Learn Hardcore Esperanto: La patro vekiĝas frue, sed la patrino vekiĝas malfrue. - The father wakes up early, but the mother wakes up late.

A title, like Patro = Father (e.g., a priest or a family nickname), or
A very general, abstract use of the word (patro meaning “a father” in general, not a specific one).

In a normal sentence about a particular family, you almost always use la:
La patro vekiĝas frue, sed la patrino vekiĝas malfrue.

What’s the difference between patro and patrino?

The base root is patr- (“parent / father”). Nouns end in -o.

patro = father
patrino = mother

The difference comes from the suffix -in-, which marks a female:

patro (male parent)
patrino (female parent)

This pattern is very regular in Esperanto:

frato = brother → fratino = sister
onklо = uncle → onklino = aunt

What exactly does vekiĝas mean, and how is it formed?

The basic verb is:

veki = to wake (someone) up (transitive)

From that, you get:

vekiĝi = to wake up, to wake (yourself) (intransitive “become awake”)

Grammatically, vekiĝi is:

root vek-
suffix -iĝ- (“become / turn into / get”)
-i = infinitive ending

Then we put it in the present tense:

infinitive: vekiĝi = to wake up
present tense: vekiĝas = (he / she / it / they / etc.) wake(s) up

So la patro vekiĝas = the father wakes up
and la patrino vekiĝas = the mother wakes up.

Why is there a special letter ĝ in vekiĝas, and how do you pronounce it?

Esperanto uses a few letters with a little hat (a circumflex), and ĝ is one of them.

ĝ is pronounced like the j in English judge, jam, January.

vekiĝas is pronounced roughly:

ve-KI-ĵas (stress on the second-to-last syllable: ve-KI-ĝas)

So:

ĝ = English j in judge
Every Esperanto word is stressed on the second-to-last syllable.

Why do frue and malfrue end in -e and not -a?

In Esperanto, word endings show the part of speech:

-a = adjective (describes a noun)
-e = adverb (modifies a verb, an adjective, or another adverb)

Here, frue and malfrue describe how the parents wake up, so they modify the verb vekiĝas. That means they must be adverbs:

frue = early (as an adverb: “early-ly”)
malfrue = late (as an adverb)

So the structure is:

vekiĝas frue = (he/she) wakes up early
vekiĝas malfrue = (he/she) wakes up late

If you used frua / malfrua, you’d be making adjectives that must describe a noun, e.g. frua trajno = an early train.

What does the prefix mal- in malfrue do?

mal- is a very productive Esperanto prefix meaning “the opposite of”.

frue = early → malfrue = late
bona = good → malbona = bad
varma = warm → malvarma = cold
alta = tall / high → malalta = short / low

So malfrue literally means “un-early / the opposite of early”, which is simply late.

Could you use malfrua instead of malfrue in this sentence?

Not in this sentence. You need an adverb here, not an adjective.

malfrua (ending -a) is an adjective, used with nouns:
- malfrua trajno = a late train
- malfrua vespermanĝo = a late dinner
malfrue (ending -e) is an adverb, used with verbs:
- li vekiĝas malfrue = he wakes up late
- ŝi alvenis malfrue = she arrived late

Since vekiĝas is a verb and malfrue tells us when they wake up, malfrue (adverb) is the correct form:
La patrino vekiĝas malfrue.

How flexible is the word order? Can I say La patro frue vekiĝas instead?

Yes, you can. Esperanto word order is relatively flexible, especially with adverbs like frue and malfrue.

All of these are grammatically correct:

La patro vekiĝas frue. (neutral, very natural)
La patro frue vekiĝas. (slightly more emphasis on frue)
Frue vekiĝas la patro. (strong emphasis on frue; stylistic)

The usual, most neutral order is subject – verb – adverb:

La patro vekiĝas frue.
La patrino vekiĝas malfrue.

Changing the order is more about emphasis and style than meaning.

Why is the verb vekiĝas the same for both la patro and la patrino? Shouldn’t it change like in English?

In Esperanto, verbs do not change according to the subject (no person or number agreement).

Present tense is always -as, no matter who is doing the action:

mi vekiĝas = I wake up
vi vekiĝas = you wake up
li / ŝi / ĝi vekiĝas = he / she / it wakes up
ni vekiĝas = we wake up
ili vekiĝas = they wake up

So:

La patro vekiĝas frue
La patrino vekiĝas malfrue

use the same verb form vekiĝas. The subject (patro / patrino) doesn’t change the verb ending.

How would you say “The parents wake up early, but the children wake up late” in Esperanto?

You can say:

La gepatroj vekiĝas frue, sed la infanoj vekiĝas malfrue.

Breakdown:

gepatroj = parents (both father and mother)
- patroj = fathers
- ge- = both genders together → gepatroj = parents
infanoj = children (plural of infano = child)
vekiĝas = wake up
frue = early
malfrue = late
sed = but

So the full sentence is the plural version of your original structure.

Do you always need the comma before sed in Esperanto?

Not always, but it is very common and correct here.

Punctuation in Esperanto broadly follows the same logic as in many European languages:

When sed (“but”) joins two full clauses (each with its own subject and verb), a comma is normally used:
- La patro vekiĝas frue, sed la patrino vekiĝas malfrue.
  - clause 1: La patro vekiĝas frue
  - clause 2: la patrino vekiĝas malfrue
In very short or closely linked phrases, people sometimes omit the comma, but in writing it’s usually better style to include it in cases like this.

So the comma before sed in your sentence is normal and recommended.

Is there a difference between vekiĝi and veki sin for “to wake up”?

Yes.

veki = to wake (someone) up (transitive)
vekiĝi = to wake up, to become awake (intransitive)
veki sin = to wake oneself up (literally: “to wake oneself”)

Common usage:

Mi vekiĝas frue. = I wake up early. (standard and most natural)
Mi vekas la infanon frue. = I wake the child (up) early.
Mi vekas min frue. = I wake myself (up) early. (possible, but less common than simply Mi vekiĝas frue)

In your sentence, vekiĝas is exactly the right, simple form for “wakes up”:

La patro vekiĝas frue, sed la patrino vekiĝas malfrue.