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THE DICTIONARY VORTARO
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“La Vortaro”Pilger: “BER”Bick: “Esperanto-dansk”
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Pronunciation
You write and speak Esperanto completely regularly/phonetically. Every letter is always pronounced the same way.
The alphabet
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 | The whole alphabet
Vowels
| Letter | Sound clarification | Word example |
|---|---|---|
| A | like a in father | ami - to love |
| E | like e in pet | egala - equal |
| I | like i in machine | infano - infant |
| O | like o in November | oro - gold |
| U | like oo in moose | urbo - city |
Consonants
| Letter | Sound clarification | Word example |
|---|---|---|
| B | like English b | bela - beautiful |
| C | like English ts | celo - goal |
| Ĉ | like ch in church | ĉokolado - chocolate |
| D | like English d | doni - to give |
| F | like English f | facila - easy |
| G | like g in gay | granda - large |
| Ĝ | like g in gem | ĝui - to enjoy |
| H | like English h | horo - hour |
| Ĥ | like ch in Scottish loch | ĥoro - choir |
| J | like y in young | juna - young |
| Ĵ | like s in pleasure | ĵurnalo - daily newspaper |
| K | like English k | kafo - coffee |
| L | like English l | lando - country |
| M | like English m | maro - sea |
| N | like English n | nokto - night |
| P | like English p | paco - peace |
| R | trilled like Spanish r | rapida - fast |
| S | like English s | salti - to jump |
| Ŝ | like English sh | ŝipo - ship |
| T | like English t | tago - day |
| Ŭ | like English w | aŭto - car |
| V | like English v | vivo - life |
| Z | like English z | zebro - zebra |
The accent
The accent is always on the next to last vowel of a word:
vojo ,
kantado ,
apud ,
historio ,
aŭdi ,
ilia
Diphthong
The sound/letter 'ŭ' is used only immediately after 'a,' 'e,' or 'o.' With a/e/o and accompanied consonants, it becomes one syllable. Watch out for the pronounciation differences in the following example:
aŭto - car,
auto - nonexistent word
More detailed explanations
Read here.
At exercises in Flash you will find an introduction to all of the letters of the Esperanto alphabet and you can learn to use them.