Ŝi komentas la recenzon.

Ŝi means she.

It is pronounced roughly like shee in English. The letter ŝ is pronounced like sh in shoe. So:

• ŝ = sh
• i = ee

Esperanto spelling is very regular, so ŝi is always pronounced the same way.

The mark on ŝ is called a circumflex. In Esperanto, it shows that this is a different letter from plain s.

• s sounds like s in see
• ŝ sounds like sh in she

So ŝi and si would be pronounced differently and mean different things.

komentas means comments on or is commenting on.

The ending -as is the standard present-tense verb ending in Esperanto. It is used for:

• I comment
• you comment
• she comments
• they comment

So the verb does not change depending on the subject. That is much simpler than English.

Examples:

• mi komentas = I comment
• vi komentas = you comment
• ŝi komentas = she comments

Yes. Esperanto has many roots that are easy for English speakers to recognize, especially words of international origin.

Here:

• koment- = the word root
• -as = present tense

So komentas literally means comments.

La means the.

Esperanto has only one definite article:

• la = the

It does not change for gender, number, or case the way articles do in some other languages.

So:

• la recenzo = the review
• la recenzon = the review (as a direct object)

The -n ending marks the direct object in Esperanto. That means it shows what is being acted on.

In this sentence:

• Ŝi = she
• komentas = comments on
• la recenzon = the review

So the review is what she is commenting on, and that is why recenzo becomes recenzon.

This -n is called the accusative ending.

The basic dictionary form is recenzo, meaning review.

It breaks down like this:

• recenz- = review
• -o = noun ending
• -n = direct object ending

So:

• recenzo = review
• recenzon = review as the direct object

In Esperanto, nouns normally end in -o.

That makes word classes very easy to recognize:

• -o = noun
• -a = adjective
• -e = adverb
• -i = infinitive verb
• -as = present tense verb

So recenzo is clearly a noun because of -o.

Because Ŝi is the subject, not the direct object.

In Esperanto, the -n ending is usually added to the direct object, not the subject.

So in this sentence:

• Ŝi = the person doing the action
• la recenzon = the thing receiving the action

That is why only recenzon gets -n.

In normal English, the best translation is usually She comments on the review.

Esperanto komenti ion often uses a direct object where English commonly uses comment on something.

So even though la recenzon is a direct object grammatically in Esperanto, the most natural English translation usually includes on.

Yes, Esperanto word order is fairly flexible, especially because the -n ending shows the direct object clearly.

So these can mean the same basic thing:

• Ŝi komentas la recenzon.
• La recenzon ŝi komentas.

The first is the most neutral and ordinary order: subject + verb + object.

The second puts more emphasis on the review.

It is pronounced roughly re-tsen-zon.

A few helpful points:

• c in Esperanto is always like ts in cats
• z is like z in zoo
• stress usually falls on the second-to-last syllable

So re-cen-zon is stressed on cen:

• re-CEN-zon

Yes, it is singular:

• ŝi = she
• la recenzon = the review

If you wanted the reviews, you would make the noun plural with -j, and because it is still a direct object, it would also keep -n:

• Ŝi komentas la recenzojn. = She comments on the reviews.

So:

• recenzo = review
• recenzon = review (object)
• recenzoj = reviews
• recenzojn = reviews (object)

Yes: verbs do not change according to the subject.

That means the same present-tense form komentas is used with all persons:

• mi komentas = I comment
• vi komentas = you comment
• li komentas = he comments
• ŝi komentas = she comments
• ili komentas = they comment

So unlike English, you do not have to learn separate forms like comment vs. comments.