I think this letter is very pretty: ŭ

Maybe even as pretty as “j”s… 

I’ve been enjoying it quite a bit. You will most often find it after an “a” or an “e”. It’s somewhat like a “w”.

  • Antaŭ is like “ANT-ow”, like “ow” in “cow”.
  • Eŭropo is like “Ayw-ROP-o”, like “ayw” in “wayward”.

It’s sometimes used to spell foreign words with “w”s in them, or in onomatopoeic words.

Today’s post is about “antaŭ”. Both it’s prettifulness, and how it makes some pretty varied words in word building.

  • Antaŭ = ahead of, in front of, before (in terms of both time and space)

So without further delay, here are some combinations I found interesting:

  • Antaŭe = ahead, formerly, previously
  • Antaŭa = previous, last, prior, former
  • Antaŭvidi = to foresee (vidi = to see, so somewhat like “to see beforehand”)
  • Antaŭsento = presentiment, an intuition about the future (before-feeling)
  • Antaŭzorgo = precaution (zorgo = care, so like “care beforehand”
  • Antaŭdiri = to forecast, to prophesy, to foretell (diri = to say,tell)
  • Antaŭparolo = foreword (parolo = speech)
  • Antaŭlasta = the one before last, penultimate (lasta = last)
  • Antaŭsigno = indication, omen (signo = sign,signal)
  • Antaŭdecidi = to decide in advance
  • Antaŭjuĝo = prejudice (juĝo = judgment, so “judge beforehand”)
  • Antaŭafero = a preliminary (afero = thing, a before thing)
  • Antaŭtempa = premature (tempo = time, before-time)
What a variety!

I love the sound of the first two. The “ŭe” and “ŭa” sounds I think are the ones to blame!

Do comment if you know of any other interesting words made from “antaŭ”!