Fools make phrases, and wise men shun them. Here is a phrase-free language: need we shun it?
COMPARATIVE TABLES ILLUSTRATING LABOUR SAVED IN LEARNING ESPERANTO AS CONTRASTED WITH OTHER LANGUAGES
The following tables are meant to give some idea of the number and variety of different ideas that can be expressed by a single Esperanto root, with the addition of affixes (prefixes and suffixes). By reading the English, French, and German columns downwards, the reader will see how many different roots and periphrases these languages employ in order to express the same ideas.
As the affixes have fixed meanings, they only have to be learnt once for all, and many of them (e.g. _-ist_, _-in_, _re-_) are already familiar. When once acquired, they can be used in unending permutation and combination with different roots and each other. The tables below are by no means exhaustive of what can be done with the roots _san-_ and _lern-_. They are merely illustrative. By referring to the full table of affixes in Part IV, Chapter IV, the reader can go on forming new compounds _ad libitum_: e.g. san-o, san-a, san-e, san-i, saneco, sanilo, sanulo, malsane, malsani, saneti, malsaneti, sanadi, eksani, eksanigxi, saninda, sanindi, sanindulo, sanajxo, sanajxero, sanilo, sanigilo, sanigilejo, sanigilujo, sanigilisto, malsanemeco, remalsano, remalsanigo, sanila, malsanulino, sanistinedzo, sanilingo, sanigestro, sanigestrino, sanigema, sanega, sanigega, gesanantoj, sanigxontoj, sanigistido, sanigejano... and so on (kaj tiel plu).
san-a healthy mal- (opposite) mal-san-a ill ne (not) ne-san-a unwell -ig (causative) san-ig-i to heal san-ig-a salutary re- (again) re-san-ig-a restorative -igx (becoming) san-igx-i to be convalescent re-san-igx-a getting well again -ig mal-san-ig-a sickening (transitive) -igx mal-san-igx-a sickening (intransitive) -ist (agent) san-ig-ist-o doctor -ej (place) san-ig-ej-o hospital -ul (characteristic) mal-san-ul-o invalid -ebl (possibility) (mal)-san-ig-ebl-a (in)curable -ar (collective) mal-san-ul-ar-o hospital inmates ge- (both sexes) ge-mal-san-ul-ar-o all the men and women patients -in (feminine) san-ig-ist-in-o a lady doctor -edz (married) san-ig-ist-edz-in-o a doctor's wife