Dear Sir,--A matter which requires the careful attention of those who desire to make themselves perfectly intelligible to all, irrespective of nationality, is the correct use of prepositions. In English the same preposition is often employed to express many diverse ideas, and it therefore becomes desirable to consider this when translating prepositions into Esperanto.
Of course it is often possible to evade the difficulty by using the accusative without a preposition, and one is often tempted to employ the invaluable "je." As, however, this latter practice should not be indulged in too frequently, it may be of interest to many of your readers to consider some phases of our preposition "of."
The first word of the line. _La unua vorto de la linio._
One of us will be chosen. _Unu el ni estos elektata._
The best means of obtaining it. _La plej bonaj metodoj por ricevi ĝin._
The Professor of the school. _La Profesoro ĉe la lernejo._
A great number of ideas. _Granda nombro da ideoj._
The largest room of the house. _La plej granda ĉambro en la domo._
The largest of all the trees in the garden. _La plej granda inter ĉiuj la arboj en la ĝardeno._
When in doubt as to which preposition should be used, try the sentence with all the possible forms, and the correct, logical, preposition will almost always be obvious.
Several friends have called attention to the apparent misprint in the word _Trinki_, thinking it should be _Drinki_. There is, however, an important difference between the two. _Trink'_ (as "made in Germany") is used for the ordinary drinking of man and beast; but with shame we admit that our own vocabulary provided Dr. Zamenhof with the _drink'_ which represents the excessive tipplings of men and beasts. Let us beware of calling our friends "Drinkuloj" during the dog-days. Trinkulo is the more usual and agreeable word.
Having had occasion to write to the Remington firm on a matter of business, a reply was received in Esperanto, concluding with a question of general interest regarding the sound of "Scii." This word, represented phonetically, does present some difficulty. S-ts-ee-ee is not easy to pronounce. In practice one should elide the first "s" on to the vowel immediately preceding. Thus _mi scias_ is pronounced _mis cias_.