La hundo estas bela.

to be

Breakdown of La hundo estas bela.

• bela: beautiful

Questions & Answers about La hundo estas bela.

Why do we use “la” before “hundo”?

In Esperanto, la is the only definite article, used in both singular and plural. It translates to "the" in English. Esperanto doesn't have an indefinite article like "a" or "an", so you only ever use la for definite nouns (or omit it entirely when you want to be indefinite).

Why does "hundo" end in "-o"?

In Esperanto, nouns always end in -o in their base form. This is part of Esperanto’s regular grammar:
• -o for nouns (singular)
• -oj for nouns (plural)
• -ojn for nouns (plural + accusative), and so on.

What role does "estas" play in the sentence?

Estas is the Esperanto verb meaning "to be." It works just like "is" in English. You’ll see it in different contexts wherever you see "am," "is," or "are" in English.

Why does "bela" end in "-a"?

Adjectives in Esperanto always end in -a. The form "bela" agrees with the noun "hundo" (meaning "dog"). If you wanted to make the adjective plural, for multiple dogs, you would use "belaj" to agree with "hundoj."

Can I change the order of words, like "Bela estas la hundo"?

Yes, you can often change word order in Esperanto without altering the basic meaning, because Esperanto relies more on word endings than on order for grammatical function. However, the most natural and common order is still Subject – Verb – Adjective (La hundo estas bela).