Se la trajno malfruos, ni veturos per aŭtobuso al la urbo.

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Breakdown of Se la trajno malfruos, ni veturos per aŭtobuso al la urbo.

• ni: we
• al: to
• urbo: the city

Questions & Answers about Se la trajno malfruos, ni veturos per aŭtobuso al la urbo.

Why does the sentence use malfruos after se? In English we usually say If the train is late, not If the train will be late.

This is a very common question.

In Esperanto, it is completely normal to use the future ending -os in both parts of a future conditional sentence:

• Se la trajno malfruos, ni veturos...
• If the train will be late, we will travel... (literal structure)

Natural English usually avoids will after if, but Esperanto does not follow that rule. So malfruos is correct here because the lateness is in the future.

• malfruas = is late
• malfruos = will be late

So Esperanto grammar here is different from English grammar.

What does malfruos mean exactly, and how is it built?

malfruos comes from the verb malfrui, meaning to be late or to arrive late.

It can be broken down like this:

• frua = early
• mal- = opposite
• malfrua = late
• malfrui = to be late
• malfruos = will be late

The ending -os is the future tense ending for verbs in Esperanto.

So:

• La trajno malfruas. = The train is late.
• La trajno malfruos. = The train will be late.

Why is veturos used? What verb is that?