Re: Question words and word order

ranjit_mathews_at_yahoo.com
Date: 03/06/05 

Date: 5 Mar 2005 18:25:01 -0800

John Swindle wrote:
> <ranjit_mathews@yahoo.com> wrote ...
> > John Swindle wrote:
> >> Mi fartas bone. (I am okay.)
> >> Chu vi fartas bone? (Are you okay?)
> >
> > Why not estas?
>
> Good question. "Estas" is certainly possible there. It is
> however more common in Esperanto to say "Kiel vi fartas?"
> (lit., "How are you faring?") than "Kiel vi estas?" (lit.,
> "How are you?").

Ah! To this English speaker, it seems unpleasantly redolent of "how are
you farting".

> Esperanto is billed as regular and easy to learn and as having
> only sixteen rules. Speakers of European languages certainly
> seem to find it easy to learn. But besides rules, Esperanto also
> has customary usages, and these take longer to discover.