Word
Se la lampo ne funkcius, ni sidus en la salono kaj aŭskultus la venton.
Meaning
If the lamp did not work, we would sit in the living room and listen to the wind.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Lesson
Breakdown of Se la lampo ne funkcius, ni sidus en la salono kaj aŭskultus la venton.
la
the
en
in
ni
we
sidi
to sit
Questions & Answers about Se la lampo ne funkcius, ni sidus en la salono kaj aŭskultus la venton.
What does the ending -us mean in funkcius, sidus, and aŭskultus?
The ending -us is the Esperanto conditional mood. It usually corresponds to English would.
So in this sentence:
- funkcius = would function / would work
- sidus = would sit / would be sitting
- aŭskultus = would listen
This tells you the whole sentence is talking about a hypothetical situation, not a real event that is definitely happening.
Why do both parts of the sentence use -us? In English we usually do not say If the lamp would work...
That is a very common question. Esperanto and English handle this differently.
In Esperanto, when the situation is hypothetical, it is normal to use -us in both the if-clause and the main clause:
- Se la lampo ne funkcius, ni sidus...
In natural English, we usually say:
- If the lamp didn’t work, we would sit...
So although the Esperanto structure may look strange from an English point of view, it is standard Esperanto grammar.
What does se mean?