Lingwa de planeta/Nouns and adjectives

In this lesson you will learn: . . . for a total of 70 units of the dictionary
 * 11 verbs (muvi, flai, lopi, sidi, stan, somni, plei, lekti, skribi, remembi, fogeti)
 * 11 nouns (jen, kinda, amiga, dom, flor, kitaba, taim; sabah, dey, aksham, nocha)
 * 5 adjectives (hao, buhao, syao, gran, jamile)
 * 6 adverb modifiers to adjectives (muy, idyen, aika, basta, tro, ga)
 * 7 special verbs (bi / es / bin, ye, yok, hev, sta)
 * 7 possessive pronouns (may, nuy, yur, suy, luy, elay, ley)
 * 5 index words (se, to, sey, toy, tal)
 * 1 preposition (de)
 * 1 question word (kwel)
 * 8 suffixes (-ina, -o, a / sa, ing, shil, bile, kin, gron)
 * 8 particles (-ge, gin-, man-, da, den, -ney, gro-, -ki)

(+ 97 from lessons 1 and 2, for a total of 167 units)

= Nouns = Nouns - words that answer the question "What?" (Kwo?) or "Who?" (Hu?).

Nouns can be simple, or they can be derived compounds.

Examples of simple nouns:
 * jen (people)
 * kinda (child)
 * flor (flower)
 * kitaba (book)
 * dom (house)
 * amiga (friend)
 * taim (time)

Importantly, the noun itself conveys no clue as to number or amount.

Thus, depending on context, the word flor, for example, may refer to either a "flower" or to "flowers". To uniquely clarify the intended meaning, you can put the word un (one) before the word:

Another way to specify that a word is singular (one thing, one piece) is to add the particle - ge as a quantifier or denumerator after the word:

An adjective like mucho ("a lot") can specify the sense of quantity, countability or plurality' (See also Lesson 5.)

A number of word pairs distinguish gender in nouns denoting relationships among people:
 * gina (woman) / man (man)
 * gela (girl) / boy (boy)
 * mata (mother) / patra (father)
 * docha (daughter) / son (son)
 * sista (sister) / brata (brother)
 * tia (aunt) / onkla (uncle)
 * oma (grandmother) / opa (grandfather)
 * kindocha (granddaughter) / kinson (grandson)

If necessary, information on gender can be supplied in other cases:
 * by the prefixes gin- and man-.


 * or by replacing the ending a with -ina or -o.

Nouns do not have declensions or case forms in Lidepla. However, the information provided by case endings as to the role or function in the sentence can be provided by a noun's sentence position:


 * The subject ("nominative case") is shown by placing the noun before the verb:


 * The indirect object ("dative case") or direct object ("accusative case") is shown by being placed after a preposition or after a verb, respectively

If necessary, to indicate the case value of a word when changing the order of words (for example, to emphasize the meaning of a word), you can use special particles da for the nominative and den for the indirect case:

Such particles make possible the almost free order of words in a sentence. We note, however, that it is not worth abusing these particles.

= Verbal Nouns =

Nouns can be formed from verbs.

A common noun associated with an action, denoting a process or result, is formed by:
 * replacement of the final "i" on "a" (if the verb ends in a consonant + i):


 * addition of "a" (if the verb ends in a consonant + i, but is monosyllabic):


 * addition of "sa" (if the verb does not end in i):

It is important to note that in all these cases the noun is associated with the verb, but carries some additional meaning. You can, however, also form a pure verbal noun, denoting precisely the action as such, using the suffix -ing:

= Adjectives =

Adjectives answer the question kwel? "which one?" or "what is it like?"

Examples of adjectives:
 * hao (good)
 * buhao (bad)
 * gran (big)
 * syao (small)
 * jamile (beautiful)

(Reminder:  in the combination ao, a is under stress,  the letter j reads like a light semi-soft fused "dzh", just like English j)

Together with adjectives, to clarify the meaning, the words are used:
 * muy (very)
 * idyen (a little)
 * aika (rather)
 * basta (enough)
 * tro (too much)
 * ga (entirely)

"quite" can be translated either as aika or as ga.

Adjectives can be formed from verbs.

An adjective with the meaning "inclined to do something" is formed from the verb by adding the suffix shil (the position of stress does not change):

Adjectives with the meaning "which can .." are formed using the suffix bile (the word gets extra stress on the suffix):

= Verb bi / es / bin =

In Lidepla, verbs do not change their form - except for the single verb "to be": the exception verb bi has the form es in the present tense and bin in the past. The future form is expresed as ve bi.

The linking verb bi/es/bin is usually preceded by a noun and followed by an adjective.

The verb bi/es/bin is never omitted.

In special questions with the verb bi (es, bin), inversion is possible and usually occurs, that is, the verb is placed immediately after the interrogative word:

In a complex sentence with a question word, as a rule, there is no inversion:

If the subject is expressed by the word se ("this") or the pronouns ta or it, it can be omitted, both in the question and in the answer to it (if the meaning is clear from the context):

= Adjective as an attribute =

Of course, nouns, like personal pronouns, can act as the subject or object of the verb.

In this role, nouns can be accompanied by adjectives.

The adjective is usually placed before the word being described.

Pointing words:
 * sey (this)
 * toy (that)
 * tal (such)

= Verbs of availability ye, yok, hev =

Sometimes you need to say "is" not in the sense of quality, but in the sense of the presence or absence of something: "there is".

In this case, instead of the verb bi, the words ye (there is, there are) and yok (there is no, is absent) are used:

In order to report that something belongs to someone, use the verb hev - to have.

= Possessive adjectives and pronouns =

To ask the question "whose?" and answer it, the defining particle -ney is used:

Possible compound adjectives:

The same meaning can be expressed using the preposition de:

Using the same particle -ney, one can, in principle, form possessive pronouns: me-ney, yu-ney, ta-ney, etc. But possessive pronouns are used very often in speech, so there are also short forms for them: may (mine), yur (your, yours), nuy (our), ley (their pl.), suy (his, her, their sing.), luy (his), elay (her).

The reflexive pronoun swa can be used to form the possessive pronoun swa-ney (one's own).

= Particles gro- and -ki =

The following are widely used in Lidepla language:
 * augmentative particle prefix gro-
 * diminutive particle suffix -ki

These particles can be used with all parts of speech:

To form the diminutive of a noun or name, you can replace the final vowel with "i". A long name can be shortened to one syllable (this method is not always applicable):

The language also has derivational suffixes -kin and -gron, which serve to form nouns with some new quality:

= New verbs =

= Translation exercise =

= Text =

Read the text. Check the meaning of unknown words.

Try to retell this text and/or make up your own.

Me bu jan-te fon wo ta lai. Wen ta vidi may avion, ta kwesti:

- Kwo es sey kosa?

- Bu es kosa. Es avion. It flai.

- Also yu toshi lai fon skay? Es drole! Fon kwel planeta?

Also ta lai fon skay. Me kwesti:

- Fon wo yu lai? Wo es yur dom? A wo yu yao pren may yan?

(afte Antuan de Sent Exuperi)


 * avion - airplane
 * kosa - thing
 * skay - sky
 * drole - funny, amusing
 * planeta - planet
 * yan - sheep

= Etiquette: “Good afternoon!”, “How are you?” =

When greeting at different times of the day, you can use the following expressions:
 * Hao sabah! - Good morning!
 * Hao dey! - Good afternoon!
 * Hao aksham! - Good evening!
 * Hao nocha! - Good night!

(By themselves, the words sabah, dey, aksham, nocha denote morning, afternoon, evening and night, respectively.)

To ask "How are you?" you need the verb sta ("to be in some state"):

= Languages in focus: Spanish and Portuguese =

By number of native speakers, the Spanish language is the second largest after Chinese (about 400 million).

Spanish belongs to the Romance languages ​​group and, therefore, derived from Vulgar Latin, the language that was spoken among ordinary Romans, and which began to spread into the territory of modern Spain at the end of the 3rd century BCE, after Spain became a Roman dominion.

At that time the Iberian Peninsula was home to a large number of distinct tribes, the most numerous of which were the Iberians and the Celts. Along the shore of the Mediterranean there were some Greek colonies. In addition, by the 5th century, Germanic tribes had begun settling within the peninsula. As a consequence, a great number of words in modern Spanish have a direct link with Celtic, Greek, Phoenician and Visigoth analogues.

From the 8th to the 15th centuries, Moors from North Africa dominated the territory of the Iberian Peninsula. Interaction of Arab and Christian cultures was not simple and straightforward. Be that as it may, the influence of Arabic into Spanish was significant and undeniable.

In the Middle Ages, Spain was in a fragmented state, and different regions spoke different dialects. But the land of Castile gradually became most powerful and influential, and the Castilian dialect became the basis of modern Spanish. Nevertheless, differences in pronunciation and vocabulary remain clearly visible in the different provinces of Spain to this day.

Excerpt from The Little Prince

(Accent mark placed before the stressed syllables, The diphthongs ue and ua are pronounced together, with an emphasis on the second sound):

Portuguese is closely related to Spanish, and is also one of the world’s very widely spoken languages.

Excerpt from The Little Prince in Portuguese:

Spanish and Portuguese, being both in the Romance family of languages, contain a great number of words of Latin origin, many of which have become international. Such words make up a large part of the vocabulary of Lidepla.

The most frequent words borrowed from Spanish:
 * Function words: a (to), kada (each), kwanto (how much), es (is), ela (she), mil (thousand), mucho (a lot), komo (a), sol (only), sin (no), i (and), muy (very), basta (enough), ambi (both), segun (according to).
 * Nouns: kosa (a thing, something), flor (flower), tasa (cup), kamina (road), tren (train), avion (airplane), amiga (friend), vos (voice), munda (the world), oton (autumn), mes (month), isla (island), mar (sea).
 * Verbs: skribi (to write), fumi (to smoke), inviti (to invite), visiti (to visit), resolvi (to solve a task), regi (to rule, reign), kresi (to grow), konsenti (to agree), doni (to give).
 * Adjectives: gran (big), blan (white), lente (slow), otre (other), alegre (cheerful), agude (acute), vere (real), tarde (late), kare (expensive), libre (free), sane (healthy).

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