NiwEnglisc/Level I/Freeteid

 Lesson 2    ~   Freeteid

Dialogue
"Freeteid" means "Free time". This dialog is of Franz and Greta familiarizing each other with their sports activities.

Sports and Activities
Section Problems>>

Pleȝen, Maken and Other Verbs
All three verbs that you were introduced to in Lesson 1 are irregular in some way; however, most verbs are regular verbs. The following is a table of the endings you add to the stems of regular verbs to conjugate them:

For example, the verbs pleȝen and maken,

Applications

 * Hwat dœst þu?
 * What are you doing?


 * Ic pleȝe Basketball.
 * I play basketball.


 * Pleȝst þu Fotball?
 * Do you play soccer?


 * Ic make Husniede.
 * I do homework.


 * He makþ Husniede.
 * He does homework.


 * Makst þu Sport?
 * Do you play sports?

Note the last sentence. In English one plays sport, while in Englisc one does sport. You can also use the w-words from Lesson 1 to make some more combinations:


 * Hwy pleȝst þu Baseball?
 * Why do you play baseball?


 * Hwa hæfþ Husniede?
 * Who has homework?

To say "not", use "ne" before the verb. "Nan" is another word to emphasize that you play none of a sport, and declines like an does.


 * Hwa ne pleȝþ Fotball?
 * Who doesn't play soccer?


 * Wiȝ pleȝeþ nanen Tennis.
 * We don't play tennis.

Compound Sentences
Both Englisc and English have compound sentences; the applications of these are enormous. They can be used in lists, but also in compound sentences. For example,


 * Ic pleȝe Basketball and he pleȝþ eak Basketball.
 * I play basketball, and he also plays basketball.

The new word, "eak", is very important and it means "also". The one grammar rule about "eak" is that it always comes after the verb.

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Other Verbs and Their Conjugations
Bescawen, wreiten, and swimmen are all regular verbs, they follow normal conjugations. To conjugate, you first remove the ' en ', then add the correct ending, here is an example,


 * Finden is an irregular verb; however, it has a simple change. Whenever the verb ends with a consonant cluster like "nd", an 'e' is added before it. So it would be du findest, not du findst. As well as he, scie, it, and ȝiȝ findeþ, not he, scie, it, and ȝiȝ findþ.


 * Lesen is also an irregular verb. First, when forming "þu" it is liest and with "he, scie, it" it is liesþ.


 * Seen is the last irregular verb. When forming "þu" it is siehst and with "he, scie, it" it is siehþ.

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Two More Verb Forms
There are two more verb forms in English that you will learn this lesson: the present progressive ("I am playing, he is making"), and the affirmative "I do play, he does not play", which includes a form of 'to do'.

It might be tempting to make the present progressive sentence, "I am playing." into "Ic em pleȝen.". After all, 'pleȝen' sounds a lot like 'play-ing', but that is not the definition. 'Pleȝen' means 'to play', which makes "Ic em pleȝen." into "I am to play.", not at all what you are trying to say, and a collection of words that does not make sense. So it is not "Ic em pleȝen."

The second phrase, "I do play", is another tricky one. This one may seem like, "Ic do pleȝen." But don't forget, there are no helping verbs in Englisc. "Ic do pleȝen." just doesn't work.

Both of the phrases above are simplified in Englisc. Instead of "I am playing." and "I do play.", Englisc makes them both simply: "Ic pleȝe." When using 'not', instead of "does not play", you get "Ic ne pleȝe". This may sound like old English, and there you see where English came from, and why it is called a "Germanic" language.

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Expressing likes and dislikes
* ''I like ... also translates to: Ic ann. Unnen being the root verb, to like.'' ''What do you like? translates to: Hwat annst þu?'' Ic ann, þu annst, he/scie/it ann, wiȝ unneþ, ȝiȝ unneþ, hje unneþ.

In Englisc, there are several ways to express likes and dislikes. This way is a casual way. You can also add other verbs for other things, like asking or saying if they like to play, or make things.


 * To express preference, use liefer instead of ȝorn. For example, "Wiȝ pleȝeþ liefer Fotball."


 * To express favorites, you use am liefsten, meaning "most of all", in the same context as liefer. For example, "Ic pleȝe am liefsten Raafgamen.".


 * To express dislikes, use ne ȝorn instead of ȝorn.

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Numbers
The first big unit in this level is time, which we are just about to get to. German time is very much like English time. However, we must begin with Englisc numbers.


 * Above are some basic numbers in Englisc. If you haven't noticed the pattern, "-tien" creates "-teen" and "-tiȝ" creates "-ty."

for example, "aanandfeiftiȝ", which is 51, from "aan" and "feiftiȝ".
 * The numerals, when written as figures, appear the same in Englisc and English, but when spoken or written in full, the units normally come before the tens. They are connected by and.


 * In spoken words, "twa" can be used for "tweȝn", used before a hundred or a thousand.

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Asking the Time
In table above you might have seen the Ef and BoA, those stand for exact form and before or after. Specific times can be expressed in two ways: Exact form (e.g. "Four thirty-seven") or before or after form (e.g. "Twenty-three to five").

Exact form
This form is the same as English. For example,


 * It is tien Uhr feiftien.
 * It is 10:15 a.m.


 * The new word Uhr means "o'clock", and is used in all exact times, it comes between the hour and the minute.


 * Also, Englisc-speakers generally use the 24-hour clock when expressing time this way, therefore, 3:29 p.m. (15:29) is "feiftien Uhr niȝnandtweȝntiȝ."

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Before or After the Hour

 * Use the same form as in English. For example, 10:57 can be said as, "þrie ær Endlefen(three minutes to eleven". Likewise, 4:10 would be "tien æfter Fier(ten minutes past four)."


 * Typically, use the smaller time interval with 'æfter' or 'ær'. Don't say, "sefenandfeiftig æfter Tien."


 * You don't need a ær when using half. For example, 11:30 can be said as, "Half twelf" and 5:15 can be said as "Fierðel æfter Feif", 5:45 would be "Fierðel ær Six".

Note: This is only used with informal time telling. You don't use 'Uhr'.

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Saying When You Do Something
Hwann pleȝst þu Football? (Football means American Football. Soccer would be "Fotball", which lit. means Football)

To say you play a sport at a certain time in English, you would answer, "I play football at 3:30." This is all the same in Englisc, with the translation of 'at' being um. That makes the above response "Ic pleȝe Football um half Fier." or "Ic pleȝe Football um feiftien Uhr þrittiȝ.".

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Times of Day
*In Englisc, the words for "morning" and "tomorrow" are almost the same: morgen and to-morgen. If you want to say tomorrow morning use on morgen (meaning: in the morning) instead of tomorgen morgen.


 * The words above can be combined into phrases like "ȝestern Æfen".

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Days and Months

 * To say "on Monday", say "am Monendæȝ" or whatever applies. To say "in January", say "im Wintermonþ" or whatever applies. This is the same for all of the days and months.


 * You can also combine the times of day from earlier with the days of the week. But they're both nouns. To do this, therefore, we must combine the two words into one, as in "Tiwsniht" (Tuesday night) and "Wodensæfen" (Wednesday evening).

Culture Note: The Englisc week begins on Monday.

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Dates

 * The ordinal numbers from 2 to 19 take the endings þ/t and from 20 upwards take the ending þ


 * For example "on the 25th of December",
 * Simply say "am feifandtweȝntiȝþen Ȝolmonþ."
 * In other cases you say "feifandtweȝntiȝþe Ȝolmonþ" or "þe feifandtweȝntiȝþee Ȝolmonþ".


 * In Englisc, dates are written out in the logical order Month . Day . Year, instead of the American Month/Day/Year.
 * Engliscuses a dot or a dash instead of a slash. Do not use the slash in dates, as it is unusual and confusing because you cannot tell if "4/6" means 4th of June (4.6.) or 6th of April (6.4.)

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Birthdays
Here am þrietienþen Blotmonþ , ''am 13. Blotmonþ, am þrietienþen elfþen (a shorter version of endlefenþen) and am 13. 11.'' represent the same date.
 * To say, "My birthday is on November 13th", say, "Ic habe am þrietienþen Blotmonþ Gebyrddæȝ."
 * Note the order; it translates back literally as "I have on the 13th of November birthday."

Section Problems>>

Seasons
To say "in Summer", say "im Summer". For example,


 * Im Summer pleȝe ic Baseball.
 * I play baseball in summer.

The time always goes before the verb and the subject. (time, verb, and subject)

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Periods of Time
If you want to express a certain period of time, but it doesn't have a specific name, like Ofernon, you can do it like this:,


 * This is the same as from ... till ... in English.


 * This can also apply with dates. For example, "Wiȝ habeþ Scole (school) of Monenedæȝ oþ Friȝedæȝ".


 * Exceptions
 * Wiȝ habeþ free of þem feifandtweȝntiȝþen Ȝolmonþ oþ þem oðern Wintermonþ.

Section Problems>>

How often?
Hu oft?, there are many ways to answer this question. Two are "once, twice, or three times in a ..." or "always, often, or never."

A Number or Times
To say, "once a month", or "four times a week", add "seiðe(n)" to the end of the number and use the examples below.

For example


 * Wiȝ kegelþ tweȝnseiðen in þer Woche.
 * We bowl twice a week.

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Common Adverbs

 * To apply these words, put them in the sentence, after the verb and subject, but before the sport/activity.


 * You can also use 'aanen' to say things like, Scie pleȝþ aanen hweilen Tennis.


 * Note that if this is translated word-for-word, it becomes, She plays only sometimes tennis. That's just the way Englisc is.

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Time-Related Words

 * To say you have time, ignore the 'die'.
 * To say when, insert other phrases you have learned this lesson. For example, Ic habe am Sæternsæfen Teid.
 * Note that the word order is the same as that of birthdays. You can use Freeteid in the same way.

Section Problems>>

What's On the Test
To go straight to the lesson test, go here.