La persono ĉe la fenestro akvumas la planton.

In Esperanto, -o is the noun ending. So persono means person, fenestro means window, and planto means plant.

This is one of the most important patterns in Esperanto:

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

So when you see persono, you can immediately tell it is a noun.

Ĉe is a preposition meaning something like at, by, or near, depending on context.

In ĉe la fenestro, it means at the window or by the window.

It does not necessarily mean the person is touching the window. It just places the person in that area.

Because fenestro is not the direct object of the verb.

In this sentence:

• la persono = the subject
• akvumas = waters / is watering
• la planton = the direct object

The -n ending is used for the direct object, so planton gets -n. But ĉe la fenestro is a prepositional phrase, and the preposition ĉe already shows its role, so fenestro stays without -n.

The -n marks the direct object in Esperanto.

Here, the thing being watered is the plant, so la planto becomes la planton.

Compare:

• La persono akvumas la planton. = The person waters the plant.
• La planto akvumas la personon. = The plant waters the person.

The -n helps show who is doing the action and who is receiving it.

Akvumas comes from akvo meaning water.

Esperanto often builds verbs from roots very regularly:

• akvo = water
• akvumi = to water, to give water to
• akvumas = waters / is watering

So yes, it is related to the noun water, but as a verb it means to water in the gardening sense.

The ending -as marks the present tense in Esperanto.

So:

• akvumas = waters / is watering
• akvumis = watered / was watering
• akvumos = will water

Esperanto does not usually force a distinction between simple present and present progressive the way English does. So akvumas can mean either:

• waters
• is watering

The context tells you which is more natural.

Because Esperanto uses la for the, and each noun can take its own definite article.

So:

• la persono = the person
• la fenestro = the window
• la planton = the plant

Using la twice here is completely normal, just like in English: The person by the window is watering the plant.

Also, Esperanto has only one definite article: la. It does not change for gender, number, or case.

No. Esperanto has la for the, but there is no separate word for a/an.

So:

• persono can mean a person or just person, depending on context
• la persono means the person

This is why the presence or absence of la matters a lot.

Yes. Persono is gender-neutral and simply means person.

It does not tell you whether the person is male or female. If you want to specify gender, you would use a different word if needed, but persono itself is neutral.

That makes it a very useful general word.

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

The neutral, most natural order here is:

• La persono ĉe la fenestro akvumas la planton.

But you could also say:

• La planton akvumas la persono ĉe la fenestro.

That is still understandable because la planton has -n, so it is still the object.

Even so, learners should usually stick to the normal subject-verb-object order unless there is a reason to emphasize something.

Both can sometimes be translated as by the window, but they are not exactly the same.

• ĉe = at, by, in the area of
• apud = beside, next to

So ĉe la fenestro is a little broader and more general. It means the person is located at the window area. Apud la fenestro would more specifically mean next to the window.

In many contexts, either could work, but ĉe is a very natural choice here.

Ĉ in Esperanto is pronounced like ch in church.

So ĉe sounds roughly like cheh.

A few helpful pronunciation points from this sentence:

• ĉe = like cheh
• fenestro = feh-NES-tro
• akvumas = ah-kVOO-mahs

Esperanto spelling is very regular, so once you learn the sounds of the letters, pronunciation becomes much easier.