Easy Ido/Lesson one

Alphabet

The alphabet is the same as English: a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z.

Pronunciation

Vowels

There are five vowels. Remember to say vowels short. Don't say things like ow, aw, and so on. Just say o, a.

letter	pronunciation	gloss
a	IPAː /ɑ/	bah
e	IPAː /e/	veil
i	IPAː /i/	mean
o	IPAː /o/	mow
u	IPAː /u/	moo

When two vowels go together we can have these two possibilities. They can be pronounced together, as a diphthong:(there are only two):

au - ow - ow
eu - e + oo -e-oo spoken very quickly.

Or they can be pronounced separately, each vowel sound fully enunciated (like "oasis"):

Consonants

Most are the same as English. But:

letter	pronunciation	gloss
c	IPAː /t͡s/	rats (soft c)
r	IPAː /ɾ/	ratón tapped r
g	IPAː /g/	get (hard g)
j	IPAː /ʒ/	measure
s	IPAː /s/	say never like nose nor ears
x	IPAː /ks/	six never like xylophone

Accent

All words have an accent on the second-last sound, except infinitives, which are verbs that end in -ar, -ir, or -or. They have an accent on the last sound.

mea, libro, amiko, jupo, sinistre.

But:

irar, facar, dormar, manjar, parolor.

Words having two consecutive vowels in the last syllable (the first being i or u) take the accent on the previous syllable, if there is one:

aquo, manui, Wikipedio.

However, if there is no other syllable, then it is the second to last vowel that takes the accent:

dio, sua, tui.

Except that an u right after a q can never take the accent. The stress vowel is then the last one in:

quar, quo, quin.

'The' and 'a'

These are called 'articles'. Ido has the word la for "the". But Ido does not have a word for "a". That means that "amiko" can mean "friend" or "a friend". La amiko means "the friend".

Nouns

All singular nouns end with -o. Domo (house), skolo (school), urbo (city).
All plural nouns end with -i. Domi (houses), skoli (schools), urbi (cities).
You don't need an -o on people's names and names of places. These are 'proper nouns'. But don't forget that some spellings may be different; for instance if the words America and Canada existed in Ido, they would sound like Ameritsa and Tsanada, so we write them as Amerika and Kanada instead. For less common names it is favourable not to alter the spelling, otherwise the original spelling could be difficult to retrieve.

Adjectives

All adjectives end with -a. vera (true), simpla (simple), bona (good).
You can make comparisons and say 'the most' and 'the least' with the words plu, min, maxim, and minim. Plu vera (truer), plu simpla (simpler), min bona (less good), min simpla (less simple), maxim bona (best), minim simpla (least simple).
To say something has a certain quality more or less than something else use kam, as in plu simpla kam (simpler than).
To say something has a certain quality the most or least out of a group, use de, as in maxim bona de (best of).
You can compare things as being similar and say tam ... kam meaning 'as ... as'. For example tam simpla kam (as simple as).
You can put adjectives before the noun like in English (bona skolo), or after the noun like in French (skolo bona).

Adverbs

Adverbs usually come from adjectives. Just replace the -a with -e. Vere (truly), simple (simply), bone (well).

As in English, there are adverbs that don't come from adjectives, mostly relating to time and place. These include ibe (there), ante (before), seque (afterwards), lore (then, at that time), sempre (always), anke (also).

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