De nia kvartalo ni iras al la malnova ponto ĉe la rivero.

Here de means from. It shows the starting point of the movement:

• De nia kvartalo = from our neighborhood

So the sentence begins by telling you where the movement starts.

Because nia kvartalo is not a direct object. It comes after the preposition de, and prepositions normally do not take the -n ending.

So:

• de nia kvartalo = from our neighborhood

The -n ending is mainly used for direct objects and for motion toward something in some cases, but not after de here.

Nia means our.

In Esperanto, possessive words like mia, via, lia, ŝia, nia, ilia behave like adjectives, so they usually have the adjective ending -a.

Examples:

• nia kvartalo = our neighborhood
• nia domo = our house
• niaj domoj = our houses

Since kvartalo is singular, nia stays singular too.

No. In Esperanto, verb forms do not change for person.

So:

• mi iras = I go
• vi iras = you go
• li iras = he goes
• ni iras = we go

Because iras only tells you the tense, not the person, you usually need the pronoun ni to show that the subject is we.

Iras is the present-tense form of iri, which means to go.

The ending -as marks the present tense:

• iri = to go
• iras = go / are going
• iris = went
• iros = will go

So ni iras means we go or we are going, depending on context.

They do two different jobs:

• al = to, toward
• ĉe = at, by, near

So:

• ni iras al la malnova ponto = we go to the old bridge
• ĉe la rivero = by / near the river

The idea is: we are going to the bridge, and that bridge is located by the river.

Because the sentence describes two different relationships:

1. the direction of movement

   • al la malnova ponto = toward/to the old bridge

2. the location of the bridge

   • ĉe la rivero = by the river

So ĉe la rivero describes the bridge, not the going.

A useful way to see it is:

• [We go] [to the old bridge] [which is by the river].

Malnova means old.

It is built from:

• nova = new
• mal- = the opposite of

So:

• nova = new
• malnova = old

This is a very common Esperanto pattern. The prefix mal- often makes the opposite meaning.

Examples:

• bona = good → malbona = bad
• granda = big → malgranda = small
• juna = young → maljuna = old

In Esperanto:

• nouns usually end in -o
• adjectives usually end in -a

So:

• ponto = bridge
• malnova = old

Adjectives describe nouns and agree with them in number and case. Here both are singular and not accusative, so they appear as:

• la malnova ponto = the old bridge

If it were plural, you would get:

• la malnovaj pontoj = the old bridges

La is the definite article, meaning the.

It is used here because the sentence refers to specific things:

• la malnova ponto = the old bridge
• la rivero = the river

In Esperanto, la does not change for singular/plural or gender. It is always just la.

Yes. Esperanto word order is fairly flexible, as long as the meaning stays clear.

For example, you could also say:

• Ni iras de nia kvartalo al la malnova ponto ĉe la rivero.

That may sound more neutral to an English speaker because it starts with the subject.

The original sentence:

• De nia kvartalo ni iras al la malnova ponto ĉe la rivero.

puts extra focus on the starting point: from our neighborhood.

Kvartalo means neighborhood, district, or quarter of a town/city.

In this sentence, nia kvartalo is best understood as our neighborhood.

It refers to the area where we are coming from.

Not exactly, though they can be similar in many contexts.

• ĉe = at, by, in the vicinity of
• apud = next to, beside

So:

• ĉe la rivero suggests at/by the river
• apud la rivero suggests right beside the river

In this sentence, ĉe la rivero is a natural way to say the bridge is located by the river area.

Ĉe is pronounced roughly like cheh.

A few pronunciation points:

• ĉ sounds like ch in church
• e is like e in bet, but a bit cleaner and steadier
• the word is one syllable: ĉe

Also remember that Esperanto stress normally falls on the second-to-last syllable of a word. For example:

• kvar-TA-lo
• mal-NO-va
• RI-ve-ro