Lingwa de planeta/Simple sentence

In this lesson you are going to learn: Altogether 34 words
 * 7 pronouns (me, nu, yu, ta, lu, ela, li)
 * 11 verbs (dumi, jan, samaji, kredi, nadi, lubi, gun, jivi, vidi, audi, shwo)
 * 4 time adverbs (yeri, manya, nau, sedey)
 * 5 conjunctions (e, o, bat, bikos, dabe)
 * 7 grammatical particles (bu, ob, ya, non, doh, -te, ve)

= Basic verb form and personal pronouns =

The base of any phrase in any language is a verb. The verb specifies the general situation, the action. All the other words are arranged around it.

Examples of verbs:
 * jivi (to live)
 * lubi (to love)
 * nadi (to hope)
 * jan (to know)
 * samaji (to understand)
 * shwo (to talk)

In Lidepla the verb form never changes. To specify the subject the personal pronouns are used, to specify the action (for example, tense) the special particles are used.

Personal pronouns: me (I), nu (we); yu (you); ta (sing. they, he/she), lu (he), ela (she), li (pl. they).


 * ta - the general pronoun, meaning any living creature (a man, a woman, a child, an animal). To specify the sex, if necessary, special pronouns lu (he) and ela (she) are used.
 * yu - general pronoun for "you". To specify, if necessary, combination like yu oli (you all), yu ambi (you both), yu un (you one) can be used. There is no special formal second-person singular pronoun.

The subject is usually before the verb in a phrase.

The basic verb form doesn't specify the tense.

The time of the action is defined by the context (for example, the words like yeri yesterday, manya tomorrow, nau and often sedey usually define the time unambiguously). If there is no context, the present is meant.

= Negation, questions and answers, emphasizing particle "ya" =

For negation the particle bu is put before the verb.

For a question, the particle ob is put before the whole phrase (the word order doesn't change).

You can answer the questions with
 * ya ("yes")
 * non ("no")
 * doh

The particle ya may be put before or after the verb to emphasize its meaning.

= The past and future tense particles, conjunctions =

For tense specification (when necessary) the following particles are used:
 * ve (before the verb) - future
 * -te (after the verb with a hyphen) - past

To join up the words and the phrases the following conjunctions are useful:
 * e (and)
 * o (or)
 * bat (but)
 * dabe (for, in order to)
 * bikos (because)

= New verbs =

The verbs are given with examples, for make it easier to remember them and to repeat the grammatical particles.

= Translation exercise =

= Text =

Read the text. Try to retell it or make a new one.

Ob yu lubi? - Ya, me lubi.

Ob yu jan? - Ya, me jan.

Ela shwo-te e lu bu audi-te.

- Me kredi. Bat yu bu samaji.

Me nadi. Bat yu bu vidi.

- Me samaji. Me dumi. Me ve gun.

Nu ve jivi.

= Etiquette: acquaintance =

In Lidepla there is a universal word that can be used as a greeting, as a farewell and as a wishing of 'all the best'. That is the word Swasti! Literally it means "Let the happiness be! Let the peace be!"

Also you can use Salam! (Hello!) or Namastee! (more formal) as a greeting, and Chao! (Bye!) or Adyoo! (more formal) as a farewell.

(Reminder: doubled vowel is always stressed)

To introduce yourself you need the verb nami (to call, to be called):

When the interlocutor says their name, you can say that you are glad, with the verb joi (to rejoice):

- Salam! Me nami Nina.

- Swasti! Me nami Marina. Me joi.

- Me joi toshi (too). Swasti!

- Adyoo!

= Language in focus: English =

Nowadays it is English that seems to be really international. So it is the first language we are going to consider.

In every language there is a history of the people in some way.

The English language is believed to have originated in the 5th century AD, when the Germanic tribes of Angles ans Saxons came to the British Isles, then inhabited by the Celts. There were more of the newcomers, and Anglo-Saxon dialects gradually displaced Celtic ones.

In the 6th and 7th centuries, general Christianization took place in Britain, and a lot of words of Latin origin appeared, like "school" and "priest".

In the 9th century, the Danes came, and words of Scandinavian origin appeared, like "anger" and "sky".

In the 11th century, Britain was conquered by people who cane from Normandy, in Northern France. Then the three-language epoch began: aristocrats spoke French, people of science spoke Latin, and ordinary people spoke Anglo-Saxon. Since then you can find words in English that are close in meaning but have different origins and thus differ considerably, like: "head" (Anglo-Saxon) - "chapter" (Latin) - "chief" (French).

Beginning in the late 15th century, Great Britain acquired many colonies, and nowadays there are a lot of variants of English, like American English, Canadian English and Australian English — not to mention the numerous dialects that exist on the British Isles. Thus English is still not a homogeneous language.

From the point of view of grammar, great changes took place. Today there are almost no declension and conjugation endings for nouns and verbs. If the written language had not developed, and if early grammarians had not believed that correct grammar should necessarily resemble the grammar of Latin, maybe English would had lost these endings completely.

Here is a fragment of The Little Prince with a transcription written in Lidepla, so that you could clearly see the difference.

One can see that short words and plenty of diphthongs (ai, ou) are typical for the English language. Also it's clear enough that there is a great difference between orthography and pronunciation.

When English words are borrowed, in most cases the pronunciation is kept, not the orthography. (Of course, some changes take place so that the word fits into the Lidepla phonological system.) Sometimes there are also slight changes so that the word fits the Lidepla grammar system (for example, verbs can get the ending "i"; adjectives, the ending "e").

Many grammar words came to Lidepla from English: conjunctions — o (or), bat (but), bikos (because); prepositions — fo (for), bay (by), bifoo (before), afte (after); adverbs — nau (now), iven (even); question words — hu (who), wen (when).

Some very frequent words, borrowed from English:
 * nouns: dey (day), wik (week), taim (time); boy (boy), mani (money), shop (shop); riva (river), skay (sky), leta (letter [a message]).
 * verbs: bi (be), bikam (become), hev (have); weiti (wait), miti (meet), smaili (smile); bildi (build); krai (cry), tachi (touch), helpi (help).
 * adjectives: blu (blue), grin (green), klin (clean), longe(long).

Exercise keys

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