Ĉu vi havas hundon?

Do you have a dog?

Breakdown of Ĉu vi havas hundon?

• vi: you
• havi: to have

Questions & Answers about Ĉu vi havas hundon?

Why is Ĉu placed at the beginning of the sentence?

In Esperanto, Ĉu signals a yes/no question. When you see Ĉu at the start of a sentence, it lets you know that the answer should be “yes” or “no,” much like “Do” or “Are” in English questions.

Why do we say hundo in some contexts but hundon here?

Esperanto uses the -n ending (the accusative case) to indicate the direct object of a sentence. So, if the dog is the direct object of the verb havas (to have), you add -n to hundo and get hundon.

How does havas function compared to English "have"?

The verb havas simply means have or has in English, depending on context. Esperanto verbs don’t change form based on the subject, so for “I have,” “you have,” or “he/she/it has,” you always use havas.

Do we need an auxiliary verb like “do” in English?

No, Esperanto doesn’t require an auxiliary verb to form questions. The presence of Ĉu at the beginning is enough to indicate a yes/no question, so we don’t use anything like “do,” “does,” or “did.”

What if I want to say “Do you have dogs?” in the plural?

You just make the word hundo plural as hundoj and keep the accusative marker -n: hund + oj = hundoj, then add -n for the direct object, becoming hundojn. So you’d ask Ĉu vi havas hundojn?.