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

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

• ni: we
• al: to
• de: from

Questions & Answers about De nia kvartalo ni iras al la malnova ponto ĉe la rivero.

What does de mean in this sentence?

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.

Why is it nia kvartalo and not nia kvartalon?

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.

What does nia mean, and why does it end in -a?

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.

Why is the subject ni stated? Doesn’t iras already mean we go?