La patrino deziras, ke la infano ludu sporton, ekzemple futbalon, post la lernejo.

The mother wishes that the child play a sport, for example football, after school.

Breakdown of La patrino deziras, ke la infano ludu sporton, ekzemple futbalon, post la lernejo.

• la: the
• lernejo: the school
• infano: the child
• ludi: to play
• ke: that
• deziri: to want
• ekzemple: for example
• post: after
• patrino: the mother
• sporto: the sport
• futbalo: the football

Questions & Answers about La patrino deziras, ke la infano ludu sporton, ekzemple futbalon, post la lernejo.

Why is it ludu and not ludas or ludi?

In Esperanto, the ending -u marks the volitive mood (often called the "subjunctive/imperative" form). It’s used for:

• wishes
• commands
• things someone wants / hopes / orders to happen

After verbs like deziri (to desire), voli (to want), peti (to ask), ordoni (to order), and with ke, you almost always use -u:

• Mi deziras, ke vi venu. – I wish that you come.
• La patrino deziras, ke la infano ludu sporton. – The mother wants the child to play sports.

If you said ludas, it would just state a fact ("the child plays"), not a desired action.
If you said ludi, that’s the infinitive ("to play") and does not fit grammatically after ke in Esperanto.

Why do we say “ke la infano ludu” instead of something like “la infanon ludi” (more like English “wants the child to play”)?

English often uses an infinitive construction:

• "She wants the child to play."

Esperanto avoids this pattern. Instead, it uses a ke-clause with a full verb in the -u form:

• La patrino deziras, ke la infano ludu sporton.
  literally: "The mother desires that the child play sports."

So:

• Not: La patrino deziras la infanon ludi sporton. ❌
• Yes: La patrino deziras, ke la infano ludu sporton. ✅

Whenever in English you have "want someone to do something", in Esperanto this is almost always:

voli/deziri/peti/ordoni, ke [subjekto] [verbo en -u]

Could I say “La patrino deziras, ke la infano ludas sporton”?

No, that would be wrong or at least very unnatural.

• ludas (present tense) states a fact: "the child plays sports."
• In this sentence, we’re talking about what the mother wants to happen, not about a fact.

So with deziras, ke… you should use -u:

• La patrino deziras, ke la infano ludu sporton. ✅

If you wanted to state a fact, you would simply say:

• La infano ludas sporton post la lernejo. – The child plays sports after school. (no deziras, no ke)

What exactly does ludu mean here? Is it like “play!” (a command)?

Grammatically, ludu is the same form used for commands:

• Ludu! – Play!

But in sentences like this, it’s not a direct command; it’s an indirect wish/command reported after another verb:

• La patrino diras: "Ludu sporton!" – Direct command
• La patrino deziras, ke la infano ludu sporton. – Indirect wish/command

So ludu keeps its "non-factual / desired" meaning, but here it’s subordinated to deziras rather than directly commanding the child.

Why is it sporton (singular) and not sportojn (plural), even though in English we say “sports”?

In Esperanto, you often use the singular object for a general class of activity:

• ŝati muzikon – to like music (in general)
• ludi sporton – to play sports / to do sport (in general)

So ludi sporton means "to play some kind of sport" or "to participate in sports" in general.

You’d use the plural when you really mean several different sports:

• La infano ludas plurajn sportojn: futbalon, basketbalon kaj naĝadon.
  The child plays several sports: football, basketball and swimming.

Why does futbalon have -n even though there is no verb right next to it?

The -n ending marks the direct object of a verb.

In the full phrase:

• ludi sporton, ekzemple futbalon

both sporton and futbalon are objects of ludi:

• (ludi) sporton,
• (ludi) ekzemple futbalon.

Even though futbalon is inside an "for example" phrase, it still plays the role of a thing you play, so it gets the -n:

• ludi [kion?] futbalon – to play what? football.

Could I leave out sporton and just say “ke la infano ludu futbalon”?

Yes, absolutely:

• La patrino deziras, ke la infano ludu futbalon post la lernejo.

This means "…that the child play football after school."

With sporton, ekzemple futbalon, you’re saying "to play a sport, for example football." Without sporton, you’re just specifying one concrete sport.

What does “post la lernejo” literally mean? Why use la?

Literally, post la lernejo means “after the school”.

However, idiomatically it’s used just like English “after school” (after the school day, after classes).

The la is natural because we refer to a specific, known school (the child’s school). In everyday Esperanto:

• post la lernejo ≈ "after school (today / in general)"
• ĉe la lernejo – at the school
• en la lernejo – in the school

You can sometimes see post lernejo without la, but post la lernejo is the normal, most idiomatic version for "after school" in this sense.

Why isn’t it “post lernejon” with -n?

Because post is a preposition, and prepositions in Esperanto normally take a noun in the nominative form (no -n), unless you are marking some special extra meaning like movement or duration.

Here, post means “after (in time)”, a standard prepositional meaning:

• post la lernejo – after the school / after school

There is no need for -n here. Compare:

• Mi staras post la domo. – I stand behind the house. (place, no -n)
• Mi iras post la domon. – I go (to) behind the house. (movement to a place, so la domon)

In post la lernejo, we are not moving to somewhere; we’re just indicating time after an event, so no -n.

Why do we have la patrino instead of just patrino?

La is the definite article: “the mother”.

In many contexts, la patrino means “the (particular) mother being talked about”, usually known from context, and often it is naturally understood as “the child’s mother / his or her mother”.

If you say just patrino, it means "a mother, some mother (unspecified)":

• Patrino deziras, ke ŝia infano ludu sporton. – A mother wants her child to play sports. (very generic)
• La patrino deziras, ke la infano ludu sporton. – The mother (we have in mind) wants the child to play sports.

In most ordinary, story-like contexts, la patrino is what you want.

Does “la infano” mean specifically “her child”, or just “the child (in general)”?

Literally, la infano is just “the child”.

However, in a natural context where we already talk about "the mother", it’s normally understood as “her child”, unless something else suggests otherwise. Esperanto often relies on context this way.

If you really wanted to stress the relationship, you could say:

• La patrino deziras, ke ŝia infano ludu sporton. – The mother wants her child to play sports.

But if only one child is being discussed, la infano is usually enough.

Can I change the word order, for example: “Post la lernejo la patrino deziras, ke la infano ludu sporton”?

Yes. Esperanto has fairly flexible word order, as long as the roles are clear. All of these are grammatical, with slightly different emphasis:

• La patrino deziras, ke la infano ludu sporton post la lernejo.
• Post la lernejo, la patrino deziras, ke la infano ludu sporton.
• La patrino, post la lernejo, deziras, ke la infano ludu sporton. (more marked style)

Usually, you’ll keep the order in the original sentence because it’s the most neutral and natural in everyday usage.

Why is there a comma before ke?

The comma marks the start of a subordinate clause introduced by ke ("that").
This is standard Esperanto punctuation and mirrors what many languages do:

• Ŝi diris, ke ŝi venos. – She said that she will come.
• La patrino deziras, ke la infano ludu sporton. – The mother wishes that the child play sports.

You’ll usually see a comma before ke when it introduces a separate clause like this.