Breakdown of Hodiaŭ estas sabato, kaj la semajnfino jam komenciĝas.
Questions & Answers about Hodiaŭ estas sabato, kaj la semajnfino jam komenciĝas.
In Esperanto, you normally omit the article when saying what day, month, or season it is: Hodiaŭ estas sabato, Estas januaro, Estas printempo.
Here sabato works like a predicate noun that names a category, not a specific, unique Saturday that you are pointing out, so it appears without la.
If you made it specific, you could use la, e.g. Tiu tago estis la sabato antaŭ Pasko – That day was the Saturday before Easter.
Here you are talking about the particular weekend that belongs to this week, so it is definite. That is why la is used: la semajnfino = the weekend (of this week).
In general, when you mean “the weekend” in the sense of this coming weekend / the weekend we’re talking about, Esperanto speakers usually say la semajnfino.
- sabato = Saturday (a single day).
- semajnfino = weekend (literally semajno “week” + fino “end”).
So the sentence contrasts the specific day (sabato) with the larger time period (la semajnfino).
jam means already. It suggests that, in the speaker’s view, the weekend is starting earlier than expected or that time has passed quickly.
Without jam, la semajnfino komenciĝas would just mean the weekend is beginning, without that sense of “so soon / by now”.
komenciĝas = komenc-iĝ-as
- komenc- = begin, start
- -iĝ- = intransitive “to become / to get / to undergo a change”
- -as = present tense
So komenciĝi means to begin (by itself, to get started), and komenciĝas is is beginning / is starting.
It describes the weekend as something that starts on its own, without naming who or what causes it.
- komenci is to begin (something); it’s transitive and takes an object:
- Mi komencas la laboron. – I begin the work.
- komenciĝi is to begin (by itself, to get started); it’s intransitive:
- La laboro komenciĝas je la naŭa. – The work begins at nine.
In the sentence la semajnfino jam komenciĝas, you don’t say who is starting the weekend; it simply begins, so komenciĝi is the natural choice.
Word order in Esperanto is fairly flexible, so Hodiaŭ sabato estas is grammatically possible, but it sounds unusual and emphatic.
The neutral, normal order is Hodiaŭ estas sabato.
You can also say Estas sabato hodiaŭ, which is also fine and sounds natural, especially in speech.
In Esperanto, names of days, months, and most other common nouns are not capitalized: lundo, sabato, januaro, hodiaŭ.
Capital letters are mainly for proper names (people, countries, cities, brand names, etc.): Marko, Francio, Tokio.
So hodiaŭ estas sabato is correctly all in lowercase.
Hodiaŭ is an adverb of time meaning today.
It functions like nun (now), morgaŭ (tomorrow), hieraŭ (yesterday).
So it can stand alone at the start of the sentence: Hodiaŭ estas sabato – Today is Saturday.
The comma is recommended here because you are joining two full clauses, each with its own subject and verb:
- Hodiaŭ estas sabato
- la semajnfino jam komenciĝas
You could sometimes omit the comma in short sentences, and many people do in informal writing, but Hodiaŭ estas sabato, kaj la semajnfino jam komenciĝas is the textbook punctuation.
You can, but it changes the meaning slightly.
- komenciĝas (present) = is already beginning / is already starting now or around now.
- komenciĝos (future) = will already start (at some future point, earlier than expected).
In normal conversation about a Saturday that has just arrived, jam komenciĝas is the natural choice, like English “the weekend is already starting”.
There is no real difference in meaning; both mean the weekend is already beginning.
Placing Jam first (Jam komenciĝas la semajnfino) gives the word jam a bit more emphasis, a bit like saying Already the weekend is beginning!
Both word orders are correct and common.