La fenestro malrapide fermiĝas.

the window

Breakdown of La fenestro malrapide fermiĝas.

• fermiĝi: to close
• malrapide: slowly

Questions & Answers about La fenestro malrapide fermiĝas.

What does fermiĝas literally mean, and how is it different from fermas?

Fermiĝas comes from fermi (to close) + the intransitive/middle suffix -iĝ- + present tense -as:

• fermi = to close (something)
• fermiĝi = to get closed / to become closed / to close (by itself)
• fermiĝas = is getting closed / is closing

So:

• La viro fermas la fenestron. = The man closes the window.
  (fermas: someone is doing the action to an object)

• La fenestro fermiĝas. = The window closes / The window is closing.
  (fermiĝas: the window undergoes the change of state; no explicit “closer” mentioned)

-iĝ- turns a transitive idea (fermi = to close something) into an intransitive change-of-state (fermiĝi = to become closed).

Is fermiĝas a kind of passive voice, like estas fermata?

No. Fermiĝas is not the grammatical passive; it’s a middle/intransitive form.

• La fenestro fermiĝas.
  Focus: the window is undergoing the change of becoming closed, with no agent mentioned.

• La fenestro estas fermata (de iu).
  True passive: estas

  • passive participle fermata.
    Meaning: The window is being closed (by someone).

So:

• fermiĝas = becomes closed / closes (the process, from the window’s point of view)
• estas fermata = is in the process of being closed (by someone, optionally mentioned)
• estas fermita = is (in the state of being) closed

Learners often translate fermiĝas as English “is closing”, which is fine, but grammatically in Esperanto it’s not a passive, just an intransitive change of state.