Sounds and Spelling
Esperanto Grammar 1
Chapter 1 · Sounds and Spelling
🔤 Sounds and Spelling — Sonoj kaj literumado
Esperanto spelling has no surprises. Every letter has one sound, every sound has one letter, and the stress is always in the same place. This chapter teaches the alphabet, the six accented letters, how to type them, and the single stress rule. It ends with the sixteen rules of Esperanto grammar as a map of the eight chapters ahead. This is the one chapter with pronunciation guides in English spelling; from Chapter 2 on, the Esperanto speaks for itself.
The 28 letters
The alphabet is the Latin alphabet with four letters removed (q, w, x, y) and six letters with a hat, called a circumflex (ĉ ĝ ĥ ĵ ŝ) or a breve (ŭ) added. That gives 28 letters in all:
a b c ĉ d e f g ĝ h ĥ i j ĵ k l m n o p r s ŝ t u ŭ v z
Five vowels (a e i o u), and 23 consonants. The letter names add -o to the consonant, so you can spell a word aloud: bo, co, ĉo, do, fo, go, ĝo, ho, ĥo, jo, ĵo, ko, lo, mo, no, po, ro, so, ŝo, to, ŭo, vo, zo (check).
The vowels: five pure sounds
| Letter | Sound | Like the… | Examples |
|---|---|---|---|
| a | ah | a in father (not cat, not cake) | kafo coffee · akvo water |
| e | eh | e in bed | teo tea · ne no |
| i | ee | ee in see, but short | libro book · vi you |
| o | oh (pure) | o in port, or the Scots no (no glide) | domo house · bone well |
| u | oo | oo in moon, but short | nur only · ĉu (a question word) |
The vowels stay pure: do not let them glide into a second sound, as English does in no or say (in most accents). Scottish speakers have an advantage here, since the Scots o in no and e in say are already close to pure.
The consonants that behave as you expect
b d f h k l m n p t v z sound as in English; s is always as in sit (never z), and g is always hard as in go. r is rolled or tapped, as in a Scottish accent. Double letters are pronounced double, as in Italian (check): mallonga (short) has a doubled l, held for twice as long.
The consonants that need care
| Letter | Sound | Like the… | Examples |
|---|---|---|---|
| c | ts | ts in cats | cent hundred · centro centre |
| ĉ | ch | ch in church | ĉevalo horse · ĉokolado chocolate |
| ĝ | j | j in jam | ĝardeno garden · ĝi it |
| ĥ | kh | ch in Scots loch | ĥaoso chaos · ĥoro choir |
| j | y | y in yes | jes yes · jaro year |
| ĵ | zh | s in measure, French j | ĵurnalo newspaper · ĵaŭdo Thursday |
| ŝ | sh | sh in ship | ŝipo ship · ŝuo shoe |
| ŭ | w | w in now (only after a vowel) | aŭto car · Eŭropo Europe |
Two letters, two sounds: the diphthongs
The letters j and ŭ also turn up after a vowel to form six two-sound combinations that fit in one syllable. They matter for the stress rule, so learn them as a set:
| Spelling | Sounds like | Examples |
|---|---|---|
| aj | the ai of aisle (rhymes with eye) | kaj and · tajpi to type |
| ej | the ay of day (pure) | plej most · mejlo mile |
| oj | the oy of boy | libroj books · domoj houses |
| uj | oo-y | ĉiuj everyone |
| aŭ | the ow of cow | aŭto car · aŭ or |
| eŭ | eh-oo run together | Eŭropo Europe |
Typing the accented letters
The six hatted letters are not on a standard British keyboard, and this is the practical hurdle for new learners. There are four ways round it:
- The x-system. Type x after the letter: cx gx hx jx sx ux stand for ĉ ĝ ĥ ĵ ŝ ŭ. Since Esperanto has no x of its own, nothing is ambiguous. It is the most common system in e-mail and chat, and many Esperanto web tools convert it as you type (check which).
- The h-system. Type h after the letter (ch gh hh jh sh) and just u for ŭ. This is older, and less clear, because ch, gh and sh can also appear as separate letters in unadapted names.
- An Esperanto keyboard layout. Operating systems offer a layout, or you can install a free one, that puts the six letters on a key or a key combination (check the current options for Windows, macOS and your phone).
- Copy and paste from a character map or a web page, for a few words only.
In this course the hatted letters are always printed in full, so what you read here is the standard spelling. For your own notes, the x-system is the quickest to start with.
Stress: always the next-to-last syllable
A syllable has one vowel (a diphthong counts as one). To find the stress, count syllables from the end of the word and stop at the second one. That syllable is stressed, always.
| Word | Syllables | Stress | English |
|---|---|---|---|
| kafo | ka-fo | KA-fo | coffee |
| libroj | li-broj | LI-broj | books (oj is one syllable) |
| Esperanto | es-pe-ran-to | es-pe-RAN-to | Esperanto |
| Skotlando | skot-lan-do | skot-LAN-do | Scotland |
| Edinburgo | e-din-bur-go | e-din-BUR-go | Edinburgh |
| ĝardeno | ĝar-de-no | ĝar-DE-no | garden |
| ĉielo | ĉi-e-lo | ĉi-E-lo | sky (i and e are two syllables) |
| Hungario | hun-ga-ri-o | hun-ga-RI-o | Hungary |
The sixteen rules: a map of the course
Dr L. L. Zamenhof, who published the first Esperanto book in 1887, summarised the grammar in sixteen rules, which later became part of the Fundamento (1905), the official foundation of the language (check dates). Wording and order vary between editions, so treat this as a summary. Rules 9 and 10 are this chapter. The rest are spread over the following chapters.
| Rule | What it says | Chapter |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | No indefinite article ("a"); one definite article, la, for everything | 2 |
| 2 | Nouns end in -o; plural -j; accusative -n | 2 |
| 3 | Adjectives end in -a, and agree with their noun; comparison with pli and plej | 3 |
| 4 | The numbers, and how they are built | 7 |
| 5 | The personal pronouns; possessives end in -a | 4 |
| 6 | Verbs do not change for person or number; the tense and mood endings; the participles | 4, 7 |
| 7 | Adverbs end in -e | 3 |
| 8 | Prepositions are followed by the plain (nominative) form | 7 |
| 9 | Every word is pronounced as it is written | 1 |
| 10 | Stress is on the next-to-last syllable | 1 |
| 11 | Compound words are formed by joining the parts | 5 |
| 12 | With another negative word, ne is dropped | 8 |
| 13 | To show direction, the accusative -n is used | 2 |
| 14 | Each preposition has one fixed meaning; je has no meaning of its own | 7 |
| 15 | Foreign words are used unchanged, apart from spelling | 5, 8 |
| 16 | The final a of la and the final o of a noun may be dropped (elision), mostly in poetry | 8 |
Chapter 6, the correlative table, is not one of the sixteen rules as such, but it is the biggest single piece of the grammar, and it is covered in full.
🗣️ In Use — En uzo
Read each exchange aloud, slowly, with the stress on the next-to-last syllable. The meanings are given; the grammar comes later.
① Meeting
② Where do you live?
📋 Quick Reference — Rapida referenco
| Item | Rule |
|---|---|
| Alphabet | 28 letters; no q w x y; six hatted letters ĉ ĝ ĥ ĵ ŝ ŭ |
| Vowels | a e i o u as in father, bed, see, port, moon; never glided |
| Tricky consonants | c=ts · ĉ=ch · ĝ=j · ĥ=loch · j=y · ĵ=zh · ŝ=sh · ŭ=w |
| Diphthongs | aj ej oj uj aŭ eŭ: one syllable each |
| Stress | next-to-last syllable, always; plural -j does not move it |
| Typing | x-system: cx gx hx jx sx ux |
✏️ Try It Yourself — Ekzercoj
Say the answer first, then click to check.
1. How many letters does the Esperanto alphabet have, and which four English letters are missing?
Show answer
28 letters. q, w, x, y are missing.
2. Write ĉevalo (horse) in the x-system.
Show answer
cxevalo.
3. Which syllable is stressed in Esperanto?
Show answer
The next-to-last: es-pe-RAN-to.
4. Which syllable is stressed in Hungario?
Show answer
hun-ga-RI-o. The i and o are separate syllables, so the next-to-last is ri.
5. How is cent (hundred) pronounced at the start?
Show answer
With ts, as in cats: "tsent". The letter c is never k or s.
6. Which Scottish sound is the Esperanto ĥ?
Show answer
The ch of loch, as in ĥoro (choir).
7. What sounds does aŭto (car) begin with, and where is the stress?
Show answer
It begins with aŭ, like ow in cow, one syllable: "OW-to". The stress is on AŬ, the next-to-last syllable.
8. Write ŝipo (ship) and ĵurnalo (newspaper) in the x-system.
Show answer
sxipo and jxurnalo.
9. Does the plural -j change where the stress falls in libro → libroj?
Show answer
No. LI-bro and LI-broj both stress the first syllable, because oj is one syllable.
10. How would you say the j in jes (yes) and the ĝ in ĝardeno (garden)? Are they the same?
Show answer
No. j is like English y ("yes"), and ĝ is like English j ("jam"). This is the biggest trap for English speakers.
Words used in this chapter
saluton hello · kiel how · vi you · fartas is faring · bone well · dankon thanks · kaj and · ankaŭ also · kie where · mi I · loĝas live · en in · ĉu (question word) · parolas speak · jes yes · iomete a little · kafo coffee · teo tea · libro book · domo house · akvo water · ĝardeno garden · aŭto car · ŝipo ship · jaro year