buyer = the one doing the accepting
- ĝin = it = the object being accepted
So the object marker -n goes on ĝin, not on la aĉetanto.
What does ĝin refer to?
Grammatically, ĝin refers back to la prezo.
So literally it means the buyer accepts it, where it = the price.
In natural English, we might sometimes say accept the price, accept the offer, or agree to the price. Esperanto is using the pronoun to refer back to the previously mentioned noun.
Why is ĝin placed before akceptu? Could it come after?
Yes, it could also come after.
Both of these are grammatical:
- por ke la aĉetanto ĝin akceptu
- por ke la aĉetanto akceptu ĝin
Esperanto word order is fairly flexible because the -n ending shows what the object is. Putting ĝin before the verb can sound a little more stylistic or literary, but the meaning stays the same.
Why use alta with prezo? Why not multekosta?
In Esperanto, a price is commonly described as alta or malalta:
- alta prezo = high price
- malalta prezo = low price
By contrast, multekosta usually describes the thing being bought:
- multekosta aŭto = expensive car
- multekosta hotelo = expensive hotel
So:
- La prezo estas alta = The price is high.
- La aŭto estas multekosta = The car is expensive.
Both ideas are related, but they are not used in exactly the same way.
Is por ke always about purpose? This sentence feels more like result than purpose.
Good question. In many sentences, por ke does express purpose:
- Mi venis frue por ke mi povu helpi.
= I came early so that I could help.
But in patterns like tro ... por ke ..., it often feels closer to a result or limit:
- too high for the buyer to accept it
So in this sentence, the idea is not that the price has a purpose. It is that the price reaches such a level that acceptance is out of the question.
Could Esperanto say La prezo estas tro alta por la aĉetanto akcepti ĝin?
That is not the usual choice, and learners are better off avoiding it.
The problem is that akcepti is an infinitive, and Esperanto normally does not use an infinitive with its own clear subject in this way. When you want to say who performs the action, Esperanto usually prefers:
- por ke + subject + -u verb
So the given sentence is the standard, safe pattern:
- La prezo estas tro alta por ke la aĉetanto ĝin akceptu.
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