Mi skribis la limdaton en la kalendaro.

In Esperanto, -is marks the past tense.

• skribi = to write
• skribis = wrote / did write

So Mi skribis ... means that the writing happened in the past.

The -n shows the direct object of the verb.

In this sentence, the thing being written is la limdato (the deadline / due date), so it becomes:

• la limdato → la limdaton

A useful way to think about it:

• Mi skribis = I wrote
• What did I write? → la limdaton

That is why it takes -n.

Because kalendaro is not the direct object here. It is part of the prepositional phrase en la kalendaro.

• la limdaton = direct object
• en la kalendaro = location / place where it was written

Normally, after a preposition like en, you do not add -n unless there is a special reason, such as motion toward something. Here it just means location, so:

• en la kalendaro = in the calendar

not en la kalendaron.

Esperanto often uses en for writing something into a book, list, notebook, or calendar.

So:

• en la kalendaro = in the calendar

Even if English might sometimes say on the calendar, Esperanto commonly treats a calendar as something you write entries in.

By contrast, sur usually means physically on top of a surface.

limdato is a compound word:

• limo = limit
• dato = date

Together, limdato means deadline or due date.

This is very common in Esperanto: smaller meaningful parts are combined into one clear word.

la is Esperanto’s definite article, meaning the.

So:

• la limdaton = the deadline / the due date
• la kalendaro = the calendar

Esperanto has only one article, la. It does not have separate words for a or an.

Whether English would say the or leave it more general sometimes depends on context, but in Esperanto la is used when the speaker has a specific thing in mind.

No. Esperanto has no indefinite article.

So:

• kalendaro can mean a calendar
• la kalendaro means the calendar

That means the presence or absence of la matters a lot.

Yes, to some extent.

Because la limdaton has the -n ending, Esperanto can be more flexible with word order than English. For example, these are possible:

• Mi skribis la limdaton en la kalendaro.
• En la kalendaro mi skribis la limdaton.

Both still mean basically the same thing, though the emphasis may change.

The original order is the most neutral:

• subject → verb → object → other information

Most directly, skribis means wrote.

Esperanto tense endings are simpler than English ones. The plain past tense -is often covers several past-time ideas that English expresses differently. Context tells you the exact nuance.

So depending on context, skribis is usually understood as:

• wrote
• sometimes more broadly was writing or had written, if the situation makes that clear

But in a basic sentence like this, wrote is the best match.

It is singular because the sentence is talking about one deadline.

If there were more than one, you would use -j for plural, and because it is still the direct object, you would keep -n too:

• la limdaton = the deadline
• la limdatojn = the deadlines

That combined ending -jn is very common in Esperanto.

Yes, it is natural and clear.

It sounds like a normal way to say that someone entered or wrote the due date in their calendar. In everyday use, a speaker might also choose other verbs depending on the exact meaning, but skribi works well and is easy to understand.

The sentence is a good example of several core Esperanto patterns:

• Mi = subject
• skribis = past-tense verb
• la limdaton = direct object marked with -n
• en la kalendaro = prepositional phrase showing location