If you turn to Unit Six of Cresswell & Hartley's Teach Yourself Esperanto, you'll find, right at the beginning, that some sentences -- relating to weather -- consist of a verb without a subject. You can say, to use the examples in the book:
pluvas = it's raining
neĝas = it's snowing
hajlas = it's hailing
frostas = it's freezing
This is very nice because it means that you don't have to learn a lot of words to start talking in Esperanto -- especially since the weather is always a great topic of conversation! Of course, there are a lot of other weather words that can be used in this way:
ventas = it's windy
varmas = it's hot
malvarmas = it's cold
nebulas = it's foggy
nubas = it's cloudy
fulmas = there's lightning
tondras = it's thundering
fulmotondras = it's thunderstorming
tempestas = it's stormy
uraganas = there's hurricanes
ciklonas = there are tornadoes
trombas = there are waterspouts
Some fun, hey? You can find other terms usable in this way in the Meteologia Terminaro (UEA, 1960).
Not so commonly known or used -- probably because similar expressions are not all that widely used in many national languages -- is the fact that in Esperanto you can make subject-free sentences even when you're not talking about the weather. This is possible any time you are talking about a general condition, one having to do with the environment or ambience that you're discussing. As an example, consider the following sentence that a Chinese friend once wrote in a letter to me:
Plenis en la ĉambro je homoj.
As you can see, the verb -- "plenis" -- has no subject. Now ordinarily I myself would have used, for the same situation, a form parallel to the English:
The room was full of people.
La ĉambro estis plena je homoj.
The difference is that I would be describing a characteristic of the room itself, while my friend was describing the situation in the room.
Is there any reason to choose one over the other? A pedant would probably say that her method of speaking more closely mirrors the reality of the situation; but as far as communicating the general idea to people, either expression is equally good. Nevertheless, the subject-free verb allows you a certain amount of stylistic variation in how you speak or write -- something worth cultivating.
Simple exercises:
(1) From "brumo" = haze, say: "It's hazy."
(2) From "tajfuno" = typhoon, say: "There's a typhoon."
(3) Here's a cute one. Take the sentence given above, "Plenas en la ĉambro je homoj," and reduce it to a two-word sentence, a subject-free verb and an adverb, with the same meaning as the sentence given. Hints: (1) use Esperanto's system of forming one new word by joining two old ones together to create the verb, and (2) try collapsing one of the short prepositional phrases into a single adverb, also common practice in Esperanto.
Esperanto also has a lot of interjections (some of which are of the sort known as "expletives"). Two very useful interjections are:
Tuj! = immediately, at once!
Ek! = Get a move on, get the lead out!
You may want to memorize these. Use them only in case of great need, though.
Don Harlow <donh@donh.best.vwh.net>