Lingwa de planeta/Simple sentence

In this lesson you are going to learn:

• 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)

Altogether 34 words

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).

	Singular	Plural
1	me	nu
2	yu
3	ta lu, ela	li

• 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.

me lubi	I love
yu lubi	you love
nu lubi	we love

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.

yeri yu shwo	yesterday you said (talked)
manya nu samaji	tomorrow we will understand

Translation exercise

English	Lidepla
we live
they (pl.) live
he hopes
she hopes
they (pl.) know
I know
you talk / say
you all talk / say
I talk / say

Negation, questions and answers, emphasizing particle "ya"

For negation the particle bu is put before the verb.

Me bu jan.	I don't know.

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

Ob yu samaji?	Do you understand?

Translation exercise

English	Lidepla
Do you love?
I don't love.
Doesn't she love?
She doesn't know.
Doesn't he hope?
He lives.
Don't you understand?
We hope.
Do they talk?
They don't know.

You can answer the questions with

• ya ("yes")
• non ("no")
• doh

Ob yu samaji?
Ya, me samaji.	Yes, I understand.
Non, me bu samaji.	No, I don't understand.
Ob yu bu samaji?
Ya / Non, me bu samaji.	No, I don't understand.
Doh, me samaji.	I understand.

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

Me samaji ya!	I do understand!
Me ya lubi!	I do love!

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

me lubi-te	I loved
yu ve lubi	you will love
li bu ve samaji	they won't understand

Translation exercise

English	Lidepla
Did you love?
I will love.
Will he understand?
Does she hope?
She hoped.
She won't hope.
We will live.

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)

me e yu	me and you
ela o me	she or me
Me jan bat bu samaji.	I know but (I) don't understand
Me kredi dabe yu nadi.	I believe (in order) for you to hope.
Me nadi bikos me lubi.	I hope because I love.

New verbs

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

dumi	to think	me dumi, li ve dumi, nu dumi-te
jan	to know	me bu jan, ob yu jan?
samaji	to understand	ta bu samaji, ob yu samaji?
kredi	to believe	me kredi, ta bu kredi-te, nu ve kredi
nadi	to hope	ob yu nadi? me nadi-te ya!
lubi	to love	nu lubi, me ve lubi, ta lubi-te
gun	to work	li bu gun, me gun, ob yu gun?
jivi	to live	nu ve jivi, li jivi-te
vidi	to see	ob yu vidi? ta bu vidi, me vidi ya!
audi	to hear	ob yu audi? me bu audi, ta ve audi
shwo	to say, to talk	me shwo-te, ob yu ve shwo?

Translation exercise

I didn't know. But you talked. Now I know. (Me ... . Bat yu ... . Nau me ...)

She believes and hopes. (Ela ... e ...)

They don't see and don't hear, but they talk. (Li ... e ..., bat ...)

They don't understand, but they work. (Li ..., bat ...)

I talk so that you understand. (Me ... dabe yu ...)

She hopes because she loves. (Ela ... bikos ela ...)

You don't know or don't understand. (Yu ... o ...)

She didn't think, she did know. (Ela ..., ela ya ...)

Don't you believe? Yes, I do believe! (Ob yu ...? - Doh, me ... ya!)

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):

Me nami Lena.	My name is Lena. I'm called Lena

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

Me joi.	I rejoice. I'm glad.

- 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.

Oh, little prince!	oo litl prins
Bit by bit I came to understand the secrets of your sad little life.	bit bay bit ay keym tu ande'stend t/se 'siikri/ets e/ov yoo se/ad litl layf
For a long time you had found your only entertainment in the quiet pleasure of looking at the sunset.	for e long taym yu hed faund yoo ounli ente'teynment in t/se kwayt 'plezhe e/ov 'luking et t/se 'sanset
I learned that new detail on the morning of the fourth day, when you said to me:	ay lee/oond t/set nyu 'diiteyl on t/se 'mooning e/ov t/se foof/s dey, wen yu sed tu mi
I am very fond of sunsets.	ay em 'veri fond e/ov 'sansets.

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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