La infano verŝis sukon sur la tablon.

Because la is the definite article, meaning the. So la infano means the child, a specific child.

Esperanto does not have an indefinite article like a or an. So sukon can mean juice or some juice, depending on context. If you said la sukon, that would mean the juice, a specific juice already known from context.

The ending -is marks the past tense in Esperanto.

So:

• verŝi = to pour
• verŝas = pours / is pouring
• verŝis = poured
• verŝos = will pour

So verŝis tells you the action happened in the past.

The -n marks the direct object in Esperanto. The direct object is the thing directly affected by the action.

In this sentence, the child did the pouring, and the thing poured was the juice. So sukon is the direct object.

• La infano = the child
• verŝis = poured
• sukon = juice (as the object of the action)

Without the -n, it would not be grammatically correct here.

Here the -n is not marking a direct object. It is marking direction.

With prepositions like sur (on), Esperanto often uses -n when there is movement toward a place.

So:

• sur la tablo = on the table
• sur la tablon = onto the table

In this sentence, the juice moves and ends up on the table, so sur la tablon means onto the table.

Sur la tablo would describe a location, not a direction.

Compare:

• La libro estas sur la tablo. = The book is on the table.
• La infano metis la libron sur la tablon. = The child put the book onto the table.

So in your sentence, sur la tablon is used because the juice is moving onto the table’s surface.

Esperanto word order is fairly flexible because endings show grammatical function.

The most neutral order is:

• La infano verŝis sukon sur la tablon.

But because sukon has the object ending -n, you could move parts around for emphasis, for example:

• Sukon la infano verŝis sur la tablon.

That is still understandable, but it is less neutral. For learners, the standard subject–verb–object order is usually best.

Because la tablon means the table, a specific table.

In Esperanto, la is used much like English the, and it is placed before the noun it belongs to. So if both the child and the table are specific, both can take la:

• la infano = the child
• la tablon = the table

No. Infano is gender-neutral and means child.

If you want to specify gender, you can use:

• knabo = boy
• knabino = girl

So la infano could refer to either a boy or a girl unless the context tells you more.

The letter ŝ is pronounced like English sh.

So verŝis sounds roughly like VEHR-shis.

A few helpful pronunciation notes:

• ŝ = sh
• Esperanto stress normally falls on the second-to-last syllable
• So:
  • inFAno
  • VERŝis
  • SUkon
  • taBLOn

Esperanto spelling is very regular, so words are usually pronounced exactly as written.