Esperanto/Family

The Suffix -IN
In most languages there are separate words for items of different sexes. For example, in English a female bovine creature is a "cow" and a male bovine creature is a "bull" or "steer". This of course leads to much memorization of separate words, which is tedious and frustrating. Fortunately, Esperanto does away with this with two glorious letters: "in". Adding -in to the end of a noun's root transforms that word into a female version of the root. For example, the Esperanto word for a bovine creature ("bull", "steer" or "cow") is bovo. Adding -in to the root results in the word bovino, which translates to "cow". With only a few exceptions (those roots implicitly male or female), if a noun does not have the suffix -in, then the sex of the noun is unspecified. If one wants to emphasize that something is masculine, one may use the root vir- as a prefix, but this is rarely done.

The Prefix GE-
In Esperanto, the prefix ge- is used 1) to indicate the presence of both sexes in a group described by a male or female root (Esperanto does have a very few such words) or 2) to emphasize the presence of both sexes in a group. For example, Pedro has two friends: Esmerelda and Johano. When referring to them, Pedro could call them either amikoj or geamikoj, because amiko is simply a "friend". But his brother and sister must be his gefratoj, because frato is the word for "brother").

Examples words using the prefix ge- :
 * gelernejo - co-ed school
 * gepatroj - father(s) and mother(s)
 * gefratoj - brother(s) and sister(s)
 * genevoj - nephews(s) and niece(s)

Exercises
Translate the following sentences to/from Esperanto using what you know and the Vocabulary List below.
 * 1) Mi malamas la bebojn, ĉar ili venas el Usono.
 * 2) Our sister's name is Allison.
 * 3) Ŝia avino amas la kuzon de Mario.
 * 4) Is his aunt eating an apple or a banana?
 * 5) Saluton. Ĉu vi estas mia patrino?
 * 6) My uncles are thirsty.
 * 7) La  gepatroj estas koleraj, ĉar ilia filino estas malbela.
 * 8) The unhappy woman is dying.

Vocabulary/ 	Vortlisto Esperanto	   English bebo		baby infano		child/infant knabo		boy viro		man avo		grandfather patro		father onklo		uncle filo		son frato		brother kuzo		cousin feliĉa		happy kolera		angry bela		pretty soifi		to be thirsty, to thirst akvo		water morti		to die manĝi		to eat pomo		apple banano		banana aŭ		or

Answers

 * 1) I dislike the babies, because they come from the USA.
 * 2) La nomo de nia fratino estas Allison.
 * 3) Her grandmother loves Mario's cousin.
 * 4) Ĉu lia onklino manĝas pomon aŭ bananon?
 * 5) Hello. Are you my mother?
 * 6) Miaj onkloj soifas.
 * 7) The parents are angry, because their daughter is ugly.
 * 8) La malfeliĉa virino mortas.

What You Need To Know

 * The suffix -in comes after a noun's root and denotes a female.
 * The prefix ge- precedes a noun's root and denotes the presence of both sexes.