Vi kaj mi estas amikoj.

You and I are friends.

Breakdown of Vi kaj mi estas amikoj.

• mi: I
• esti: to be
• vi: you
• amiko: the friend
• kaj: and

Questions & Answers about Vi kaj mi estas amikoj.

Why does the sentence use Vi for "you"?

In Esperanto, vi is the standard second-person pronoun for both singular and plural. Unlike English, Esperanto doesn’t differentiate between singular "you" and plural "you," so vi covers both.

Why do we see kaj instead of any other word for "and"?

Esperanto has a single word for "and," which is kaj. It never changes form, regardless of context or number of items being connected.

Why is mi used for "I" or "me"?

Esperanto’s first-person singular pronoun is mi, and it’s used both as the subject ("I") and as the object ("me") in sentences. There’s no separate object form like "me" in English.

Why does the word amikoj end with -oj?

In Esperanto, nouns end with -o in the singular and -oj in the plural. So amiko ("friend") becomes amikoj ("friends").

Why do we say estas instead of an English-like "is"?

Estas is the present-tense form of the verb esti ("to be"). Esperanto has a straightforward verb structure with a single present-tense form for all subjects—so you always use estas for "am"/"is"/"are."