Opened, Closed & Shutted
When you open something, it is "open" or even sometimes "opened".
When you close something, it is never "close" only "closed".
When you shut something, it is only "shut" never "shutted".
This is pretty much a shambles. It's a wonder English can put one foot in front of the other; consistency is a foreign concept.
Esperanto has got fermi for you, and it's going to do all the work you need.
fermi
to close, to shut
This verb is the seed - the starting point for dealing with all the cases that English is haphazardly trying to cover above.
malfermi
to open (using the prefix mal- which reverses the meaning)
la trolo malfermas la ponton
the troll opens the bridge
We can talk about the result of closing something (closed) or the result of opening something (opened), using a participle ending. Participles are basically just verbs acting as adjectives, i.e. an action word describing the state of a noun.
la hamstro gardis la fermitan pordon
the hamster guarded the closed/shut door
la malfermita pordo kondukis al la laboratorio
the opened door lead to the laboratory
The -ita participle ending says two things:
- The action is completed, i.e. the opening/closing has already happened.
- The action was done to the thing that is being described, i.e. the door was opened/closed; it didn't open/close something else.
What about the distinction between "open" and "opened"? The latter calls attention to the fact that something was opened in order to be in its open state, whereas "open" alone doesn't necessarily imply that - e.g. an "open meeting".
Well for that, we just need a plain ole adjective. When you create a plain adjective from an action word using the -a adjective ending, it generally means roughly "relating to action" or "characterised by action":
malferma kunsido
an open meeting, a meeting characterised by being "open" - not necessarily a closed thing that was then opened.
Same with ferma. Consistency is key!
And how about that "shut" can imply a more sudden or sharp action than "close"? Gimme that ek- prefix. Attaching ek- to the beginning of an action implies the sudden start of that action, or the short moment at the beginning of that action:
ŝi ekfermis la pordon antaŭ ol la trolo povis eniri
she shut the door (suddenly closed) before the troll could enter
The dictionary entry for fermi is a gold mine of useful words derived from it. Here's some faves:
la armeo ĉirkaŭfermis la sorĉiston
the army enclosed the sorcerer (using ĉirkaŭ "around" for "close around")
la kato eskapis tra la malfermaĵo
the cat escaped through the opening (using the -aĵ suffix that makes a concrete thing relating to the root word, i.e. "an open thing")
