Salute, Jonathan!/Grammar (articles)

Articles

One single definite article

There is a single definite article: li. This is used regardless of whether the noun refers to something that is masculine, feminine, neuter, singular or plural.

Examples: Li mann (the man), li cité (the city), li trenes (the trains), li manu (the hand), li die (the day), li pomieros (the apple trees).

One single indefinite article

An indefinite article exists only for the singular: un. For the plural the noun is used without an article.

Examples:

Un castelle (a castle), un lettre (a letter), un altri land (another land).

Yo ama cités (I love cities), persones ne deve trincar (people should not drink).

Pluralizing li

The article li can take the plural if no other word expresses it, or if the word following it should not or cannot be pluralized for some reason.

Example: Jonathan ne vole scrir lis e. - Jonathan doesn't want to write the e's (the letters 'e').

Contracting li

A li is contracted to al, and de li is contracted to del.

- Benevenit al hotel (Welcome to the hotel).

- Il curre al porta (He runs to the door).

- Ili comensa ear vers li porta del castelle (They start to go towards the door of the castle).

- Li coses del passate (The things of the past).

No partitive article

Some languages such as French use a partitive article when talking about a certain quantity of something. Despite its outward similarity to French, be sure not to copy this usage as it is not needed in Occidental.

- Jonathan pensa: "Oh, hay manjage!" - Jonathan thinks: "Oh, there is food!" (not: "Oh, hay de manjage!")

- Leva li persianes; yo vole luce! - Raise the blinds, I want light! (not: "yo vole de luce!")