La porcelana tekruĉo havas malgrandan makulon.

to have

Breakdown of La porcelana tekruĉo havas malgrandan makulon.

• la: the
• malgranda: small
• makulo: the stain; spot

Questions & Answers about La porcelana tekruĉo havas malgrandan makulon.

Why is there la at the beginning?

La is the Esperanto definite article, meaning the.

A few useful things about la:

• It never changes form.
• It does not agree with the noun in number or case.
• Esperanto has no separate indefinite article like English a/an.

So:

• la porcelana tekruĉo = the porcelain teapot
• porcelana tekruĉo = a porcelain teapot / porcelain teapot, depending on context

Why does porcelana end in -a?

Because porcelana is an adjective, and in Esperanto adjectives normally end in -a.

Here:

• porcelano = porcelain
• porcelana = porcelain, made of porcelain, porcelain-type

It describes tekruĉo, so it takes the adjective ending:

• tekruĉo = teapot
• porcelana tekruĉo = porcelain teapot

What is tekruĉo made of?

Tekruĉo is a compound word.

It is built from:

• teo = tea
• kruĉo = jug, pitcher, pot

In compounds, Esperanto often uses the bare root form rather than the full dictionary form, so teo + kruĉo becomes tekruĉo.

So tekruĉo literally means something like tea-pot or tea jug, i.e. teapot.