Esperanto · 21 September 2026
A word a day week
manĝi
MAN-ĝi · /ˈmand͡ʒi/ · verb
- to eat
French manger is regularised into manĝi, with the Esperanto infinitive ending -i and one letter, ĝ, doing the work of ‘j’ in judge.
Borrowed luggage
Where it came from
Frenchmanger
Esperantomanĝi
The root follows French manger; Esperanto ĝ represents /d͡ʒ/, while -i marks the infinitive.
- French manger
- Italian mangiare
Tiny sentence
Ni manĝas panon.
we eat.PRS bread.ACC
“We eat bread.”
Change infinitive -i to -as for present tense; panon is the direct object.
Receipts
Sources and cautions
The spelling is an adaptation, not a preserved French pronunciation. Esperanto maps the source-shaped root into its own regular sound system.