In lesson 9 keep in mind that #10 & 11 are a pair as are #12 & 13 and
#19 & 20
The first one in each pair is direct speech, and the second one reported speech.
Esperanto is quite simple, but the confusion here is in English.
If I say: "I am happy" and you want to report what I said, you will
say " John said
he was happy"
Now look at both sentences again. Wheras I said 'I am" you report 'John
was"
If someone sees your sentence in isolation "John said he was happy",
there is actually
no way of knowing whether the original sentence was "John is happy"
or "John was happy"
The problem here is that in English we switch tenses when he report speech.
In Esperanto we don't
1) Mi estas felicxa.
2) John diris ke li ESTAS felicxa
English also switches tenses in the future
If I say , "I will be happy" you will report: John said he would
be happy.
This is confusing because 'would' looks like a conditional.
If you report 'John said he would be happy' , we don't really know whether
I said
"I will be happy" or whether I said "I would be happy under certain
circumstances"
Again in Esperanto we do not switch tenses.
Mi estos felicxa
John diris ke li ESTOS felicxa.
The same confusion exists in English in the past tense.
If I say , "I was happy" you will report: John said he was happy.
From this sentence
you can't tell whether I said "I am happy" or "I was happy"
In Esperanto:
Mi estis felicxa
John diris ke li ESTIS felicxa