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[[File:Lojban_17.png|thumb|Book cover]]
Read a newer course "[https://lojban.pw/books/learn-lojban/ Learn Lojban]" instead.
<center>
{|
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|| <div align="right" style="font-size:110%">&nbsp;''The Gleki's''</div>
||
 
|-
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|| <div align="right" style="font-size:180%">Crash-course in Lojban</div>
||
 
|}
<div style="font-size:110%">The guide to the naturalistic logical language</div>
 
<div>Published 2015</div>
</center>
 
 
<span style="font-size:150%"><center>Preface</center></span>
 
This tutorial gives a gentle introduction to Lojban, a logical language. 17 lessons of this course will allow you to understand most of the Lojban you are likely to see in the online Lojban discussion groups or publications.
 
 
''<div style="font-size:130%">What is Lojban?</div>''
 
Lojban is a constructed language based on so called predicate logic which makes it kind of a bridge between different languages and cultures.
 
Whereas natural grown languages have complications in grammar rules, biases and restrictions Lojban is designed to free us from them thus encouraging other ways of thinking otherwise unreachable.
 
Therefore, it allows us to see the world brighter.
 
 
''<div style="font-size:130%">Why learn Lojban?</div>''
 
*Lojban is clean, simple, and at the same time powerful language. Why not start speaking it?
*Lojban speech allows you to say things shorter without unnecessary distracting details. For example, you don't have to always think of what tense (past, present or future) to use in a verb when it's already clear from context. When you need details you add them. But unlike other languages Lojban doesn't force you to do so.
*Lojban is for artists because Lojban has unprecedented tools for expressing tiny details of human emotions
*Lojban is for lovers of wisdom (philosophers, in the original sense)
*Lojban is for scientists that like all concepts to be put in a concise system.
*Lojban is the best tool for implementing machine automatic translation. Still it's a speakable language.
*Lastly, Lojban is also fun !
Lojban is going to change the way you look at verbal communication. Learning Lojban is much more than just learning it's words and grammar. Learning Lojban is more about understanding it. You will need to understand many things about the way languages work. If you are not a linguist, it will be new to you. If you are a linguist it'll strike you how different ideas and philosophies you familiar with can be directly uttered in the flow of normal speech.
 
Lojban will make you think about the ways you express ideas in words. Something that you learned and used every day but never tried to understand how it works.
 
If you are deciding which language to learn or whether to learn any at all, you need to define your goals. Being able to understand what is spoken or speak so that other speakers understand is a good reason to learn most other languages. Learning new ways of thinking and expression of thoughts is a good reason to learn Lojban.
 
Lojban is likely to be very different to the kinds of languages you are familiar with — which certainly include English. Learning Lojban may be easy or hard, depending on how well you understand the ideas behind it. There are not many words and rules that you need to learn to get into a basic level. You will get there rather quickly if you put a systemic effort. On the other hand, if you fail to understand some basic point, memorizing things will not help you much. In such cases don't hesitate to move on, and come back to it later. Likewise, some of the exercises are trickier than others (particularly the translation exercises at the end of each lesson). If you can't work out the answer to a particular question, feel free to skip it — but do look at the answer to the question, as there are often useful hints on Lojban usage in there. The answers to the exercises are at the end of each lesson.
 
 
''<div style="font-size:130%">Conventions used in this book.</div>''
 
Lojbanic text is always in '''bold'''.
 
Translations of Lojbanic sentences are in ''italic''.
 
<code>Explanations of the structure of text in Lojban is in such "square" letters.</code>
 
Brackets are used to clarify the grammatical structure of Lojban in examples. <nowiki>[These brackets are not part of official Lojban orthography, and are included only for academic purposes]</nowiki>.
 
:Examples are indented. This is an example of case study sentence.
{{talkquote|Side notes and tips are in boxes. This is an example of note.}}
 
 
For more information on Lojban, please contact the Logical Language Group:
 
*e-mail: [mailto:thelogicallanguagegroup@gmail.com thelogicallanguagegroup@gmail.com]
*online IRC chat: [[Special:Webchat|Web chat]]
*web-site: [http://mw.lojban.org mw.lojban.org]
 
This course is created by the author Gleki with the help of the Lojban community throughout year 2015. It is loosely based on the book ''Complete Lojban Grammar'', tutorials ''Wave Lessons'' and ''Lojban For Beginners''. Important note: this textbook teaches simplified and optimized dialect of Lojban called '''La Bangu'''.
 
=Lesson 1. Language at a glance<span id="1"></span><span id="2"></span>=
 
==Alphabet<span id="1.0"></span>==
 
The basic thing you need to know about Lojban is obviously the alphabet.
 
Lojban uses the Latin alphabet (vowels are colored).
 
:'''<font color="#FF1493">a</font> b c d <font color="#FF1493">e</font> f g <font color="#FF1493">i</font> j k l m n <font color="#FF1493">o</font> p r s t <font color="#FF1493">u</font> v x <font color="#FF1493">y</font> z ' .'''
 
Most letters are pronounced like in English or Latin, but there are a few differences.
 
There are six vowels in Lojban.
{| class="wikitable"
 
| '''<font color="#FF1493">a</font>'''
| as in ''f<u>a</u>ther'' (not as in ''h<u>a</u>t'')
 
|-
| '''<font color="#FF1493">e</font>'''
| as in ''g<u>e</u>t''
 
|-
| '''<font color="#FF1493">i</font>'''
| as in ''mach<u>i</u>ne'' or (Italian) ''v<u>i</u>no'' (not as in ''h<u>i</u>t'')
 
|-
| '''<font color="#FF1493">o</font>'''
| as in ''b<u>o</u>ld ''or ''m<u>o</u>re'' — not as in ''s<u>o</u>'' (this should be a ‘pure' sound).
 
|-
| '''<font color="#FF1493">u</font>'''
| as in ''c<u>oo</u>l'' (not as in ''b<u>u</u>t'')
 
|}
 
These are pretty much the same as vowels in Italian or Spanish.
 
The sixth vowel, '''<font color="#FF1493">y</font>''' sounds like both ''a'' in the word ''America''. So it's kind of ''er'' or, in American English, ''uh''. <b>y</b> is the sound that comes out when the mouth is completely relaxed (this sound is also called ''schwa'' in the language trade).
 
As for consonants
 
{|class="wikitable"
||'''c'''
||is pronounced as ''sh'' (like in ''shop'').
 
|-
||'''g '''
||''' '''always ''g'' as in ''gum'', never ''g'' as in ''gem''
 
|-
||'''j'''
||like ''j'' in French ''bonjour'' or like ''s'' in ''pleasure'' or ''treasure''.
 
|-
||'''x'''
||like ''ch'' in Scottish ''loch'' or as in German ''Bach'', Spanish ''Jose'' or Arabic ''Khaled''. Try pronouncing ''ksss'' while keeping your tongue down and you get this sound.
 
|-
||''' ' '''
||like English ''h''. So the apostrophe is regarded as a proper letter of Lojban and pronounced like an ''h''. It can be found only between vowels. For example, '''u'i''' is pronounced as ''oohee'' (whereas '''ui''' is pronounced as ''ooh-eeh'').
 
|-
||'''.'''
||a full stop (period) is also regarded as a letter in Lojban. It's a short pause in speech to stop words running into each other. Actually any word starting with a vowel has a full stop placed in front of it. This helps prevent undesirable merging of two sequential words into one.
 
|}
 
Stress is always put on the last but one vowel or shown explicitly using symbol '''`''' in order to break this rule. If a word has only one vowel you just don't stress it.
You don't have to be very precise about Lojban pronunciation, because the sounds are distributed so that it is hard to mistake one sound for another. This means that rather than one ‘correct' pronunciation, there is a range of acceptable pronunciation — the general principle is that anything is OK so long as it doesn't sound too much like something else. For example, Lojban '''r''' can be pronounced like the ''r'' in English, Scottish or French.
 
Two things to be careful of, though, are pronouncing Lojban '''i''' and '''u''' like Standard British English ''hit'' and ''but'' (Northern English ''but'' is fine!). This is because non-Lojban vowels, particularly these two, are used to separate consonants by people who find them hard to say. For example, if you have problems spitting out the '''ml''' in '''mlatu''' (which means ''cat''), you can say ''mɪlatu'' — where the ''ɪ'' is very short, but the final ''i'' has to be long.
 
==The simplest sentences<span id="2.1"></span>==
 
Now let's turn to constructing our first sentences in Lojban.
 
Of course one of your first thoughts might be "Where are nouns and verbs in Lojban?"
 
The word
:'''mlatu'''
is roughly translated as ''cat'' but it's more correctly to say that it means
:''to be a cat''
It's a verb. Two more verbs are
 
:'''pinxe'''
:''to drink''
and
:'''ladru'''
which is roughly translated as ''milk''. But it's rather
:''to be a quantity of milk''
 
It might sound strange how ''cat'' and ''milk'' can be verbs but in fact this makes Lojban very simple.
 
Let's imagine we want to say ''A cat drinks milk''.
 
To turn a verb into a noun we put a short word '''lo''' in front of it. And to show a verb we put the word '''cu''' in front of the verb.[[Image:Mona_ciciak.jpg|thumb|lo mlatu]][[Image:Milk glass.jpg|thumb|lo ladru]]
:'''lo mlatu cu pinxe lo ladru'''
:''A cat drinks milk.''
Remember that '''c''' is pronounced as ''sh''.
 
So we turned '''mlatu''' and '''ladru''' into nouns. We can also say that '''lo''' creates a noun from a verb with roughly the meaning of ''one who does (the action of that verb)''.
 
And by using '''cu''' we show that the next word, i.e. '''pinxe''' is still a verb.
 
Any verb can be turned into a noun. For example, '''lo pinxe''' will mean ''a drinker''.
{{TalkquoteGreen|Lojban does not require any punctuation, separate words are used instead. Punctuation marks like ''. , ! ? “ ”'' and capital letters (''A B C'' etc.) can be used in Lojban for stylistic purposes or to make the text look more smart. They don't add or change the meaning.}}
Now let's talk about pronouns like ''I'' and ''you''.
:'''mi''' = ''I''
:'''do''' = ''you''
:'''ra''' = ''he, she or they''
:'''mi'ai''' = ''we''
 
:'''ti''' = ''this one, this object near me.''
:'''ta''' = ''this one, this object near you.''
:'''tu''' = ''that one, that object over there.''
 
Like their English name hints, pronouns work like nouns by default. And they don't require '''lo''' in front of them.
:'''mi pinxe'''
:''I drink.''
 
:'''do pinxe'''
:''You drink.''
 
:'''ti ladru'''
:''This is milk.''
 
:'''tu mlatu'''
:''That is a cat.''
 
As you can see we can even omit '''cu''' after pronouns as we can clearly see the pronoun and the verb being separated.
 
As nouns and pronouns work exactly the same we'll always call them ''nouns'' later for brevity.
 
Unlike English we don't have to add the verb "is/are" to the sentence. Everything is already there: '''mlatu''' means ''<u>to be</u> a cat''.
 
==Compound verbs==
Now let's talk about compound verbs.
 
'''tanru''' or compound verbs are a powerful tool that can give us richer verbs. You just string two verbs together. And the left part of such compound verb adds a flavor to the right one.
 
For example,
:'''sutra'''
:''to be fast''
 
:'''sutra pinxe'''
:''to quickly drink, to drink fast''.
Here the verb '''sutra''' adds an additional meaning as it is to the left of another verb. As you can see seltau are translated using adverbs.
 
We can put '''lo''' to the left of such compound verb getting a compound noun. Seltau in noun form are translated using adjectives or participles:
:'''lo sutra pinxe'''
:''a quick drinker''.
Now you know why there was '''cu''' after nouns in our example
:'''lo mlatu cu pinxe lo ladru'''
:''A cat drinks milk''.
Without '''cu''' it'd turn into '''lo mlatu pinxe''' … with the meaning ''a cat-like drinker'' whatever that could mean.
 
Compound verbs can contain more than two verbs. In this case the first verb modifies the second one, the second one modifies the third and so on:
:'''lo sutra bajra mlatu'''
:''A quickly running cat''
where as
:'''lo sutra mlatu''' means
:''A quick cat''
and
:'''lo bajra mlatu''' means
:''A running cat''
 
==Numbers==
Now let's talk about numbers.
 
Amazing but we haven't said yet how many of our cats are actually drinking milk. The sentence
:'''lo mlatu cu pinxe lo ladru'''
:''A cat drinks milk''.
is vague in this regard. It can be one cat or even 25 cats drinking milk. Any of such interpretations are possible.
 
'''lo''' simply turned a verb into a noun but now we might want to specify the number.
 
Let's add a number in front of '''lo'''.
:'''pa''' means 1
:'''re''' - ''2''
:'''ci''' - ''3''
:'''vo''' - ''4''
:'''mu''' - ''5''
:'''xa''' - ''6''
:'''ze''' - ''7''
:'''bi''' - ''8''
:'''so''' - ''9''
:'''no''' - 0 (zero).
 
:'''ro''' - ''each, every''.
:'''za'u''' - ''more than one'', plural number
So
:'''pa lo mlatu cu pinxe lo ladru'''
:''A cat/one cat drinks milk''.
For numbers consisting of several digits we just string those digits together.
:'''re mu lo mlatu cu pinxe lo ladru'''
:''25 cats drink milk''.
 
'''ro''' is also used to express the meaning of ''all''.
:'''ro lo mlatu cu pinxe lo ladru'''
:''Every cat drinks milk''.
:''All cats drink milk''.

Yes, it's that simple.
 
Besides, we can say:
:'''ci lo re mu mlatu cu pinxe lo ladru'''
:''Three out of 25 cats are drinking milk''.
or
:'''ro lo re mlatu cu pinxe'''
:<code>All of two cats are drinking</code> (literally)
:''Both cats are drinking''.
So we use '''lo''' as a separator in phrases with ''out of'' or similar.
 
To say just ''cats'' as opposed to ''a cat'' (''one cat'') we use the number '''za'u'''.
:'''za'u lo mlatu cu pinxe'''
:''Cats are drinking''.
whereas
:'''pa lo mlatu cu pinxe''' is
:''A cat is drinking''.
 
==Events==
Now let's talk about events and how we express them. The word '''nu''' transforms a verb into an event or a process.
:'''pinxe'''
:''to drink''
:'''lo nu pinxe'''
:''drinking''

:'''dansu'''
:''to dance''
:'''lo nu dansu'''
:''dancing''

:'''jorne'''
:''to connect''
:'''lo nu jorne'''
:''connection''

:'''jimpe'''
:''to understand, to comprehend''
:'''lo nu jimpe'''
:''understanding, comprehension''

So '''lo nu''' corresponds to English ''-ing'', ''-tion'' or ''-sion''.
 

As usual we can add to the verb normal words like nouns, pronouns. In fact '''nu''' allows us to create a full phrase after itself.
:'''klama'''
:''to come''
:'''lo nu klama'''
:''coming''
:'''lo nu do klama'''
:''coming of you''
Some verbs require using events instead of ordinary nouns. For example
:'''gleki'''
:''to be happy (because of some event)''.
:'''lo gleki'''
:''a happy one, a happy person''

:'''mi gleki lo nu do klama'''
:''I'm happy because you are coming''.
 
Some words are events by themselves.
:'''nicte'''
:''(some event) is a nighttime.''
:'''lo nicte'''
:''night, nighttime''
This is where we can see bare '''nu''' (without '''lo''').
:'''lo nicte cu nu mi viska lo lunra'''
:''The night is when I see the Moon.''
:(''The night is the event when I see the Moon'').
where
:'''viska'''
:''to see''
 
:'''lo lunra'''
:''the Moon''

We can combine such words with events together so no '''lo nu''' will be used.
:'''lo cabna'''
:''present time, (an event) is at present''.

:'''lo cabna cu nicte'''
:''Now it's night. At present it's night''.
==Prepositions and tenses<span id="2.05"></span>==
Now let's talk about prepositions related to tense.
:'''pu''' denotes past tense or ''before some event''
:'''ca''' denotes present tense or ''at the same time as some event''
:'''ba''' denotes future tense or ''after some event''

And now examples:
:'''mi pinxe ca lo nu do klama'''
:''I drink while you are coming.''
Yes, we need '''lo nu''' to insert a whole sentence after ca.
:'''mi citka ba lo nu mi dansu'''
:''I eat after I dance.''

Now let's talk about tenses.
 

English forces us to use certain tenses. You have to choose between
:''A cat drinks milk''.
:''A cat has been drinking milk''.
:''A cat drank milk''.
:''A cat will have drunk milk''.
and other similar choices.
 
However, in Lojban you can be as vague or as precise as you want.
 
Our sentence
:'''lo mlatu cu pinxe lo ladru'''
:''A cat drinks milk''.
in reality says nothing about when this event happens. Context is clear enough in most cases and can help us. But if we need more precision we just add more words.
 
It may be a surprise to you but those prepositions can be used as tenses as well!
 
The only difference is that we should just drop the noun after '''pu''', '''ca''', '''ba''' and they turn into tenses.
 
So
:'''lo mlatu cu pinxe lo ladru ca'''
:''The cat drinks milk (at present)''.

:'''lo mlatu cu pinxe lo ladru pu'''
:''The cat drank milk''.

:'''lo mlatu cu pinxe ba'''
:''The cat will drink milk''.
We can also put them before the the main verb.
 
So we can get
:'''lo mlatu ca pinxe lo ladru'''
:''A cat (at present) drinks milk''.

As you can see we replaced '''cu''' with '''ca''' as '''ca''' also clearly separates the previous noun from the verb.
 

However, we shouldn't say '''pu lo mlatu''' as with a noun after it this '''pu''' will turn into a preposition. And it would mean ''before the cat (in time)''. So here we should use the word '''nu'''.
:'''ba nu lo mlatu cu pinxe'''
:''The cat will drink''.
So we can put the word '''nu''' when we want to indicate tense in the beginning of a sentence thus separating it from the noun coming next.
 
Here are three more prepositions (we'll use them only as tenses for now for simplicity).
:'''ca'o''' — continuous tense
:'''ba'o''' — perfect tense
:'''ta'e''' — habitually
Now we can say even more precisely
:'''lo mlatu ca ca'o pinxe lo ladru'''
:''A cat (at present) is drinking milk''.
Here we get a very precise translation of an English sentence that has what is called Present Continuous tense in English.
 
There is also Present Simple tense that describes events that happen sometimes.
:'''lo mlatu ca ta'e pinxe lo ladru'''
:''A cat (habitually, sometimes) drinks milk''.

For Perfect we use '''ba'o'''.
:'''lo mlatu ca ba'o pinxe lo ladru'''
:''A cat has drunk milk''.
Of course we could omit '''ca''' in this sentence (I'm sure that the context would be clear enough in most such cases).
 
We can use the same rules for describing the past using '''pu''' instead of '''ca''' or the future using '''ba'''.
 
{{talkquote|One could argue that two point-like events can never occur exactly simultaneously, making '''ca''' useless. But '''ca''' extends slightly into the past and the future, meaning ''just about now''. This is because human beings don't perceive time in a perfectly logical way, and the Lojban tenses reflect that.}}
 
We can combine tenses with and without phrases after them.
:'''mi pu citka ba lo nu mi dansu'''
:''I ate after I danced.''

Note, that '''pu''' (past tense) is put only in the main phrase ('''mi pu citka''').
 

We shouldn't put it with '''dansu''' (unlike English) as '''mi dansu''' is viewed relative to '''mi pu citka''' so we already know that everything was in past.
 

Let's take one more useful preposition.
:'''ze'a'''
:''some (medium length of time), during, through some time.''
 
:'''sipna'''
:''to sleep''
 
:'''lo nicte'''
:''a nighttime''

:'''mi pu sipna ze'a lo nicte'''
:''I slept all night. I slept through the night.''
Let's compare it with '''ca'''.
:'''mi pu sipna ca lo nicte'''
:''I slept at night.''
When using '''ze'a''' we are talking about the whole interval of what we describe.

Don't forget that '''nicte''' is an event so we don't need '''nu''' here.
 
==Other prepositions==
Other prepositions work the same way.

:'''fa'a'''
:''towards …, in the direction of ...''
:'''to'o'''
:''from …, from the direction of ...''
:'''bu'u'''
:''at ...(some place)''
:'''se ja'e'''
:''because ... (of something)''
 
:'''mi klama fa'a do to'o lo mlatu'''
:''I go to you from a cat.''

The interesting thing about those directional prepositions is that you can freely move '''fa'a '''and '''to'o''' with nouns after them around the sentence as you like without changing the meaning.
:'''fa'a do mi ca klama to'o lo mlatu'''
:''Towards you I go from a cat.''
:'''to'o lo mlatu mi fa'a do ca klama'''
:''From a cat I (towards you) go.''

As you can see Lojban is very flexible.
 

One thing is important.
 

When using '''nu''' you create a separate phrase inside the big sentence. Be sure not to mix nouns and prepositions from different phrases and the big one. Here is an example:
:'''plipe'''
:''to jump''
:'''lo mlatu cu plipe fa'a mi ca lo nu do klama'''
:''A cat jumps towards me when you come.''
is the same as
:'''lo mlatu cu plipe ca lo nu do klama vau fa'a mi'''
:''A cat jumps (when you come) towards me.''

We use '''vau''' after each phrase when we want to show it's border.
 

However,
:'''lo mlatu cu plipe ca lo nu do klama fa'a mi'''
:''A cat jumps (when you come towards me).''
As you can see '''do klama fa'a mi''' is a phrase inside the big one. So''' fa'a mi''' is now inside it.
 
Now you, not the cat come towards me.
 
At the end of the sentence '''vau''' is never needed as it's already the right border.
 
== Place structure ==
Lojban dictionaries present all verbs with x1, x2 etc. symbols as e.g.
:'''prami'''
:''x1 loves x2''
There is nothing strange in these x1, x2. They are called places and simply represent the order in which you have to add nouns. E.g.
:'''mi prami do'''
:''I love you''.
This also means that
 
x1 means ''to love'' and
 
x2 means ''to be a loved one''.
 
The advantage of such style of definitions is that compared to English there is no need in many additional words as all participants of this love are in one definition.
 
We can also omit nouns making the sentence more vague:
 
:'''prami do''' (literally ''loves you'') means ''Someone loves you''.
 
Alternatively you can replace unnecessary places with the word '''zo'e''' = ''something/someone''.
 
:'''zo'e prami do'''
:''Someone loves you''.
which will mean the same as '''prami do'''.
 
The place structure of compound verbs is the same as the of the last verb word in it:
:'''tu sutra bajra bruna mi'''
:<code>That is a quickly running brother of me</code>
:''That is my quickly running brother''.
So the place structure is the same as of '''bruna''' alone.
 
== More than two places ==
There might be more than two places. E.g.
 
:'''pinxe'''
:''x1 drinks x2 from x3''
 
:'''mi pinxe lo ladru lo kabri'''
:''I drink milk from a cup''.
 
:'''lo kabri'''
:''a cup''
 
In this case there are three places and if you want to exclude the second place in the middle you have to use '''zo'e:'''
 
:'''mi pinxe zo'e lo kabri '''
:''I drink [something] from a cup''.
 
If we omitted '''zo'e''' we'd get
 
:'''mi pinxe lo kabri '''
:''I drink a cup''.
 
which would make no sense.
 
== Relative clauses ==
Now about relative clauses. Let's look at these two sentences.
#The cat that is white is drinking milk.
#The cat, which  is white, is drinking milk.
In the first sentence the word "''that''" is essential to identifying the cat in question. Out of probably many cats we look only at those who are white. May be there is only one cat around that is white.
 
 
As for "''which is white''" from the second sentence it just provides additional information about the cat. It doesn't help us to identify cats. For example, this might happen when all the cats are white.
 
 
In Lojban we use '''poi''' for the first sentence and '''noi''' for the second sentence.
 
 
(The word '''blabi''' means ''to be white'').
 
#'''lo mlatu poi blabi cu pinxe lo ladru'''
#:''The cat that is white is drinking milk''.
#'''lo mlatu noi blabi cu pinxe lo ladru'''
#:''The cat, which is white, is drinking milk''.
 
This '''poi blabi''' is a relative clause, a mini-sentence attached to the noun '''lo mlatu'''. It ends just before the next word '''cu'''.
 
So we actually additionally state in the sentence that '''lo mlatu cu blabi '''- the cat is white.
 
 
Let's have a more interesting example.
 
'''lo tricu''' <nowiki>= a tree</nowiki>
 
'''barda =''' to be big/large
 
'''klama '''<nowiki>= to go to something</nowiki>
 
'''lo tricu noi mi klama ke'a cu barda'''
 
''A tree, to which I go, is big''.
 
 
Note that word '''ke'a'''. It refers to the noun to which our relative clause is attached.
 
So literally our Lojbanic sentence sounds like
 
''"A tree, such that I go to which, is big".''
 
Note that we can always extract this relative clause and make it an independent sentence by replacing '''ke'a''' with the noun to which this relative clause was attached.
 
So this big sentence also mention in passing that '''mi klama lo tricu '''= ''I go to a tree''.
 
==Terminology==
Let's quickly mention the correct terms describing Lojban grammar and how Lojban sentences are constructed.
 
Nouns, pronouns and personal names act exactly the same way in Lojban. So we will call both of them ''nouns'' for simplicity. In Lojban they are called '''sumti''' (easy to remember, as it sounds a bit like someone saying 'something' and chewing off the end of the word).
 
The simplest phrase would be
:'''prami'''[[Image:Drawn_love_hearts.svg|thumb|prami]]
:''[Someone] loves''.
Such short phrase can be useful sometimes. For example when you see a car coming you would simply say
:'''karce'''[[Image:Jenson_Button_2009_Turkey_2.jpg|thumb|karce]]
:''Car!''
because the context will be clear enough that there is a car somewhere around and probably it's dangerous.
 
Or you can say
:'''vanci'''[[Image:Fanabe_beach_Day_6_Sunset_2_(400636804).jpg|thumb|vanci]]
in the sense
:''It's getting dark.''
although '''vanci''' just means ''evening''.
 
All omitted places just mean '''zo'e''' = ''something/someone/somewhere etc.''
 
So
:'''prami'''
:''Loves.''
 
means the same as
:'''zo'e prami zo'e'''
:''Someone loves someone.''
So in other words.
:'''bridi''' = optionally one or more '''sumti''' + one '''selbri'''
or in English
:''phrase'' = optionally one or more ''noun''s + ''one verb relation of the phrase.''
 
The verb relation ('''selbri''') describes relationships of nouns. It can be represented as a single ''verb word'' ('''brivla''') or as a ''compound verb'' ('''tanru''').
 
Here are some examples of nouns and verb relations.
:'''ti ladru'''
:''This is milk''.
Here '''ti''' is a noun and '''ladru''' is the verb relation consisting of one verb word.
:'''lo mlatu cu sutra pinxe'''
:''A cat quickly drinks''.
Here '''lo mlatu''' is a noun (sumti) and the compound verb '''sutra pinxe '''works as the verb relation (selbri).
 
'''tanru''', or compound verbs consist of two or move verb words. Each left verb word is called '''seltau''' compared to the right one called '''tertau'''. '''tanru''' has the place structure of the most rightward '''tertau''':
:'''tu sutra bajra bruna mi'''
:<code>That is a quickly running brother of me</code>
:''That is my quickly running brother''.
So the place structure is the same as of '''bruna''' alone.
 
==Verbs and particles==
All Lojban words are divided into two groups: verbs ('''brivla)''' and particles ('''cmavo''').
 
Verbs are divided into 4 groups by their form:
#'''gismu''', or ''root-words'' are main building blocks of Lojban vocabulary. gismu are easy to recognise, because they always have five letters, in the form
#::CVCCV — e.g. '''ladru, gismu, sumti''', or
#::CCVCV — e.g. '''mlatu, cmene, bridi, klama'''
#::where C=consonant and V=vowel.
#:Verbs in the following forms are created when there is no appropriate verb in gismu list:
#'''lujvo''', or ''compound words''. They are created from short building blocks (called '''rafsi''') used for mnemonic purposes.
#:Examples are: '''reisku''', '''kargau'''
#'''zi'evla''', or ''free words''. They are usually created for specific concepts and things like ''igloo'' ('''iglu''' in Lojban), ''spaghetti'' ('''spageti''' in Lojban).
#'''cmevla''', or ''name words''. They are mostly used to build personal names. You can easily recognize them in a flow of text as being wrapped by one dot from both sides. Besides, if not count dots they always end in a consonant. Examples are: '''.paris.''', '''.robin.'''
:{{talkquote|In Lojban only '''cmevla''' end in a consonant. All other words end in a vowel. This is how we can easily distinguish between them.}}
 
<center>Exercise 1</center>
 
Which of the following Lojban words are:
 
a. '''gismu'''
 
b. '''cmevla''' (remember, they always end in a consonant)
 
c. neither?
 
Note: I've left out the full stops in the '''cmevla''' — that would make it too easy!
 
#lojban
#dunda
#praxas
#mi
#cukta
#prenu
#blanu
#ka'e
#dublin
#selbri
 
== Places for nouns ==
[[Image:Ezhednevnik.jpg|thumb|lo cukta]]
How do we say ''You are my friend'' ?
:'''do pendo mi'''
:''You are my friend.''
:<code> You are a friend of me</code> (literally)
 
And now how do we say ''My friend is crazy.''?
 
:'''lo pendo be mi cu fenki'''
:''My friend is crazy.''
 
So when we convert a verb into a noun ('''pendo''' - ''to be a friend'' into '''lo pendo''' - ''a friend'') we can still retain other places of that verb by placing '''be''' after it.
 
By default it attaches the second place (x2). We can attach more places by separating them with '''bei'''.
 
For example:
:'''mi dunda lo cukta do'''
:''I give the book to you.''
 
:'''lo cukta''' - ''book''
And now
:'''lo dunda be lo cukta bei do'''
:''The grantor of the book to me''
 
:'''lo dunda be lo cukta bei mi cu pendo mi'''
:''The giver of the book to me is my friend.''
:''The one who give the book to me is a friend of mine.''
 
Another example:
:'''bangu''' - x1 is a language used by x2 to express ideas x3
 
:'''la .lojban. cu bangu mi'''
:''Lojban is my language''.
:<code>Lojban is a language of me.</code> (literally)
 
How to translate the following phrase?
:''I like my language.''
The answer is
:'''mi nelci lo bangu be mi'''
 
We can't elide '''be''' because '''lo bangu mi''' are two independent nouns (well, the second one is a pronoun but it's all the same in Lojban). We also can't use '''nu''' because '''lo nu bangu mi''' is some event about my language. So '''lo bangu be mi''' is a correct solution to the problem.
 
Using '''be''' for not-converted verb words has no effect: '''mi nelci be do''' is the same as '''mi nelci do'''.
 
What if I want to attach nouns from several places to a noun? ''The giver of the apple to you'' is '''lo dunda be lo plise be do''', right? Nope.
:'''plise''' - ''x1 is an apple of species/variety x2''
The second '''be''' attaches to the apple, meaning '''lo plise be do''' - ''The apple of the strain of you'', which makes no sense. In order to string several nouns to a noun, the all the ones following the first must be bound with '''bei'''.
 
There are also ways to loosely associate a noun with another. '''pe''' and '''ne''' for restrictive and non-restrictive association. Actually, '''lo bangu pe mi''' is a better translation of ''my language'', since this phrase, like the English, is vague as to how the two are associated with each other. '''pe''' and '''ne''' are used as loose association only, like saying ''my chair'' about a chair which you sit on. It's not really yours, but has something to do with you. A more intimate connection can be established with '''po''', which makes the association unique and binding to a person, as in ''my car'' for a car that you actually own. The last kind of associator is '''po'e''', which makes a so-called "inalienable" bond between nouns, meaning that the bond is innate between the two nouns. Some examples could be ''my mother'', ''my arm'' or ''my home country''; none of these "possesions" can be lost (even if you saw off your arm, it's still your arm), and are therefore inalienable. Almost all of the times a '''po'e''' is appropriate, though, the x2 of the verb contains the one to which the x1 is connected, so '''be''' is better.
:'''ne''' - non-restrictive relative phrase. "which is associated with..."
:'''pe''' - restrictive relative phrase. "which is associated with..."
:'''po''' - possesive relative phrase. "which is specific to..."
:'''po'e''' - inalienable relative phrase. "which belongs to..."
A very useful construct to know is '''lo {noun} {verb}'''. this is equivalent to '''lo {verb} pe {noun}'''. For example, '''lo mi gerku''' is equivalent to '''lo gerku pe mi'''.
 
 
Another common way of saying ''my'' is transforming pronouns and personal names COVERED??? into verbs using the particle '''me'''.
 
E.g. '''mi''' is pronoun by itself. We need to turn it into a verb word.
 
'''me''' turns nouns (as well as pronouns and personal names) into verbs. After getting '''me mi''' we can readily use it in compound verbs.
 
:'''me mi verba''' - ''my child''.
:'''tu me mi verba''' – ''this is my child''.
'''lo''' and '''me''' have opposite functions.
 
== Passive voice. Nouns from other places, two words from one ==
 
'''dunda''' means ''to give (something)''.
 
:'''do dunda ti'''
:''You give this''.
 
{{talkquote|Note: ''gift'' here is anything given without payment or exchange — it doesn't need to have the ‘special present’ associations of the English word).}}
 
You can choose another style and say
:'''ti se dunda do'''
:''This is given by you''.
 
'''do dunda ti''' means exactly the same as '''ti se dunda do'''! The difference is solely in style.
 
You may want to change things around for different emphasis (people tend to mention the more important things in a sentence first). So the following pairs mean the same thing:
:'''mi viska do'''
:''I see you.''
:'''do se viska mi'''
:''You are seen by me.''
 
:'''lonu mi tadni la .lojban. cu xamgu mi'''
:''My study of Lojban is good for me.''
:'''mi se xamgu lo nu mi tadni la .lojban.'''
:''For me it's good to study Lojban.''
 
As we remember, when we add '''lo''' in front of a verb it becomes a noun. So '''lo dunda''' means ''something(s) which could fit in the first place of '''dunda'''''.
:'''lo dunda'''
:''a giver, a donor, a donator''
 
As '''dunda''' actually means not just ''to give'' but ''to donate (something)'' it defines that the noun after it (the second argument) is actually something that is given.
 
Well, therefore it's a gift.
 
In Lojban we don't need a separate word for a gift. It's much easier
 
If a verb word has the second argument you can prefix it with '''se''' and it will refer to the second place of that verb:
 
It's just
:'''lo se dunda'''
:''something that is given''
:''gift''
 
For the ease of understanding and memorising predicate words prefixed with '''se''' are put into the dictionary as well together with their definitions although you can easily figure out their meaning yourself.
 
So you don't have to memorise numerous interconnected words. Lojban is much easier.
 
We save a lot of words because of such clever design.
 
Indeed, we can't imagine a gift without implying that someone gave it or will give it.
When phenomena are connected Lojban reflects this.
 
==Changing other places in verb relations==
 
'''se''' is part of a series of particles which go, in alphabetical order, '''se, te, ve, xe'''. Like a lot of these series, the first one ('''se''') is used a lot more than the others, but sometimes the others are useful.
 
*'''se''' changes round the first and second places
*'''te''' changes round the first and third places
*'''ve''', the first and fourth, and
*'''xe''', the first and fifth.
 
:'''mi'ai vitke do lo zdani
:''You visit me at home''.
:'''lo zdani cu te vitke do mi'ai'''
:''Home is where you are being visited by us''.
The '''mi'ai''' has now moved to a less conspicuous place in the sentence, and so can now be dropped out without being missed if we are too lazy to specify who exactly visit you:
:'''lo zdani cu te vitke do'''
:''Home is where you are being visited''.
In fact place conversion is often used when we want to get rid of places like this.
 
:'''mi tugni do zo'e lo cukta'''
:'''mi tugni do fo lo cukta'''
:''<nowiki>I agree with you [that something is true] about the book</nowiki>''.
 
:'''lo cukta cu ve tugni'''
:''<nowiki>The book is what [I] agree about</nowiki>''.
 
:'''lo prenu cu klama zo'e zo'e zo'e lo trene'''
:'''lo prenu cu klama fu lo trene'''
:''The person goes somewhere, from somewhere, via somewhere, by train''.
 
:'''lo trene cu xe klama'''
:''<nowiki>[Someone]</nowiki> goes by train''.
:Literally, <code>By a train is gone.</code>
:''A train is a vehicle''.
 
The more extreme conversions like '''ve''' and '''xe''' are rarely used, partly because most verb words only have two or three places, and partly because even with four- or five-place verbs, the less-used places are less needed in ordinary speech.
 
<center>Exercise 1</center>
 
Convert the following sentences so that the underlined noun comes first. Miss out any unimportant places.
 
#zo'e fengu <u>lonu jamna</u>
#ti xatra mi <u>la .djang.</u>
#zo'e xlura mi lonu cliva lo gugde kei <u>loi jdini</u>
#lo prenu cu tavla zo'e zo'e <u>la .lojban.</u>
#lo prenu cu dunda lo cukta <u>mi</u>
 
<center>Exercise 3</center>
 
Rearrange these Lojban sentences so that the main selbri in each sentence is converted to having se. Don't forget to use '''cu''' if you need to! For example, '''mi viska do''' → '''do se viska mi'''
 
#mi prami la .meilis.
#lo mlatu cu catra lo jipci
#la .mari,as. cu vecnu lo mlatu
#la .mari,as. cu dunda la .iulias. la .klaudias.
#la .mari,as. cu vecnu zo'e la .tim.
#la .fits.djerald. cu fanva fi lo glico
#klama la .bast,n. fu lo karce
#li ze tcika lonu tivni la .SEsamis.strit. (Leave the phrase with '''tivni''' alone).
#la .klaudias. cu nelci lonu zo'e vecnu loi kabri la .iulias. (Convert the phrase with '''vecnu''' as well as the phrase with '''nelci''').
#la .tim. cu nelci lonu li paso tcika lonu la .meiris. cu cliva (Convert all three selbri).
 
==Getting nouns from other places ==
Similarly to our example with '''lo se dunda''' (''a gift'') we can use '''te, ve, xe''' to get more words from other places of verbs.
 
:'''lo prenu cu dunda lo cukta mi'''
:''A person gives a book to me''.
 
'''lo prenu''' can also be '''lo dunda''' - ''the giver''. But what about the noun describing '''mi''' and '''lo cukta'''? Well, you probably guessed.
 
:'''mi te dunda lo cukta'''
 
This means that '''mi''' can be '''lo te dunda''' - ''the recipient''. In the same way, '''lo cukta''' can be '''lo se dunda''' - ''the gift'' or ''the thing given''. So if we want to make a really obvious sentence, we can say
 
:'''lo dunda cu dunda lo se dunda lo te dunda'''
:''The donor gives the gift to the recipient''.
:<code>The giver gives the given-thing to the person-to-whom-it-is-given</code>
 
==Guessing place structure==
 
Places of verbs might sometimes sound hard to remember. But let's not worry — we don't have to memorise all of them. In fact nobody does!. There are a few cases where it's worth learning the place structure to avoid misunderstanding, but usually you can guess place structures using context and a few rules of thumb.
 
#The first place is often the person or thing who ''does'' something or ''is'' something.
#If someone or something has something done to them, he/she/it is usually in the second place.
#''to'' places (destinations) nearly always come before ''from'' places (origins).
#Less-used places come towards the end. These tend to be things like ‘by standard’, ‘by means’ or ‘made of’.
The general idea is that the places which are most likely to be filled come first. You don't have to use all the available places, and any unfilled places at the end are simply missed out.
 
<center>Exercise 5</center>
 
Try to guess the place structure of the following gismu. You probably won't get them all, but you should be able to guess the most important ones. Think of what ''needs'' to be in the sentence for it to make sense, then add anything you think would be useful. For example, with klama, you need to know who's coming and going, and although you could in theory say ''Julie goes,'' it would be pretty meaningless if you didn't add where she goes to. Where she starts her journey, the route she takes and what transport she uses are progressively less important, so they occupy the third, fourth and fifth places.
#'''karce''' – ''car''
#'''nelci''' – ''like, is fond of''
#'''cmene''' – ''name''
#'''sutra''' – ''fast, quick''
#'''crino''' – ''green''
#'''sisti''' – ''stop, cease''
#'''prenu''' – ''person''
#'''cmima''' – ''member, belongs to''
#'''barda''' – ''big''
#'''cusku''' – ''say, express''
#'''tavla''' – ''talk, chat''
{{talkquote|Note: What the place structure for gismu should be is often enough an involved philosophical issue. Place structures were debated exhaustively in the early '90s, and the current place structures (finalised in 1994) are not really open for negotiation any more.}}
 
<center>Exercise 6</center>
 
Add '''cu''' to the following Lojban sentences where necessary, then work out what they mean. For example, for '''lo klama ninmu''' to make sence as a sentence, you need to add '''cu''': '''lo klama <u>cu</u> ninmu'''.
 
==Changing Places<span id="2.5"></span>==
 
We've seen that if we don't need all the places (and we rarely do), then we can miss out the unnecessary ones at the end of the phrase. We can also miss out the first place if it is obvious (just like in Spanish). However, it sometimes happens that we want places at the end, but not all the ones in the middle. There are a number of ways to get round this problem.
 
One way is to fill the unnecessary places with '''zo'e''', which means ''something or someone''. So '''mi klama lo tcadu lo purdi zo'e lo karce''' tells us that I go to a city from a garden by car, but we're not interested in the route she takes. In fact '''zo'e''' is always implied, even if we don't say it. If someone says klama, what they actually mean is
:'''zo'e klama zo'e zo'e zo'e zo'e'''
but it would be pretty silly to say all that.
 
{{talkquote|So '''klama''' can mean not only ''Go!'', but also ''Goes!'' or ''Goer!'' — more idiomatically, ''Look! Someone's going!''}}
 
Most people don't want more than one '''zo'e''' in a sentence (though there's nothing to stop you using as many as you like). A more popular way to play around with places is to use the ''place tags'' '''fa, fe, fi, fo''' and '''fu'''. These mark a noun as being associated with a certain place of the selbri, no matter where it comes in the sentence: '''fa''' introduces what would normally be the first place, '''fe''' the second place, and so on. For example, in
 
:'''mi klama fu lo karce'''
:''I go in the car / I go by car.''
 
'''fu''' marks '''lo karce''' as the fifth place of klama (the means of transport). Without '''fu''', the sentence would mean ''Susan goes to the car.''
 
After a place introduced with a place tag, any trailing places follow it in numbering. So in
 
:'''mi klama fo lo tcadu lo karce'''
:''I go via the city by car.''
 
'''lo tcadu''' is the fourth place of '''klama''', and '''lo karce''' is understood as the place following the fourth place — i.e. the fifth place.
 
With place tags you can also swap places around. For example,
 
:'''fe lo cukta cu dunda fi lo nanla'''
:''The book was given to a boy.''
 
(''The book'' — '''lo cukta''' — is the second place of '''dunda''', what is given; ''a boy'' — '''lo nanla''' — is the third place of '''dunda''', the recipient).
 
Again, you probably don't want to overdo place tags, or you'll end up counting on your fingers (although they're very popular in Lojban poetry — place tags, that is, not fingers).
 
A final way to change places is '''conversion''', which actually swaps the places round in the selbri — but we'll leave that for another lesson. There are no rules for which method you use, and you can use them in any way you want, so long as the person you're talking to understands.
 
<center>Exercise 7</center>
 
Reorder the nouns with place tags in these Lojban sentences so that no place tags are necessary, and the nouns appear in their expected places. Insert '''zo'e''' where necessary. For example: '''fi mi pritu fa lo karce''' - '''lo karce cu pritu zo'e mi'''
 
#'''fo lo cukta cu cusku fe lo glico fi lo prenu'''
#'''fi mi vecnu fa do lo karce'''
#'''fu ti fanva fi lo glico fa do'''
#'''mi vecnu fo lo rupnu'''
#'''fi lo rokci cu kabri'''
#'''fi lo banjubu'o fo lo banjubu'o cu tavla fa do'''
 
 
== Particles. Interjections<span id="1.6"></span> ==
Particles ('''cmavo''') are short words like '''lo''', '''cu''', '''pu''', '''ca''', '''ba''', '''mi''', '''do''', '''ti'''. They can be divided by their meaning and function into groups that are called '''selma'o'''. E.g. '''pu''', '''ca''', '''ba''' belong to the group PU. This is just an illustration, there is no need in memorizing the names of selma'o. But it's convenient to memorize them by those groups.
 
Another group is UI, those words are also called ''interjections'', or attitudinal indicators. They express how the speaker feels about something. The most basic ones consist of two vowels, sometimes with an apostrophe in the middle. Here are some of the most useful ones with some examples.
 
{| class="wikitable"
|| '''.a'o'''
|| I hope
||
||
|| '''.a'onai'''
|| <div align="right">despair</div>
 
|-
|| '''.a'u'''
|| interest
|| '''a'ucu'i'''
|| no interest
|| '''a'unai'''
|| <div align="right">repulsion</div>
 
|-
|| '''.ai''' as in ''h<u>igh</u>''
|| intent (''I'm going to...'')
|| '''.aicu'i'''
|| indecision
|| '''ainai'''
|| <div align="right">refusal</div>
 
|-
|| '''au''' as in ''h<u>ow</u>''
|| desire
|| '''aucu'i'''
|| indifference
|| '''aunai'''
|| <div align="right">reluctance</div>
 
|-
|| '''e'a'''
|| permission
||
||
|| '''e'anai'''
|| <div align="right">prohibition</div>
 
|-
|| '''e'i'''
|| constraint
|| '''e'icu'i'''
|| independence
|| '''e'inai'''
|| <div align="right">resist to constraint</div>
 
|-
|| '''e'o'''
|| request
||
||
|| '''e'onai'''
|| <div align="right">negative request</div>
 
|-
|| '''e'u'''
|| suggestion
|| '''e'ucu'i'''
|| no suggestion
|| '''e'unai'''
|| <div align="right">warning</div>
 
|-
|| '''ei''' as in ''h<u>ey</u>''
|| obligation
||
||
|| '''einai'''
|| <div align="right">freedom</div>
 
|-
|| '''ia''' like German <u>''Ja''</u>
|| belief
|| '''iacu'i'''
|| skepticism
|| '''ianai'''
|| <div align="right">disbelief</div>
|-
|| '''i'e'''
|| approval
|| '''i'ecu'i'''
|| non-approval
|| '''i'enai'''
|| <div align="right">disapproval</div>
 
|-
|| '''ie''' like <u>''yeah''</u>
|| agreement
||
||
|| '''ienai'''
|| <div align="right">disagreement</div>
 
|-
|| '''ii'''
|| fear (Think of ''Eeek!'')
|| '''iicu'i'''
|| nervousness
|| '''iinai'''
|| <div align="right">security</div>
 
|-
|| '''io'''
|| respect
||
||
|| '''ionai'''
|| <div align="right">disrespect</div>
 
|-
|| '''iu''' like <u>''you''</u>
|| love
|| '''iucu'i'''
|| no love lost
|| '''iunai'''
|| <div align="right">hatred</div>
 
|-
|| '''o'u'''
|| relaxation
|| '''o'ucu'i'''
|| composure
|| '''o'unai'''
|| <div align="right">stress</div>
 
|-
|| '''oi''' as in ''b<u>oy</u>''
|| complaint/pain
|| '''oicu'i'''
|| doing OK
|| '''oinai'''
|| <div align="right">pleasure</div>
 
|-
|| '''u'e'''
|| Wow!; wonder
||
||
|| '''u'enai'''
|| <div align="right">commonplace</div>
 
|-
|| '''u'i'''
|| amusement
||
||
|| '''u'inai'''
|| <div align="right">weariness</div>
 
|-
|| '''u'u'''
|| I'm sorry!; repentance
|| '''u'ucu'i'''
|| lack of regret
|| '''u'unai'''
|| <div align="right">innocence</div>
 
|-
|| '''ua''' as in <u>''waah!''</u>, or French ''q<u>uoi</u>''
|| discovery (''<nowiki>'Ah, I get it!')</nowiki>''
||
||
|| '''uanai'''
|| <div align="right">confusion  (''I don't get it'', ''Duh...'')</div>
 
|-
|| '''ue''' as in ''q<u>ue</u>stion''
|| surprise
|| '''uecu'i'''
|| no surprise
|| '''uenai'''
|| <div align="right">expectation</div>
 
|-
|| '''ui''' like <u>''we''</u>, or French <u>''oui''</u>
|| I'm happy
||
||
|| '''uinai'''
|| <div align="right">I'm unhappy</div>
 
|-
|| '''uo''' as in ''q<u>uo</u>te''
|| Voila!; completion
||
||
|| '''uonai'''
|| <div align="right">incompleteness</div>
 
|-
|| '''uu'''
|| pity
||
||
|| '''uunai'''
|| <div align="right">cruelty</div>
 
|-
|| '''je'u'''
|| Yes, it's true
||
||
|| '''je'unai'''
|| <div align="right">No, it's false, not true</div>
 
|}
 
{{talkquote|Note that any word that starts with a vowel is prefixed with a dot in Lojban. So the correct spelling is rather '''.ui''' and so on. In this table we removed those dots as it is often done by Lojbanists. However, while speaking you should make a short pause before saying such word to prevent merging two neighboring words together into one.}}
 
 
{{talkquote|Notice that in Lojban word two vowels together can also be pronounced as one sound. This is shown in the table above. E.g. '''ui''' can be pronounced like <u>''we''</u> in English. Such pronunciation is optional. You can still pronounce this word as ''ooh-eeh'' (two sounds) and that will be no mistake. Actually it is also possible to pronounce vowels combinations any of the two ways even if this combination of vowels is a part of another word, e.g. '''.uiski''' means "whisky" and can be pronounced as "weeh-skeeh" just like in English.}}
 
[[Image:Allieorange.jpg|thumb|While being photographed instead of "cheese" say '''ui''' (sounds like English "we"). It means ''I'm happy'' in Lojban and produces the best smile due to it's special sounding.]]
As you can see the emotion is turned into it's opposite by adding '''nai''', so '''.ui''' is an interjection of happiness while''' .uinai''' means ''I'm unhappy'', and so on. By adding '''cu'i''' we create an emotion in the middle. Not all interjections are meaningful with '''cu'i'''. One of the most used ones is '''.a'ucu'i''' - ''no interest'' (while '''.aunai''' denotes repulsion).
 
You can also combine interjections. For example, '''.iu .uinai''' would mean ''I am unhappily in love.'' In this way you can even create words to express emotions which your native language doesn't have. Another example:
: '''.ue .ui do jinga'''
: ''Oh, you won! I'm so happy!''
where '''jinga''' = ''to win.''
 
In this case the victory was unprobable, I'm surprised and happy at the same time.
 
Another great thing about interjections is that you can attach them next to any noun, pronoun or verb thus expressing your attitude towards that part of the sentence.
:'''lo mlatu .ue cu pinxe lo ladru'''
:<code>A cat (surprise!) is drinking milk.</code>
:''A cat (wow, how unexpected!) is drinking milk''.
You can as well attach interjections to the right of any verb relation. Or put it in the beginning of any sentence thus changing your attitude to the whole sentence.
:'''.o'u tu mlatu'''
:<code>(relaxation!) that is a cat.</code>
:''Oh, that's only a cat.''
In this case you probably thought that was something dangerous but it's only a cat so you are saying '''.o'u'''.
 
You can pile several interjections to any part of the sentence. For example,
 
{{talkquote|Note about the word ''pity'': In English, people have started to avoid the word ''pity'', because it has come to have associations of superiority. '''.uu''' is just the raw emotion: if you wanted to express pity in this rather condescending way, you'd probably say several interjections to be more precise: '''.uu ga'i''' — ''pity combined with a sense of superiority,'' or '''.uu vu'e''' — ''pity combined with a sense of virtue.'' Then again, you would probably just keep your mouth shut.}}
 
 
{{talkquote|Interjections are extremely useful, and it is well worth making an effort to learn the most common ones. One of the biggest problems people have when trying to speak in a foreign language is that, while they've learnt how to buy a kilo of olives or ask the way to the post office{have WE learnt that?}, they can't express feelings, because many languages do this in a round-about way{(outside group therapy, very few British people would say outright that they were sad, for example!)}. In Lojban you can be very direct, very briefly (there are ways of ‘softening’ these emotions, which we'll get to in a later lesson). In fact, these interjections are so useful that some Lojbanists use them even when they're writing in English instead of those internet smileys - symbols like ;-)  or :-( and others.}}
 
<center>Exercise 2</center>
 
Using the interjections above (including negatives), what might you say in the following situations?
 
#You've just realized where you left your keys.
#Someone treads on your toes.
#You're watching a boring film.
#Someone's just told you a funny story.
#You disagree with someone.
#Someone's just taken the last cookie in the jar.
#You really don't like someone.
#You are served a cold, greasy meal.
#Your friend has just failed a test.
#There is a large green beetle crawling towards you.
 
==Forgot to put an interjection in the beginning?==
What if you forgot to put an interjection in the beginning of a verb phrase?
:'''mi jinga'''
Now you want to add '''.ui''' so that it modifies the whole phrase. In
:'''mi jinga .ui'''
'''.ui''' modifies only the verb '''jinga'''.
 
No problem here. You just add '''vau''' in the end and then the interjection that you need.
:'''mi jinga vau .ui'''
 
:'''vau''' - a particle. Show that the verb phrase just ended.
 
==Commands<span id="3.1"></span>==
 
How do we do commands and requests in Lojban?
 
For example, if I want you to run, I'd probably say:
:''Run!''
Now the verb for ''to run'' is '''bajra'''.
 
How do we do this in Lojban? We can't copy English grammar and just say '''bajra''', since it can just mean the same as '''zo'e bajra''', ''someone or something runs''. It would be too vague. Instead we say
 
:'''do ko'oi bajra'''
'''do bajra '''means ''You run.'' And '''ko'oi''' is an interjection that turns ''You runю'' into a command, request, desire, hope or suggestion.
 
'''do ko'oi''' is so useful and frequent in speech that in spoken Lojban it is also common to use a contraction of it, the word '''ko'''. It's just a shorter synonym of''' do ko'oi'''.
 
We can put it in any place where we put '''do''' transforming it into commands, e.g.
:'''nelci ko'''
 
'''nelci''' = ''to like''
{{talkquote|Note that '''prami''' corresponds to English ''to love'' while '''nelci''' corresponds to English ''to like''.}}
This means something like '''Act so that someone likes you'', and sounds pretty odd in English, but you could use it in the sense of ''Try to make a good impression.'' Another example is:
:'''mi dunda lo cifnu ko'''
:''Act so that I give the baby to you.''
 
with the possible meaning ''Stop playing the piano — I'm going to pass you the baby.''
 
As noted earlier any interjection modifies only the part of the sentence that it follows. Moving '''ko'oi''' to another part moves command/request to that part.
 
You can even have several '''ko'oi''' in one sentence.
:'''do ko'oi kurji do ko'oi'''
which in short form would be
:'''ko kurji ko'''
:''[Act so that] you take care of you.''
{{TalkquoteGreen|Interesting, according to the grammar we can put all the nouns of one phrase in front of the verb (preserving their relative order). Because of this freedom with noun position, we can (and do) say:
:'''ko ko kurji'''}}
As for '''ko'oi''' itself it is mostly used when applying to other pronouns (not '''do'''). E.g.
:'''mi'ai ko'oi klama'''
:''Let's go.''
Here '''ko'oi''' is applied to the pronoun '''mi'ai''' (''we'') although in ordinary speech it would probably be contracted to just
:'''ko'oi klama'''
which is equivalent to
:'''ko'oi zo'e klama'''
 
<center>Exercise 1</center>
 
Imagine that someone says these things to you. What is it that they want you to do?
#ko klama mi
#ko dunda lo cukta mi
#la .izaBEL. cu nelci ko
#ko sutra
#ko ko nelci
 
==Polite requests<span id="3.2"></span>==
 
As '''ko'oi''' is rather vague sometimes we need to be more precise. E.g. often we need to ask polite questions. Foreigners in England often make the mistake of thinking that putting ''please'' in front of a command makes it into a polite request, which it doesn't (in English we usually have to make it into a question e.g. ''Could you open the window?'') Fortunately, in Lojban, ‘please’ really is the magic word. Putting the word '''.e'o''' before a sentence turns it into a request; e.g.
 
:'''.e'o do dunda lo cukta mi'''
 
is literally ''Please give me the book,'' but is actually more like ''Could you give me the book, please?'' (Of course, norms of politeness in English do not necessarily translate into other languages, so it is better in such cases to be safe than sorry).
 
== Modifying interjections ==
*When we put '''nai''' after an interjection it turns it into it's opposite.
*When we put '''cu'i''' after an interjection it turns it into the middle attitude.
*When we put '''dai''' after an interjection we show listener's attitude.
*:'''.o'adai do jinga''' - ''You must be proud since you won''
*When we put '''pei''' after an interjection it turns it into a question.
*:'''.iepei lo ninmu cu melbi''' - ''do you agree the the woman is pretty?''
It is possible to use those particles without interjections alone.
*Any verb can be made negative by using '''nai'''. Unlike when used in interjections '''nai''' after verbs or nouns means not opposite thing but just "no" or "not". So '''mi nelci nai do''' means ''I not-like you'', or in other words, ''I don't like you.''
*Any verb can be made middle in it's meaning by using '''cu'i'''. So '''mi nelci cu'i do''' means ''As for whether I love or hate you, I'm indifferent to you'' or in other words, ''I neither like nor hate you''.
*'''pei''' not after an interjection asks a general question.
 
==Questions<span id="3.3"></span>==
 
In English, we make a ''yes/no'' question by changing the order of the words (e.g. ''You are ...'' - ''Are you ...'') or putting some form of ''do'' at the beginning (e.g. ''Does she smoke?''). This seems perfectly natural to someone whose native language is English (or German), but is actually unnecessarily complicated (as any speaker of Chinese or Turkish will tell you). In Lojban we can turn any proposition into a yes/no question by simply putting '''pei''' somewhere in the sentence (usually at the beginning.) Some examples:
:'''pei do nelci lo gerku'''
:''Do you like dogs?''
{no need for a question mark}
:'''pei mi klama'''
:''Am I coming?''
 
:'''pei crino'''
:''Is it green?''
There are two ways to answer these questions. Lojban, like some other languages, does not have words that mean ''yes'' or ''no''. One way to answer ''yes'' is to repeat the '''selbri''' e.g.
:'''pei do nelci lo gerku'''
:'''nelci'''
 
As '''pei''' is an interjection we can put it after certain parts of the questions shifting the meaning.
 
Some possible explanations of such shift in emphasis are given in brackets.
:'''pei do nelci lo gerku'''
:''Do you like dogs?''
 
:'''do pei nelci lo gerku'''
:''Do YOU like dogs?''
:(I thought it was someone else who likes them).
 
:'''do nelci pei lo gerku'''
:''Do you LIKE dogs?''
:(I thought you were just neutral towards them).
 
:'''do nelci lo gerku pei'''
:''Do you like DOGS?''
:(I thought you liked cats).
As you can see what is expressed using intonation in English is expressed by moving '''pei''' to different parts of the sentence. Note, that the first sentence asks the most generic question without stressing any particular aspect.
 
Now how to reply to such 'yes/no' questions?
 
By simply using an appropriate interjection.
:'''pei do nelci lo gerku'''
:''Do you like dogs?''
 
:'''je'u'''
:''Yes''
:<code>True.</code>
 
or
:'''je'unai'''
:''no''
:<code>Not true.</code>
 
Other often suitable interjections are '''.ie''' (''I agree'') and '''.ienai''' (''I disagree''), '''pe'i''' (''In my opinion it's true'').
 
Once again you can use '''.iepei''', '''pe'ipei''' to ask question but in this case the listener will be forced to use '''.ie, .iecu'i, .ienai, pe'i''' etc. when replying.
 
==Content questions ==
English also has a number of ''wh-'' questions — ''who'', ''what'' etc. In Lojban we use one word for all of these: '''ma'''. This is like an instruction to fill in the missing place. For example:
 
:'''do klama ma'''
:'''la .london.'''
:''Where are you going?''
:''London.''
 
:'''ma klama la .london.'''
:'''la .klaudias.'''
:''Who's going to London?''
:''Claudia.''
 
:'''mi dunda ma do'''
:'''lo cukta'''
:''I give what to you?'' (probably meaning ''What was it I was supposed to be giving you?'')
:''The book.''
 
In fact combining prepositions or relative clauses with '''ma''' can give us other useful questions:
:'''ca ma''' - ''When?'' (literally, ''during what'')
:'''bu'u ma''' - ''Where?'' (literally, ''at what'')
:'''ma poi prenu''' - ''Who?'' (literally, ''what that is a person'')
:'''ma poi dacti''' - ''What? (about objects)'' (literally, ''what that is an object'')
:'''se ja'e ma''' - ''Why?'' (literally, ''because of what'')
 
'''mo''' is like '''ma''', but questions a verb relation, not a noun — it's like English ''What does ''x'' do?'' or ''What is ''x''?'' (remember, Lojban doesn't force you to distinguish between being and doing!) We can see '''mo''' as asking someone to describe the relationship between the nouns in the question. For example:
 
:'''do mo la .kevin.'''
:<code>You ??? Kevin</code>
:''What are you to Kevin?''
 
The answer depends on the context. Possible answers to this question are:
*'''nelci''': ''I like him.''
*'''pendo''': ''I am his friend''
*'''prami''': ''I adore/am in love with him.''
*'''xebni''': ''I hate him.''
*'''fengu''': ''I'm angry with himr.''
*'''cinba''': ''I kissed him''
 
Note that the time is not important here: just as '''cinba''' can mean ‘kiss’, ‘kissed’, ‘will kiss’ and so on, '''mo''' does not ask a question about any particular time. There ''are'' ways to specify time in Lojban, but it's not necessary to use them. (Just to satisfy your curiosity though, ''I kiss''ed'' Kevin'' is '''mi <u>pu</u> cinba la .kevin.''')
 
We've said that mo can also be a ''What is ...'' type of question. The simplest example is '''tu mo''' — ''What is this?'' You could also ask '''la .meilis. cu mo''', which could mean ''Who is Mei Li?'', ''What is Mei Li?'', ''What is Mei Li doing?'' and so on. Again, the answer depends on the context. For example:
 
*'''ninmu''': ''She's a woman.''[[Image:Miss_Rep_Dominicana_07_Ada_Aimee.jpg|thumb|lo ninmu - a woman]]
*'''jungo''': ''She's Chinese.''
*'''pulji''': ''She's a policewoman.''
*'''sanga''': ''She's a singer'' ''or'' ''She's singing.''
*'''melbi''': ''She's beautiful.'' (possibly a pun, since this is what ''meili'' means in Chinese!)
 
There are ways to be more specific, but these normally involve a ma question; for example '''la .meilis. cu gasnu ma''' (''Mei Li does what?'').
 
There are more question words in Lojban, but '''pei''', '''ma''' and '''mo''' are enough for most of what you might want to ask.
 
==Choosing a name ==
If one's name is Bob then we can create a cmevla ourselves that would sound as close as possible to this name, for example '''.bob.'''
 
And then we prefix it with the word '''la''' so that it would work just like a noun - '''la .bob.'''. The word '''la''' is similar to '''lo''' but it converts '''brivla''' not to a simple noun but to a name ('''cmene''' in Lojban).
 
So the most simple example of using a name would be
:'''la .bob. cu tcidu'''
:''Bob reads/is reading''.
where the verb '''tcidu''' means ''to read''.
 
Well, Bob is lucky because his name goes directly into Lojban without any changes. The same for the name ''Lojban''. Of course it's a cmevla and is written as '''.lojban.'''
:'''la .lojban. cu bangu mi'''
:<code>Lojban is the language used by me.</code> (literally)
:''Lojban is the language I use''.
:''I speak Lojban.''
 
However, as you might guess Lojban spelling is quite transparent and therefore there are some rules for adapting names to how they are written in Lojban. This may sound strange — after all, a name is a name — but in fact all languages do this to some extent. For example, English speakers tend to pronounce ''Jose'' something like ''Hozay'', and ''Margaret'' in Chinese is ''Magelita''. Some sounds just don't exist in some languages, so the first thing you need to do is rewrite the name so that it only contains Lojban sounds, and is spelt in a Lojban way.
 
{{talkquote|Pay attention to how the name is pronounced natively. Thus, the English and French names ''Robert'' come out differently in Lojban: the English name is rather '''.robyt.''' in UK English, or '''.rabyrt.''' in some American dialects, but the French is '''.rober.'''.}}
 
Let's take the English name ''Susan''. The two ''<nowiki>s'</nowiki>''s are pronounced differently — the second one is actually a ''z'' — and the ''a'' is not really an ''a'' sound, it's the ‘schwa’ we mentioned in the first chapter. So ''Susan'' comes out in Lojban as '''.suzyn.'''.
 
Two extra full stops (periods) are necessary because if you didn't put those pauses in speech, you might not know where the name started and ended, or in other words where the previous word ended and the next word began. Here are the names that we'll use all over this book:
{| class="wikitable"
|| '''.alis.'''
|| ''Alice''
|-
|| '''.bob.'''
|| ''Bob''
|-
|| '''.ian.'''
|| ''Yan'' or ''Ian''
|-
|| '''.jasmin.'''
|| ''Jasmine''
|-
|| '''.kevin.'''
|| ''Kevin''
|-
|| '''.meilis.'''
|| ''Mei Li''
|}
 
And here are some examples of Lojbanizing other names:
{| class="wikitable"
|| '''.an.'''
|| ''Anne''
|-
|| '''.axmet.'''
|| ''Ahmet''
 
|-
|| '''.eduard.'''
|| ''Edward''
 
|-
|| '''.IBraxim.''' or '''.IBra'im.'''
|| ''Ibrahim''
 
|-
|| '''.odin.'''
|| ''Odin''
|}
 
You can also put a full stop in between a person's first and last names (though it's not compulsory), so ''Jim Jones'' becomes '''.djim.djonz.'''
 
As you can see the last letter of a cmevla must be a consonant. If a name doesn't end in  a consonant we usually add use ''s'' to the end; so in Lojban, ''Mary'' becomes '''.meris.''', ''Joe'' becomes '''.djos.''' and so on. An alternative is to leave out the last vowel, so ''Mary'' would become '''.mer.''' or '''.meir.'''.
 
{{talkquote|When writing texts in Lojban quickly or in text chatting many Lojbanists drop full periods. This is not dangerous as you can still separate words looking up by spaces around them and by consonant at their ends. However, in spoken language it is still necessary to put pauses where they are needed.}}
 
==Other verbs as names<span id="1.8"></span>==
You can use not only cmevla, but also other types of verbs to choose your nickname in Lojban. If you prefer, you can translate your name into Lojban (if you know what it means, of course) or adopt a completely new Lojban identity.
{talkquote|Native Americans generally translate their name when speaking English, partly because they have meaningful names, and partly because they don't expect the ''wasichu'' to be able to pronounce words in Lakota, Cherokee or whatever!}}
 
Here are a few examples of Lojbanic names:
*Fish
**'''finpe''' - ''fish'' in Lojban
**'''la finpe''' - your name
*Björn (means ''bear'' in Scandinavian)
**'''cribe''' - ''bear'' in Lojban
**'''la cribe''' - your name
*Mei Li ('''beautiful''' in Mandarin Chinese)
**'''melbi''' - ''beautiful'' in Lojban
**'''la melbi''' - your name
 
==Introducing yourself. Vocatives<span id="1.7"></span>==
Another type of interjections are ''vocatives''. They function exactly the same as emotional indicators we just discussed but they can have one noun attached after them.
 
For example,
:'''mi'e'''
:''self-introduction; identifies speaker''.
 
When do we use it? Watch any film where people don't know each other's language. They start off saying things like "Me Tarzan," which is as good a place to start learning Lojban as any. So here we go.
:'''mi'e la .robin.'''
:<code>I-am-named Robin</code>
:''I'm Robin.''
 
And when you address people by name, you usually do so to make it clear who out of a group you are talking to. The word '''doi''' is used to show who you're talking to.
:'''doi la .robert. mi cliva'''
:''Robert, I'm leaving.''
 
:'''cliva''' = ''to leave''
Without '''doi''' the name might become the first noun of the phrase. '''doi''' a bit like English ''O'' (as in ''O ye of little faith'') or the Latin vocative (as in ''Et tu, Brute'').
 
Natural languages don't distinguish between these contexts. We address people in order to manage our conversations: to make someone pay attention to our turn; to butt in before it is our turn; to signal that a conversation is beginning or ending; and so on. We can also do this without using names, but instead by various context cues and all-purpose words. When you think about it, for example, ''OK'' does a lot of work for such a small word.
 
In conversations over two-way radio use them, because it is impossible to talk over each other, or to negotiate whose turn it is to speak through subtle visual cues. A less elaborate vocabulary is in place for IRC, its Internet equivalent. This means that Lojban vocatives look a little like a CB enthusiast's nightmare, because the meanings in the dictionary you see for them come from this more explicit subset of English.
 
Here are other vocatives:
*'''mi'e''' is the word you use to introduce yourself: it's the only vocative followed by the speaker's name, rather than the addressee's. So '''mi'e la .robin.''' means ''I'm Robin'' or ''This is Robin speaking.''
*'''co'oi '''is the greeting/parting word much like Italian ''ciao'': it corresponds to ''Hello'' / ''Bye''.
*'''.o'ai''' and '''coi''' are words for greetings only: it corresponds to ''Hi'', ''Hello'', ''Good morning'', ''Wazzup?'', and whatever else happens to be in vogue.
*:'''coi ro do''' = ''Hello all of you'' (Southern U.S. ''Hello y'all'') is a common way to start a conversation with several people in Lojban. You can also use specific numbers: '''coi re do''' would mean ''Hello two of you'' or ''Hello you two'' (for example, once can start e-mails to their parents with '''coi re do''').
*Conversely, '''co'o''' is the farewell word, corresponding to ''Goodbye'', ''Farewell'', ''Yo Later Dude'', and so on. Lojbanists signing off on e-mail often end with something like '''co'o mi'e .robin.''' — this is equivalent to putting your name at the end of your email in English as a signature, and translates as ''Goodbye; I'm Robin.''
*'''ju'i''' - ''Hey!'', with which you draw someone's attention, and
*'''fi'i''' - ''Welcome! At your service!'', with which you offer hospitality or a service. (It's what you say to a visitor; you wouldn't say it over the phone, for instance, unless your addressee is calling from the airport and is on their way over).
*'''ki'e''' - ''Thank you'' and the appropriate response is ''not'' '''fi'i''' (''You're welcome'' doesn't mean you're being visited by some guests), but the simple acknowledgement '''je'e'''.
*'''je'e''' corresponds to ''Roger!'' in radio-speak, and ''right'' or ''uh-uh'' in normal English: it confirms that you've received a message. If you haven't, you say '''je'enai''' instead (of course); in normal English, that would be ''Beg your pardon?'' or ''Huh?''.
*In case you haven't received the message clearly, you can explicitly ask for the speaker to repeat whatever they said with '''ke'o'''.
*Similarly, '''be'e''' signals a request to send a message (''Hello? Are you there?''), and '''re'i''' indicates that you are ready to receive a message. It's what you say when you pick up the phone — which in English also happens to be ''Hello?'', but in Italian is ''Pronto'' or ''Ready!''.
*'''mu'o''' is what you say when you explicitly make it another speaker's turn to speak: it's the ''Over!'' of radio.
 
Other vocatives are not as common:
*When it isn't your turn to speak, but you want to barge in anyway, you can say '''ta'a''' — though it probably won't make anyone any happier that you're interrupting.
*'''pe'u''' introduces a request, and so is fairly similar to the interjection '''.e'o''' although can put the addressee after it:
*:'''pe'u la .robin. ko tavla mi'''
*:''Please, Robin, talk to me''
*'''vi'o''' acknowledges a request, and promises to carry it out: in radio talk this is ''Wilco!'', and in normal English ''OK'' or ''All right, I will'' (or for that matter, ''Consider it done!'')
*'''nu'e''' introduces a promise
*Finally, to close communication (radio's ''Over and out!''), you can use '''fe'o'''. (This is what people actually <u>should</u> be putting at the end of their e-mails; but it's not as well-known a word as '''co'o''')
 
Vocatives take nouns (sumti) after them. However, the rule is that if it's a noun with '''lo''' you can drop that '''lo''' for brevity so
:'''coi lo pendo'''
:''Hello, friends!''
is the same as
:'''coi pendo'''
 
If you use the vocative on it's own (without a noun after it) and the sentence is not finished yet then you need to separate it from the rest, because the things likeliest to follow the vocative in a sentence could easily be misconstrued as describing your addressee. Use the word '''do''' for that. For example,
 
:'''coi do la .alis. la .meilis. pu cliva'''
:''Hello! Alice left Mei Li.''
:<code>Hello you! Alice left Mei Li</code> (literally)
:'''coi la .alis. la .meilis. pu cliva'''
:''Hello, Alice! Ranjeet's just left.''
 
And if you want to put both vocatives and interjections modifying the whole sentence please put interjections first:
:'''.ui coi do la .alis. la .meilis. pu cliva'''
:''Yay, Hello! Alice left Mei Li.''
 
Note that in the beginning of sentences usually interjections are put before vocatives because
:'''coi .ui do la .alis. la .meilis. pu cliva'''
means
:''Hello (I'm happy about this greeting) you! Alice left Mei Li.''
 
So an interjection immediately after a vocative modifies that vocative.
Similarly, interjection modifies the vocative noun when being put after it:
:'''coi do .ui la .alis. la .meilis. pu cliva'''
means
:''Hello you (I'm happy about you)! Alice left Mei Li.''
 
<center>Exercise 3</center>
 
Give the Lojban vocatives corresponding to the emphasised words in each of the following sentences. You may need to add '''nai''' to your vocatives. Beware of trick questions!
 
#''Jyoti, are you there? - Just a second!''
#''Come on in, Zhang, make yourself at home! - Much obliged!''
#''You're coming along, right? - Come again?''
#''Excuse me, is this seat taken? - Be my guest!''
 
==.i==
When saying one sentence after another in English we make a pause (it may be short) between them. Oh, this pause. It has so many different meanings in English. Clearly, in Lojban we need to have a better way of understanding where one sentence ends and another begins.
 
In fact the most precise way of uttering sentences in Lojban would be placing a short word '''.i''' in the beginning of each of them.
 
'''.i''' - ''this word separates sentences''
 
Sometimes when pronouncing words quickly you can't figure out where one sentence ends and the word of the next sentence begins. Therefore it's advised to use the word '''.i''' before starting a new sentence.
 
==Quoting text==
==='''sei'''===
The particle '''sei''' begins an embedded discursive verb phrase. This particle allows us to insert comments about our attitude to what is being said exactly as interjections do except they allow us to add whole phrases as a comment. Example:
 
:'''do jinga sei mi gleki'''
:''You won! (I'm happy about that!)''
 
In fact '''.ui''' means the same as '''sei mi gleki''' so we could just say '''do jinga .ui'''.
 
However, look at this:
 
:'''do jinga sei la .frank. cu gleki'''
:''You won! (And Frank is happy about that!)''
 
We can't do that with '''.ui''' because '''.ui''' always describes the attitude of the one who says it.
 
The grammar of the verb phrase following '''sei''' has an unusual rule: the noun must either precede the verb relation, or must be glued into the verb relation with '''be''' and '''bei''':
 
:'''la frank. cu prami sei la suzan. cu gleki la .djein.'''
Let's add brackets to make it more easily readable.
:'''la frank. cu prami (sei la suzan. cu gleki) la .djein.'''
:''Frank loves (Susan is happy) Jane.''
:''Frank loves Jane (Susan is happy).''
 
Or we can use '''be''' to add a second place for the phrase inside '''sei'''.
:'''do jinga sei manci be mi'''
:''You won! (this amazed me'')
 
===Quoting text===
'''sei''' is also useful for quoting text.
 
'''mi prami la .mark. sei ra cusku'''
 
''I love Mark! - she said.''
 
{{talkquote|Discursive phrases inside '''sei''' work at a “higher” level of abstraction than a non-discursive phrase, a non-discursive phrase cannot refer to a discursive phrase. Specifically, the various back-counting like '''ri''' or '''ra''', reciprocal, and reflexive constructs in selma'o KOhA ignore the utterances at “higher” metalinguistic levels in determining their referent.
:'''mi viska la .mark. sei la suzan pu cusku i ri jibni la .djein.
:''I see Mark, - Susan said. He is near Jane''.
 
In this example '''ri''' cannot refer to '''la .suzan.''' We simply ignore the whole '''sei la suzan pu cusku''' phrase when deciding what '''ri''' should refer to.
}}
 
===Quotation marks===
It is possible, and sometimes necessary, to refer to lower metalinguistic levels. For example, the English ''she said'' in a conversation is metalinguistic. For this purpose, quotations are considered to be at a lower metalinguistic level than the surrounding context (a quoted text cannot refer to the statements of the one who quotes it), whereas parenthetical remarks are considered to be at a higher level than the context.
 
Lojban works differently from English when it comes to marking ''she said'' instead of the quotation.
 
We make such quotations by placing the word '''lu''' before the quote and placing '''li'u''' after it.
 
For example,
:'''la .djon. cu cusku lu mi prami do li'u'''
:''I say "I love you."''
 
:'''cusku''' - ''x1 expresses/says x2 (quotation) for audience x3 via expressive medium x4''
 
'''lu''' and '''li'u''' are like ‘quote’ and ‘unquote’ — they put something someone says into a noun.
 
This sentence literally claims that John said (uttered / wrote) the quoted text. If the central claim is that John made the utterance, as is likely in conversation, this style is the most sensible.
 
However, in written text which quotes a conversation, you don't want the ''he said'' or ''she said'' to be considered part of the conversation. If unmarked, it could confuse speakers and listeners what '''ri''' or '''ra''' refers to. In such cases it's better to use '''sei'''.
 
It's interesting that quotation marks in English are not spoken out. They are only written. Instead while speaking we make a short pause to show the beginning and the end of quotations. Lojban can't be that ambiguous. That's why we use those handy quotation words.
 
You can also nest quotations, e.g.
:'''la .djon. pu cusku lu la .djein. pu cusku lu coi li'u mi li'u'''
:''John said "Jane said ‘Hello’ to me."''
which is similar to
::'''la .djon. pu cusku lu la .djein. pu rinsa mi li'u'''
::''John said "Jane greeted me."''
 
Lojban is very careful to distinguish between words for things, and the things themselves. So you can't speak about the phrase ''"the universe"'') in the same way you speak about the universe itself. To give a silly example, the phrase '''lo munje''' is small, but the universe itself is not. To distinguish between the two in Lojban, you need to use quotation:
::'''lu lo munje li'u cu cmalu'''
::''‘The universe’ is small.''
 
::'''lo munje na cmalu'''
::''The universe is not small.''
{{talkquote|Tip: '''lu ... li'u''' is intended to quote grammatical pieces of Lojban — ideally, entire sentences, rather than individual words. For smaller chunks of Lojban, which do not necessary make sense in isolation, the proper quotation words are instead '''lo'u... le'u''', the ‘error quotes’. For example, '''ro lo mi pendo cu klama''' makes sense in Lojban as a sentence, and can be enclosed in '''lu ... li'u'''. But if you want to say what goes before pendo in the sentence, ro lo mi does not make that much sense on its own. So you would quote that sentence fragment, not as '''lu ro lo mi li'u''', but as '''lo'u ro lo mi le'u'''.}}
 
What are other words related to talking?
:'''cusku''' - ''x1 expresses/says x2 (quotation) for audience x3 via expressive medium x4''
:'''reisku''' - ''x1 asks x2 (quotation)  for audience x3 via expressive medium x4''
:'''spusku''' - ''x1 replies/says answer x2 (quotation) for audience x3 via expressive medium x4''
:'''piksku''' - ''x1 makes comment x2 (quotation) for audience x3 via expressive medium x4''
As you can see all of those verbs have the same place structure so it's easy to remember them.
:'''tavla''' - ''x1 talks/speaks to x2 about subject x3 in language x4''
Note the different place structures of cusku and tavla. With cusku the emphasis is on communication; what is communicated is more important than who it is communicated to. Quotes in e-mails frequently start with '''do cusku di'e''' ('''di'e''' means ‘the following’) as the Lojban equivalent of ''You wrote''. ('''ciska''' - ‘write’ places more emphasis on the physical act of writing). With '''tavla''' the emphasis is rather more on the social act of talking: you can tavla about nothing in particular.
 
===Indirect quotations (reported speech)<span id="7.5"></span>===
 
A phrase like ''Alice said "Robin said "Hello" to me".'' can also be expressed in a rather more subtle way:
:'''la .alis. pu cusku lo se du'u la .robin. pu rinsa ra'''
:<code>Alice past-express the-predicate Robin past-greet her.</code>
:''Alice said that Robin greeted her.''
 
What is this '''se du'u'''? This combination allows us to express indirect speech.
 
Simple '''du'u''' is used in Lojban in some places of verbs instead of '''nu''', e.g.:
:'''djuno''' - ''x1 knows x2 (du'u, fact) about x3 by reasoning x4''
 
:'''mi djuno lo du'u do stati'''
:''I know that you are smart''.
 
It's not a mistake to use '''nu''' instead of '''du'u''' but it is recommended to use '''du'u''' if the dictionary says '''du'u''' should go in that place. But what is the difference between them?
 
Lojban has different words for ''that...'', depending on what sort of thing is meant.
*If ''that'' introduces something that happened, use '''nu'''. (Events can be subdivided more finely yet, but for now let's not complicate matters even more than necessary).
*If ''that'' introduces something that you think, use '''du'u'''. This is how you can guess where to put '''nu''' and where to put '''du'u'''.
:If ''that'' introduces something that you say, use '''se du'u'''. But if it's a literal quote use '''lu ... li'u'''.
 
=== '''zo''' - Quoting one word ===
'''zo''' is a quotation marker, just like '''lu'''. However, '''zo''' quotes <u>only</u> the word immediately after it. This means it does not an unquote word like '''li'u''': we already know where the quotation ends. Thus we save two syllables making our speech more concise.
:'''zo robin cmene mi'''
:''Robin is my name''.
:''My name is Robin''.
Oh yes, this is how you present yourself in Lojban using your lojbanised name. Of course, if you have a name consisting of more than one verb word then use '''lu ... li'u'''.
:'''lu robin djonson li'u cmene mi'''
:''Robin Johnson is my name.''
Another way is to use '''me'''. It means ''one of those that are ...''
:'''mi me la robin djonson'''
:''I'm Robin Johnson''.
 
:'''ki'a''' = ''interjection inquiry: confusion about something said; "whaat?? (confusion), pardon?"''
 
Here is a dialogue.
 
:'''mi nelci lo kalci'''
:'''ki'a ?'''
 
:''I like shit''.
:''Whaat???''
 
:'''Note:''' Since '''zo''' quotes any word following it — <u>any</u> word — it turns out that '''zo ki'a''' doesn't mean ''zo? Huh?'' at all, but ''The word '''ki'a'''.'' To ask ''zo? Huh?'', you'll have to resort to '''zo zo ki'a'''.
 
<center>Exercise 4</center>
 
Translate the following disfunctional dialogue.
 
:#.i zo to to mi ca tavla fo la .lojban toi xamgu lonu tavla fo la .lojban
:#.i xamgu ki'a
:#ni'o xu do nelci lai loglandias.kontrapositivos.
:#.i lai ki'a
:#.i mi to je do xu toi gleki lonu te vecnu loi matcrflokati
:#.i do tavla lo ba'e cizra
 
==''he'' and ''she''==
So far we've been referring to everybody by name, which can get very repetitive if you want to tell a story, or even string two sentences together. Consider the following:
 
:'''la .alis. cu klama lo barja .i la .alis. ze'a pinxe lo vanju .i la .alis. cu zgana lo nanmu .i lo nanmu cu melbi .i lo nanmu cu zgana la .alis.'''
:''Alice goes to the bar. Alice drinks some wine for a while. Alice notices a man. The man is beautiful. The man notices Alice.''
[[Image:Gael_garcia_bernal.jpg|thumb|lo melbi - beautiful, handsome, pretty]]
[[Image:Lindo_Sol_em_Plataforma.jpg|thumb|lo se pluka - nice, pleasant]]
{{talkquote|Note: Notice the use of melbi — in English we usually describe men as ‘handsome’ rather than ‘beautiful’, but this rather sexist distinction doesn't apply in Lojban. However, if you really wanted a Lojban word for ‘handsome’ (beautiful–kind-of–man) you could say melnau (melbi + nanmu).}}
 
It is pretty tedious to have to keep repeating ''Alice'' and ''man''. English gets round this problem by using '''pronouns''', like ''she'' or ''he''. This works OK in this case, because we have one female and one male in the story so far, but it can get confusing when more characters enter the scene. (It's even more confusing with languages that only have one word for ''he'', ''she'' and ''it'', like Turkish or spoken Chinese).
 
In English we use words "he, she, they" very often. Lojban gives us more possibilities
*The particle '''ri''' refers to the last noun used in the discourse.
*The particle '''ra''' refers to one of the last nouns used in the discourse.
*We can also use the first letters of last nouns or names, e.g. say "R" instead of "Robin" if we were talking about Robin.
:'''la .alis. cu sipna lo kumfa pe ri'''
:<code>Alice sleeps-in the of-[repeat last sumti] room.</code>
:''Alice sleeps in her room.''
 
The '''ri''' here is equivalent to repeating the last noun or name, which is '''la .alis.''', so it is equivalent to:
 
:'''la .alis. cu sipna lo kumfa pe la .alis.'''
:<code>Alice sleeps-in the of-Alice room.</code>
:''Alice sleeps in Alice's room.''
 
Note that '''ri''' does not repeat '''lo kumfa pe ri''' (which is also a noun), because '''ri''' is inside that noun and therefore that noun is not yet complete when '''ri''' appears. This prevents '''ri''' from getting entangled in paradoxes of self-reference. (There are plenty of other ways to do that!)
 
Note also that nouns within other nouns, as in quotations, abstractions, and the like, are counted in the order of their beginnings; thus a lower level noun like '''la .alis.''' in that last example is considered to be more recent than a higher level noun that contains it.
 
Most pronouns are ignored by '''ri'''. It is simpler just to repeat these directly:
:'''mi prami mi'''
:''I love me.''
:''I love myself.''
 
However,
#the particles '''ti,ta,tu''' are picked up by '''ri''', because you might have changed what you are pointing at, so repeating '''tu''' may not be effective.
#likewise, '''ri''' itself (or rather it's antecedent) can be repeated by a later '''ri'''; in fact, a string of '''ri''' particles with no other intervening nouns always repeat the same noun:
 
:'''la .djan. cu viska lo tricu .i ri se jadni lo jimca pe ri'''
:''<nowiki>John sees the tree. [repeat last] is-adorned-by the of-[repeat last] branch.</nowiki>''
:''John sees the tree. It is adorned by its branches.''
 
Here the second '''ri''' has as antecedent the first '''ri''', which has as antecedent '''lo tricu'''. All three refer to the same thing: a tree.
 
Also a vaguer '''ra''' is provided. The particle '''ra''' repeats a recently used noun. The use of '''ra''' forces the listener to guess at the referent, but makes life easier for the speaker. Can '''ra''' refer to the last noun, like '''ri'''? The answer is no if '''ri''' has also been used. If '''ri''' has not been used, then '''ra''' might be the last noun. A more reasonable version of the previous example, but one that depends more on context, is:
 
:'''lo smuci .i lo forca .i la rik. pilno ra'''
:''<nowiki>A spoon. A fork. Rick uses [some previous thing].</nowiki>''
 
Here the use of '''ra''' tells us that something other than '''la .rik.''' is the antecedent; '''lo forca''' is the nearest noun, so it is probably the antecedent. Similarly, the antecedent of '''raxire''' must be something even further back in the utterance than '''lo forca''', and '''lo smuci''' is the obvious candidate.
 
The meaning of '''ri''' must be determined every time it is used. Since '''ra''' is more vaguely defined, they may well retain the same meaning for a while, but the listener cannot count on this behavior.
 
{{talkquote|Tip: sumti are counted from their beginnings. So in a sentence like
:'''lo nu lo nanmu cu dotco cu se djuno ri'''
'''ri''' refers to '''lo nanmu''' and not '''lo nu lo nanmu cu dotco''': the start of '''lo nanmu''' is closer to '''ri''' than the start of '''lo nu lo nanmu cu dotco'''.}}
 
 
{{talkquote|Tip: '''ri''' cannot refer to a sumti if it is already smack in the middle of that sumti. For example, in
:'''la .alis. cu pinxe lo ri vanju'''
'''ri''' obviously refers to '''la .alis.''', and not to '''lo vanju'''.}}
 
<center>Exercise 1</center>
 
The two highlighted sumti in each of the following Lojban sentences refer to the same thing or person. For each, check whether the pronoun you have learned — ???lego'i, ri, ra — can replace the second sumti.
 
#.i ''la .alis.'' cu nelci loi vanju .i ''la .alis.'' na nelci loi birje
#.i la .alis. cu viska ''lo nanmu'' .i ''lo nanmu'' cu dotco
#.i ''la .alis.'' cu nelci lonu ''la .alis.'' cu klama lo barja
#.i ''la .alis.'' cu nelci lo ''la .alis.'' cu pendo
#.i lonu ''la .alis.'' cu badri cu nandu .i ''la .alis.'' cu gleki
#.i ''lenu la .alis. cu badri'' cu nandu .i ''lenu la .alis. cu badri'' na se zgana
 
=== Names of letters in Lojban===
Each letter has a name in Lojban.
 
The following table represents the basic Lojban alphabet:
 
{| class="wikitable"
|| '
|| a
|| b
|| c
|| d
|| e
 
|-
|| '''.y'y.'''
|| '''.abu'''
|| '''by.'''
|| '''cy.'''
|| '''dy.'''
|| '''.ebu'''
 
|-
| colspan="6" | 
 
|-
|| f
|| g
|| i
|| j
|| k
|| l
 
|-
|| '''fy.'''
|| '''gy.'''
|| '''.ibu'''
|| '''jy.'''
|| '''ky.'''
|| '''ly.'''
 
|-
| colspan="6" | 
 
|-
|| m
|| n
|| o
|| p
|| r
|| s
 
|-
|| '''my.'''
|| '''ny.'''
|| '''.obu'''
|| '''py.'''
|| '''ry.'''
|| '''sy.'''
 
|-
| colspan="6" | 
 
|-
|| t
|| u
|| v
|| x
|| y
|| z
 
|-
|| '''ty.'''
|| '''.ubu'''
|| '''vy.'''
|| '''xy.'''
|| '''.ybu'''
|| '''zy.'''
 
|}
 
As you can see
*to get the name for a vowel, we add "bu"
*to get the name for a consonant, we add "y"
*the word for <nowiki>'</nowiki> (apostrophe) is '''.y'y'''.
 
We can spell word using these names. For example, CNN will be '''cy. ny. ny.'''
 
=== Letters instead of ''he'' and ''she'' ===
There is another method of referring to nouns and names previously mentioned in speech.
:'''la robin cu viska lo mlatu i lo mlatu cu viska nai la robin'''
:''Robin sees a cat. The cat doesn't see Robin''.
As the first letter in '''robin''' is "r" and the first letter in '''mlatu''' is "m" we can use names of letters to refer to nouns that we get from them.
:'''la robin cu viska lo mlatu i my. viska nai ry.'''
This means the same.
 
So if you see a Lojban letter being used as a noun, you take it as referring to the last noun or name whose verb word ('''robin''' and '''mlatu''' in this case) starts with that letter.
 
Clearly, this method is more powerful than ''he'' or ''she''.
 
But notice that it can happen that we'd like to refer back to, say, {lo mlatu}, but then before we can do so, another noun or name that starts with "m" appeared in the meantime, so that {my.} can no longer refer to the cat. The only way out is to repeat the entire noun or name, i.e.  {lo mlatu}.
 
Only you decide what's to use in speech: the method with '''ri''' and '''ra''' or the method with letter names.
 
== Infinitives ==
Infinitives are verbs that are often prefixed with "to" in English. Examples include "I like to run" with "to run" being the infinitive.
 
How can we say
:''The cat wants to drink.''
:'''lo mlatu cu djica lo ka pinxe'''
 
It's the same as
:'''lo mlatu cu djica lo nu lo mlatu cu pinxe'''
:<code>The cat wants that the cat drinks</code> (literally)
The first translation sounds more natural and compact so using '''ka''' is preferred in such case.
 
The particle '''ka''' works much like '''nu''' but it indicates that the noun on the left does or would do the action following '''ka'''. It makes the first noun of the outer verb ('''djica''' in this case) also the first noun of the embedded verb started by '''ka''' ('''pinxe''' in this case) so you don't have to repeat this noun the second time.
 
Another example with a pronoun in the place of the first noun
:'''mi djica lo ka pinxe'''
:''I want to drink''.
or
:'''mi djica lo nu mi pinxe'''
:<code>I want that I drink</code> (literally)
 
Again the first sentence looks smarter.
 
As for ''I want you to drink'' it's simple '''mi djica lo nu do pinxe'''. First pronouns of '''djica''' differs from the one from '''pinxe''' so we can't use '''ka''' here.
 
It is also possible to use '''ka''' when we usually don't use infinitive in English
:'''mi gleki lo ka jinga'''
:''I'm glad of winning.''
which is the same as
:'''mi gleki lo nu mi jinga'''
:''I'm glad that I won.''
 
==Time and place in Lojban==
As we've seen all tenses in Lojban are optional, which is nice of course since you don't have to think all the time what tense to use when the context is clear anyway. Saying '''mi citka lo cirla''' can mean ''I eat cheese'' or ''I ate cheese'' or ''I always eat cheese'' or ''In a moment, i will have just finished eating cheese''. Context resolves what is correct, and in most conversation, tenses are not needed at all. However, when it's needed it's needed, and it must be taught. Furthermore, Lojban tenses are unusual because they treat time and space fundamentally the same - saying that I worked a long time ago is not grammatically different than saying I work far away to the north. In many languages, tense system is perhaps the most difficult part of the language. Luckily, Lojbanic tense system is perfectly regular and therefore requires less time to understand.
 
 
Once again, tense particle works as a preposition when noun is placed immediately after it:
:'''mi pinxe ba'''
:''I will drink''.
 
:'''mi pinxe ba lo nu mi cadzu'''
:''I drink after I walk''.
 
So without a noun after them '''ba''' and other prepositions work relative to the here-and-now. In: ''I gave a computer away'', we can assume that the action happened relative to ''now'', and thus we can elide the noun of the preposition, because it's obvious: '''pu nu mi dunda lo skami''' or '''mi dunda lo skami pu''' or, more commonly '''mi pu dunda lo skami'''. If speaking about some events that happened some other time than the present, it is sometimes assumed that all tenses are relative to that event which is being spoken about.
 
The sentence
:'''mi pu klama lo merko gugde'''
:''I went to America''.
 
:'''gugde''' = ''x1 is the country of people x2 with land/territory x3''
does not imply that I'm not still traveling to USA, only that it was also true some time in the past, for instance five minutes ago.
 
=== Time journeys ===
In the first lesson we decided that we can freely move prepositional phrases (related to directions) around the sentence being only careful about not to placing them inside any phrase embedded into the phrase we are in.
 
However, if there are several prepositions in one phrase, the rule is that you read them from left to right, thinking it as a so called ''imaginary journey''. Such moving indeed doesn't change the meaning. But where you begin at an implied point in time and space (default: the speaker's "now and here"), and then follow the prepositions one at a time from left to right. Example:
:'''mi pu ba klama lo cmana'''
:''At some time in the past, I will be about to go to a mountain''.
 
:'''mi ba pu klama lo cmana'''
:''At some point in the future, I will have gone to a mountain''.
Since we do not specify the amount of time we move back or forth, the understanding could in both cases happen in the future or the past of the point of reference.
 
Also, if spacial and temporal tenses are mixed, the rule is to always put temporal before spacial. If this rule is violated, it can sometimes result in syntactical ambiguity, which Lojban does not tolerate.
 
Suppose we want to specify that the a man hit a dog just a minute ago. The words '''zi''', '''za''' and '''zu''' specifies a short, unspecified (presumably medium) and long distance in time. Notice the vowel order '''i''', '''a''' and '''u'''. This order appears again and again in Lojban, and might be worth to memorize. ''Short'' and ''long'' in are always context dependent, relative and subjective. Two hundred years is a short time for a species to evolve, but a long time to wait for the bus.
 
{|class='wikitable'
|-
|style="text-align: center;" colspan="2"|'''fau''' = preposition. at the same time/place/situation as ...
|-
|'''ca''' = preposition. is..., during/at the same time as ...; present tense.
|'''bu'u''' = preposition. Coincident with/at the same place as...
|-
|colspan="2"|
|-
|'''zi''' = preposition. Denotes occurring short before the point of reference
|'''vi''' = preposition. Occurring the small distance in space from point of reference
|-
|'''za''' = preposition. Denotes occurring not specified amount of time before the point of reference
|'''va''' = preposition. Occurring the unspecified distance in space from point of reference
|-
|'''zu''' = preposition. Denotes occurring long ago from the point of reference
|'''vu''' = preposition. Occurring the far distance in space from the point of reference
|}
 
As you can see patial distance are marked in a similar way by '''vi''', '''va''' and '''vu''' for short, unspecified (medium) and long distance in space.
 
The space equivalent of '''ca''' is '''bu'u'''. And '''fau''' is more vague than two of them, it can mean time, space or situation.
 
E.g. '''mi cadzu bu'u lo tcadu''' - ''I walk in the city''.
 
Translate: '''ba za nu mi vu gunka'''
 
where '''gunka''' = ''to work''.
 
Answer: ''Some time in the future, I will work a place long away''.
 
{{talkquote|Note: '''zi''', '''za''' or '''zu''' are usually used with '''pu''' or '''ba''' in front of them. This is because most people always need to specify past or future in their native languages: '''pu zi''' means ''just'', '''ba zi''' means ''soon''. But when you think about it Lojbanically, most of the time the time-direction is obvious, and '''pu''' or '''ba''' are superfluous!}}
 
The order in which direction-prepositions and distance-prepositions are said makes a difference. Remember that the meanings of several tense words placed together are pictured by an imaginary journey reading from left to right. Thus '''pu zu''' is ''a long time ago'' while '''zu pu''' is ''in the past of some point in time which is a long time toward the future or the past of now''. In the first example, '''pu''' shows that we begin in the past, '''zu''' then that it is a long time backwards. In the second example, '''zu''' shows that we begin at some point far away in time from now, '''pu''' then, that we move backwards from that point. Thus '''pu zu''' is always in the past. '''zu pu''' could be in the future. The fact that these time tenses combine in this way is one of the differences between tense prepositions and other prepositions. The meanings of other prepositions are not altered by the presence of additional prepositions in a phrase.
 
=== Scope ===
The rule of imaginary journey allows us to express subtle but important differences in meaning.
 
Compare '''vi nu ro da fenki''' versus '''ro da vi fenki'''.
:'''ro da vi fenki'''
:''Everyone is crazy here''.
:<code> Every one here crazy</code> (literally)
 
:'''vi nu ro da fenki'''
:''Here everyone is crazy''.
:<code>Here: every one crazy</code> (literally)
Did you catch that? ''Everyone is crazy here'' means that if someone is not crazy somewhere then they will become crazy in this place.
 
:''Here everyone is crazy'' simply describes those who are here (and they are crazy). We don't know anything about others in other places.
 
===Spanning over time and space...===
All these constructs basically treat phrases without specifying their length. In actuality, most events play out over a span of time and space. In the following few paragraphs, we will learn how to specify intervals of time and space when we want to express that:
 
{| class="wikitable"
|| '''ze'i''' - preposition: spanning over the short time of (a noun follows)
|| '''ve'i''' - preposition: spanning over the short space of (a noun follows)
 
|-
|| '''ze'a''' - preposition: spanning over the unspecified or medium time of (a noun follows)
|| '''ve'a''' - preposition: spanning over the unspecified or medium space of (a noun follows)
 
|-
|| '''ze'u''' - preposition: spanning over the long time of (a noun follows)
|| '''ve'u''' - preposition: spanning over the long space of (a noun follows)
 
|}
 
Again it's easy to remember given the similarity between vowels in two columns.
 
Translate: '''.oi dai do ve'u klama lo dotco gugde ze'u'''
 
where
:'''.oi''' - interjection: pain
:'''dai''' - shows listener's attitude
Answer: ''Ouch, you spend a long time traveling a long space to Germany''.
 
Though most people are not familiar with spacial tenses, these new words can open up for some pretty sweet uses. One could, for instance, translate ''That's a big dog'' as '''ti ve'u gerku'''. Saying: ''This thing dogs for a long space'' makes you sound retarded in English, but well-spoken in Lojban!
 
:'''ze'u''' and it's friends also combine with other tenses to form compound tenses. The rule for '''ze'u''' and the others are that any tenses preceding it marks an endpoint of the process (relative to the point of reference) and any tenses coming after it marks the other endpoint relative to the first. This should be demonstrated with a couple of examples:
:'''.o'ocu'i do citka pu ze'u ba zu'''
:<code>{tolerance} you eat beginning in the past and for a long time ending at some point far into the future of when you started</code>
:''Hmpf, you ate for a long time''.
 
One can also contrast''' do ca ze'i pu klama''' with '''do pu ze'i ca klama'''. The first event of traveling has one endpoint in the present and extends a little towards the past, while the second event has one endpoint in the past and extends only to the present (that is, slighty into the past or future) of that endpoint.
:'''jmive'''
:''x1 is alive by standard x2''
What does '''.ui mi pu zi ze'u jmive''' mean?
 
Answer: ''{I'm happy!} I live from a little into the past and a long way towards the future or past (obviously the future, in this case) of that event''
 
:''I am young, and have most of my life ahead of me :-)''
 
Just to underline the similarity with spacial tenses, let's have another example, this time with spacial tenses:
 
:'''.u'e''' - interjection: wonder
 
:'''.u'e za'a bu'u ve'u ca'u zdani'''
:''What does it mean?''
 
Answer:
 
:''{wonder} {I observe!} Extending a long space from here to my front is a home.''
:''Wow, this home extending ahead is huge!''
 
Before we continue with this syntax-heavy tense system, i recommend spending at least ten minutes doing something which doesn't occupy your brain in order to let the information sink in. Sing a song or eat a cookie very slowly - whatever, as long as you let your mind rest.
 
===Negating prepositions===
We can put '''nai''' after a preposition to negate it:
:'''ze'u nai''' = ''not for a very long time'' (may be for a short or medium length time but not long)
 
===To the left, to the right...===
As mentioned, spacial and temporal time tenses are very much alike. Contrast the previous three time tenses with these four spacial tenses:
:'''zu'a''' - preposition: to the left of (a noun follows)
:'''ca'u''' - preposition: in front of (a noun follows)
:'''ri'u''' - preposition: right of (a noun follows)
 
The noun which fills the preposition has an implied '''zo'e''' (''something or someone''), which is almost always understood as relative to the speaker's time and place (this is especially important when speaking about left and right).
 
What would '''.o'onai ri'u nu lo prenu cu darxi lo gerku pu''' mean?
:'''o'o''': interjection: patience. The full scale is '''o'o''' (patience), - '''o'ocu'i''' (tolerance), '''o'onai''' (anger)
:'''darxi''' - ''x1 beats/hits x2 with instrument x3 at locus x4''
 
Answer: ''{anger!} To the right (of something, probably me) and in the past (of some event), something is an event of a person beating a dog.'' or ''A man hit a dog to my right!''
 
===Event contours===
In the first lesson we looked at how to express simple, continuous and perfect tense.
 
They express ''event contours'' and unlike '''pu''', '''ca''' and '''ba''' with event contours we view each event as having shape with certain stages: A time before it unfolds, a time when it begins, a time when it is in process, a time when it ends, and a time after it has ended. Event contours then tells us which part of the event's process was happening during the time specified by the other tenses. We know a couple of them:
 
:'''pu'o''' - preposition. Event contour: the event has not yet happened during (a noun follows)
:'''ca'o''' - preposition. Event contour: the event is in process during (a noun follows)
:'''ba'o''' - preposition. Event contour: the event has ended during (a noun follows)
 
'''pu'o''' needs to be demonstrated by an example. What does '''.ui mi pu'o se zdani''' mean?
 
Answer: ''Yay, I'll begin to have a home''.
 
:'''mi ba'o tavla lo mikce'''
:''I have spoken to the doctor (or had spoken, or will have spoken)''.
:'''mi ca'o tavla lo mikce'''
:''I am speaking to the doctor (or was speaking, or will be speaking)''.
:'''mi pu'o tavla lo mikce'''
:''I am about to speak to the doctor (or was about to speak, or will be about to speak)''.
:'''mi pu pu'o tavla lo mikce'''
:''I was about to speak to the doctor''.
:'''mi ba ba'o tavla lo mikce'''
:''I will have spoken to the doctor''.
:'''mi pu ba'o tavla lo mikce'''
:''I had spoken to the doctor''.
:'''mi pu ca'o tavla lo mikce'''
:''I was speaking to the doctor''.
 
{{talkquote|Note: <nowiki>Aspect is quite independent of tense: you can say that something will be over some time in the future (''I will have spoken to the doctor [by then]''), or that something was continuing in the past (''I was speaking to the doctor''), without giving any indication of what is happening in the here-and-now.</nowiki>}}
 
 
{{talkquote|Why not just say '''.ui mi ba se zdani''' and even save a syllable? Because, remember, saying that you will have a home in the future says nothing about whether you have a home now. Using '''pu'o''', though, you say that you are now in the past of the process of you having a home, which means that you don't have one now. Note, by the way, that '''mi ba se zdani''' is similar to '''mi pu'o se zdani''', and likewise with '''ba'o''' and '''pu'''. Why do they seem reversed in sounding? Because event contours view the present as seen from the viewpoint of the process, whereas the other tenses view events seen from the present.}}
 
Often, event contours are more precise that other kind of tenses. Even more clarity is achieved by combining several tenses: '''.a'o mi ba zi ba'o gunka''' = ''I hope I've soon finished working.''
 
In Lojban, we also operate with an event's ''natural beginning'' and its ''natural end''. The term ''natural'' is highly subjective in this sense, and the natural end refers to the point in the process where it should end. You can say about a late train, for instance, that its process of reaching you is now extending beyond its natural end. An undercooked, but served meal, similarly, is being eaten before that process' natural beginning. The event contours used in these examples are as follows:
 
:'''za'o''' - preposition. Event contour: the event is in process beyond its natural end during (a noun follows)
:'''xa'o''' - preposition. Event contour: the event is immaturely in process during (a noun follows)
 
:'''cidja - '''''x1 is food, which is edible for x2''
 
Translate: '''.oi do citka za'o lo nu do ba'o u'e citka zo'e noi cidja do'''
 
Answer: ''Oy, you keep eating when you have finished, incredibly, eating something edible!''
 
All of these tenses have been describing stages of a process which takes some time (as shown on the graph above; those tenses above the event like). But many of the event contours describes point like stages in the process, like its beginning. As is true of '''ca''' and '''bu'u''', they actually extend slightly into the past and future of that point, and need not to be precise.
 
The two most important point-like event contours are:
 
:'''co'a''' - preposition. Event contour: the event starts during (a noun follows)
:'''co'u''' - preposition. Event contour: the event stops during (a noun follows)
 
For this kind of aspect, English normally just uses verbs: ''start'', ''finish'', ''stop''. Lojban likewise allows you to use distinct verbs to express these notions: '''cfari''', mulno, and sisti. Using aspects just lets you express things more succinctly; and with Lojban the way it is, anything that makes things more succinct comes in handy.
 
Furthermore, there is a point where the process is naturally complete, but not necessarily has ended yet:
 
:'''mo'u''' - preposition. Event contour: the event is at it's natural ending during (a noun follows)
 
Most of the time, though, processes actually end at their natural ending; this is what makes it natural. Trains are not usually late, and people usually retrain themselves to eat only edible food.
 
Since a process can be interrupted and resumed, these points have earned their own event contour also:
 
:'''de'a''' - preposition. Event contour: the event is pausing during (a noun follows)
:'''di'a''' - preposition. Event contour: the event is resuming during (a noun follows)
 
In fact, since '''jundi''' means ''x1 pays attention to x2'', then '''de'a jundi''' and '''di'a jundi''' are common Lojban ways of saying ''BRB (I'll be right back)'' and ''back''. One could of course also say the event contours by themselves and hope the point gets across.
 
=== Perfectivity (Chinese and Russian) and Perfect Tense in English ===
In many languages, aspect is as important as tense, or even more important. In Russian, to use the best-known example, you cannot use a verb at all without choosing between a stem indicating that something is (or was, or will be) still going on (''imperfective''), and a stem indicating that something is (or was, or will be) completed (''perfective'').
 
English isn't like that: you can quite often leave off any indication of aspect in your verbs. Yet English has ways of expressing aspect anyway. When we say ''I have spoken to the doctor'', we are also indicating that we have now finished doing so — we are after the end of the event. When we say ''I am speaking to the doctor'', on the other hand, we are also indicating that we are in middle of the event: the event is continuing, and is not yet over.
 
Chinese use the particle 了 （le） to express this prefectivity.
 
To explicitly express perfectivity in Lojban we use the preposition '''co'i''', which treats an entire event, from the beginning to the end as one single point:
 
:'''mi pu zi co'i penmi lo dotco prenu'''
:''I have recently met a German person.''
:''A little while ago, I was at the point in time where i met a German person.''
 
:'''penmi''' = ''x1 meets x2 at location x3''
=== All event contours in one diagram ===
[[Image:display2.png|400px|link=]]
 
All prepositions above the line of the event signify stages covering an amount of time. All prepositions below the line signify stages which are point-like.
 
==Making prepositions from verbs. '''fi'o'''==
 
Sometimes the place structures are insufficient to meet the needs of actual speech.
For example,
:''I go with you''.
 
The verb '''klama''' - ''to go'' has no place for denoting with whom you are going. Lojban allows you to solve the problem by adding a new place, extending the relationship:
 
:'''mi klama fi'o kansa do'''
:''I go with you accompanying me''.
:''I go with you''.
 
:'''kansa''' - ''to accompany''
 
The verb '''klama''' has now acquired an additional place specifying who accompanies you while you are going.
 
{{TalkquoteGreen|Prepositions add extra places to verbs.}}
 
The combination of the particle '''fi'o''' followed by a verb relation, in this case the verb word '''kansa''', forms a new case which is prefixed to the noun filling this new place, namely '''do'''. The meaning of '''fi'o kansa do''' is that '''do''' fills the x1 place of '''kansa''', whose place structure is
:'''kansa''' = ''x1 accompanies x2''
 
It is important to remember that even though '''do''' is placed following '''fi'o kansa''', it belongs in the x1 place of '''kansa'''.
 
What's really interesting is that all prepositions except FA in Lojban are derived from verbs.
 
For example, '''fa'a''' = '''fi'o farna''' where
'''farna''' = ''x1 is a direction of x2 from viewpoint x3''
 
So if you forgot a preposition you can use '''fi'o''' plus a appropriate verb instead of that.
 
As you can see in English we use a preposition. '''fi'o kansa''' is also a preposition but with a verb inside!
 
In fact there is a preposition for '''fi'o kansa''' as well. It's '''ka'ai'''. But if you don't remember a preposition you can safely use the construct with '''fi'o'''.
 
We can add verbs with '''se''' and it's friends for '''fi'o''':
:'''mi klama fi'o se pilno lo jamfu'''
:''I walk using feet.''
:''I walk on foot.''
 
There is a common preposition '''se pi'o''' which is the same as '''fi'o se pilno'''.
So if there is '''se''' inside '''fi'o''' phrase the corresponding preposition also has this '''se''' (Of course, the same for '''te, ve, xe''').
 
The only exlusion is for '''pu''' and ba''':
:'''pu''' = '''fi'o se purci'''
:'''ba''' = '''fi'o se balvi'''
So those two prepositions have '''se''' in their coresponding verbs whereas they themselves don't have.
 
The term for such an added place is a ''preposition place'', as distinguished from the regular numbered places. The '''fi'o''' construction marking a prepositional place is called a ''prepositional phrase'', and the noun which follows it a ''prepositional noun''. Prepositional phrases may be placed anywhere within the main phrase, in any order; they have no effect whatever on the rules for assigning unmarked phrase to numbered places, and they may not be marked with FA particles.
 
==Connecting sentences==
=== Connecting sentences with prepositions ===
If two sentences are too long we can '''i''' to separate them. But we still can show that they express the same idea using prepositions:
:'''mi klama lo cmana .i ca bo lo mlatu cu pinxe lo ladru'''
:''I am coming to a mountain, and the same time a cat is drinking milk.''
which is the same as
:'''mi klama lo cmana ca lo nu lo mlatu cu pinxe lo ladru'''
:''I am coming to a mountain while a cat is drinking milk.''
 
So here we use '''.i''', then the preposition that we need and then '''bo'''.
 
There's a new particle here, '''bo'''. Why? Left on it's own, a preposition always applies to the noun after it. So '''.i ca lo mlatu''' would have meant something like ''during a cat, at the time of cat''. Looks like a nonsense. At least this doesn't mean what we want. To make the prepositions apply to the <u>entire</u> sentence and bind the previous sentence, we follow it with the word '''bo'''.
 
Usually we split sentences into two and then bind them with '''bo''' when a sentence looks or sounds too bulky.
 
{{talkquote|Tip: This applies to other prepositions. For example, '''.i ba bo''' means ''afterwards, then'': the sentence after '''.i ba bo''' refers to something that took place later than what took place in the sentence before:
:'''mi cadzu .i ba bo mi citka'''
:''I walk, and then I eat.''
 
Remember that '''ba''' and '''pu''' differ from other prepositions. The very astute reader will have noted that ‘afterwards’ <u>should</u> have been '''.i pu bo'''. Such special rule for Lojban was made by analogy of natural languages. So you just have to remember this special behavior of these two words. <!--See ''The Complete Lojban Language'', Chapter 10.12.-->}}
!!!SE FA bo
 
 
{{talkquote|Note: prepositions with '''bo''' after them work much like connectives. In fact our last sentence is very similar to
:'''lo dilnu cu klaku i je lo dargu cu cilmo'''
Although, of course it would have a slightly different meaning:
:''Skies are crying, and the road is wet.''
Notice that connective don't require '''bo''' after them when they connect sentences.
}}
 
=== Connectives ===
There is another kind of connectives that don't require '''bo''' but that otherwise work in the same way.
 
How do we say ''and'' in Lojban? Using the particle '''je'''.
 
:'''do je mi klama lo zdani'''
:''You and I go to the house''
 
:'''lo nanla je lo nixli cu casnu lo karce'''
:''A boy and a girl are discussing a car''.
 
It is also possible to use '''je''' in compound verbs
 
:'''lo sutra je blabi karce cu klama'''
:''A quick and white car is moving''.
 
Without '''je'''
:'''lo sutra blabi karce cu klama'''
:''A quickly white car is moving''.
 
would be funny and make no sense since the verb to the left modifies the word to the right. And here are three verbs in a compound verb.
 
Also notice that omitting '''lo''' can cause weird results
:'''lo nanla je nixli cu casnu lo karce'''
means
:''Someone who is a boy and a girl (at the same time!) discusses a car''.
 
So when connecting nouns don't omit '''lo''' which always denotes a noun.
 
A very useful combination is '''.i je'''. It connects two sentences and shows that those two sentences are part of one thought.
 
:'''do mutce melbi .i je mi prami do'''
:''You are very beautiful, and I love you''.
 
In the same way, '''.i je''' joins two sentences with a logical AND, i.e. it asserts that both sentences are true. Normally we don't need to do this, since we usually assume that what we say is true.
 
Let's mention other connecting particles.
:'''ja''' = ''and/or''
 
:'''lo nanla cu fengu ja bilma'''
:''The boy is angry or ill (or may be both angry and ill)
 
:'''jo nai''' = ''either ... or ... but not both''
 
:'''lo karce cu blabi jo nai grusi'''
:''The car is either white or gray''.
 
:'''ju''' = ''whether or not...''
 
:'''mi prami do .i ju do fenki'''
:''I love you. Whether or not you are crazy''.
 
Yes, we can put connecting particles just after '''.i''' showing that the sentence continues the idea expressed in the previous sentence.
 
=== Connecting two phrases ===
Sometimes you might want to use several verb relations in one sentence. E.g.
:''I played football, went home, drank milk''.
In this case we'll use '''vau''' and put the required connective particles after it.
:'''pu nu mi kelci lo fudbolo vau je klama lo zdani vau je pinxe lo ladru'''
 
===Binding two sentences===
'''.i je''' instead of simple '''.i''' is used to show that two sentences are part of one thought.
 
== If ... then ==
 
:''If you are crazy then I'll love you''.
:'''fau lo nu do fenki kei mi ba prami do'''
 
The preposition '''fau''' means ''with the event of..., under circumstances ...'' It requires an event after it. In fact it is much like '''ca''' (''when'') or '''bu'u''' (''at'').
 
Indeed, in most cases we can replace '''fau''' with '''ca''' getting almost the same meaning (may be sometimes more precise):
 
:''I'll love you when you are crazy''.
:'''mi ba prami do ca lo nu do fenki'''
 
We can replace '''lo''' with '''ro''' after such prepositions getting a new meaning:
 
:''I'll love you <u>whenever</u> you are crazy''.
:'''mi ba prami do ca ro nu do fenki'''
 
== But ... ==
Consider a sentence:
:''You have nice hands but ugly voice.''
 
Actually ''but'' is the same as ''and'' although it gives us a flavour of contrast.
:'''do se xance lo melbi vau je ku'i se ke mabla voksa'''
:''You have nice hands and ugly voice.''
It's all the matter of contrast when using ''but'' instead of ''and''.
 
In Lojban we just use '''je''' and then add the interjection '''ku'i''' that will give us the necessary contrast.
 
 
:'''xance''' = ''hand (of someone)''
:'''voksa''' = ''voice (of someone)''
 
==Time of day, dates and calendar==
===Time of day===
:'''ma tcika ti'''
:''What is the time?''
 
:'''ma''' - the content question word (''what'')
:'''tcika''' - ''x1 (hours, minutes, seconds) is the time of state/event x2 on day/date x3, at location x4, by calendar x5''
So in Lojban, times do not exist in the abstract: times are always the times <u>of</u> something. So we ask what the time is of '''ti''', meaning ''this event/thing'', or, in other words ''now''.
 
A typical dialogue would be:
*'''ma tcika ti'''
*'''li pa pa'''
*''What's the time?''
*''Eleven''
 
If we want to be a bit more precise, we need to use '''pi'e'''. This introduces fractional parts of numbers like '''pi''', but unlike '''pi''' it doesn't need to indicate decimal fractions in a number. In fact, the kind of fractional part it does indicate can vary within the same number. In normal counting, '''pi''' is a decimal point, in hexadecimal it's a hexadecimal point and so on, but the kind of fraction it indicates never changes it's value. But '''pi'e''' doesn't have that restriction; so we can use it to separate hours from minutes (which are sixtieths of hours), or, as we will see below, days from hours (which are twenty-fourths of days). '''pi'e''', in other words, means ''part'', not ''decimal point''. So an alternative answer to the question could be
:'''li pa pa pi'e mu'''
:''11:05 (Five past eleven)''
:<code>(The number eleven, and five parts)</code>
or if you want to be particularly precise,
:'''li pa pa pi'e mu pi'e pa bi'''
:''Five minutes and eighteen seconds past eleven''.
:<code>(The number eleven, and five parts, and eighteen parts of parts)</code>
 
Let's imagine, though, that the time is not five past eleven, but five <u>to</u> eleven. We can say '''li pa no pi'e mu mu''' (''10:55''), but we can also say '''li pa pa pi'e ni'u mu''', where '''ni'u''' is the Lojban minus sign (for negative numbers, not for subtraction) — what we are saying is ''11:−5''.
 
For ''half past eleven'' you can also use '''pi''' and say '''li pa pa pimu''' ''11.5''. I don't particularly like this method, but it is perfectly good Lojban. If we are using numbers for times, it is normal to use the 24-hour system, so 6 PM is '''li pa bi''' (''18:00'').
 
24-hour time is used almost always in Lojban as 12-hour system can lead to confusion.
 
If we want to give the time of an event, rather than just tell the time, we need to fill in some more places. The second place of '''tcika''' is ''state/event'': people don't have times — events have times. So we use '''nu''':
:'''li pa no cu tcika lo nu mi klama'''
:''Ten o'clock is the time that I go'' (or come!)
 
<center>Exercise 1</center>
 
What are the following times in Lojban?
#Nine o'clock
#Eleven o'clock in the morning
#Two in the afternoon
#A quarter to twelve
#Midnight
#9:25
#12:15
#14:30
#17:03
#20:00:03
#21:54:16.71
 
<center>Exercise 2</center>
 
What do these Lojban sentences mean?
 
#'''li pamu pi'e reno tcika lonu mi dunda lo cukta do'''
#'''li ze tcika lonu tivni la .SEsamis.strit.'''
#'''li pa tcika lonu mi ciska'''
#'''la .klaudias. cu nelci lonu zo'e vecnu loi kabri la .iulias.'''
#'''la .tim. cu nelci lonu li paso tcika lonu la .meiris. cu cliva'''
 
===Preposition for time of day===
By using '''se''' we can get a more naturally sounding sentence:
:'''lo nu mi klama cu se tcika li pa no'''
:''I go at 10 o'clock''.
But you might still find too long and clumsy.
 
Well, here is the full definition of '''klama''':
:'''klama''' = ''x1 comes/goes to destination x2 from origin x3 via route x4 using means/vehicle x5''
 
So
:'''lo klama''' = ''a goer''
:'''lo se klama''' = ''a destionation gone to''
:'''lo te klama''' = ''an origin, starting point gone from''
:'''lo ve klama''' = ''a route''
:'''lo xe klama''' = ''a vehicle''
 
It would be nice if '''klama''' had a place for the time of going/coming, but it doesn't. (And after all, you wouldn't be happy to learn a ''six''-place verb!) So we should use a preposition:
:'''mi klama ti'u li pa no'''
:''I am going at 10:00''.
 
:'''ti'u''' = '''fi'o tcika''' = ''occurring at the time of day...''
 
'''klama''' now expresses a relationship between six things: a goer, a destination, a source, a route, a vehicle, <u>and</u> a time at which this all takes place.
 
<center>Exercise 4</center>
 
What are these days and months in Lojban?
 
#Saturday
#Thursday
#March
#August
#November
#December
 
===Dates<span id="5.6"></span>===
The basic verb for dates is
:'''datru''' = ''x1 (event) is dated/pertaining to day/occurring on day x2 of month x3 of year x4 in calendar x5''
The default calendar is the standard Western one as it is international. If you want to use, for example, the Arabic or Chinese calendars, you can put '''lo xrabo''' or '''lo jungo''' in the fourth place. (As always, context is important — in a discussion of Islamic history we would probably assume that the Arabic calendar was being used).
 
We can therefore say
:'''lonu lo remna cu klama lo lunra cu datru li repa li ze li pa so xa so'''
:<code>The-event a human goes (to) the moon is dated on day 21, month 7, year 1969.</code>
 
Remember that when we speak of dates in Lojban, we also need to specify the place on the globe where the date was calculated. The instant Neil Armstrong made that small step for (a) man, for instance, it wasn't the 21st of July everywhere on Earth. In Tokyo, it was closer to the 22nd. So if we want to point out that it was the 21st, ''Houston time'', we need to specify the x4 place of '''tcika'''. That means we can simply say:
:'''lonu lo remna cu klama lo lunra cu datru li re pa li ze li pa so xa so fi'o se tcika fo la .xustyn.'''
FI'O!!!
 
<center>Exercise 5 — history quiz</center>
Give the dates to answer these questions, using cmene for the years. If you don't happen to know them, that's OK — they're given at the bottom of the exercise.
#lonu la .kolombus. cu facki lo cnino gugde cu se detri ma
#la mexmet. cu dable'a la .konstantinupolis. de'i ma
#lonu fraso jecyga'ibai cu se detri ma
#la marks. joi la .engels. cu finti lo guntrusi'o selpeicku ku de'i ma {{^| {ku}. where from? have we covered it yet?}}
#la muxamed. cu klama la .medinas. de'i ma
(1492; 1453; 1789; 1848; 622)
 
===Days, months and seasons===
Here are the names of the days of the week:
*'''lo pavdei''' - ''Monday'' (1st day)
*'''lo reldei''' - ''Tuesday'' (2nd day)
*'''lo cibdei''' - ''Wednesday'' (3rd day)
*'''lo vondei''' - ''Thursday'' (4th day)
*'''lo mumdei''' - ''Friday'' (5th day)
*'''lo xavdei''' - ''Saturday'' (6th day)
*'''lo zeldei''' - ''Sunday'' (7th day)
 
And here are the names of months:
*'''pavma'i''' = ''January'' (1st month)
*'''relma'i''' = ''February'' (2nd month)
*'''cibma'i''' = ''March'' (3rd month)
*'''vonma'i''' = ''April'' (4th month)
*'''mumyma'i''' = ''May'' (5th month)
*'''xavma'i''' = ''June'' (6th month)
*'''zelma'i''' = ''July'' (7th month)
*'''bivma'i''' = ''August'' (8th month)
*'''sozma'i''' = ''September'' (9th month)
*'''pavnonma'i''' = ''October'' (10th month)
*'''pavypavma'i''' = ''November'' (11th month)
*'''pavrelma'i''' = ''December'' (12th month)
 
It is easier to remember them if you notice that they the first letters remind of numbers. Thus, Monday is the first day and start with '''pa''' (1) and so on.
 
The words for standard 4 seasons are:
{| class="wikitable"
|| '''lo vensa'''
|| ''spring''
|-
|| '''lo crisa'''
|| ''summer''
|-
|| '''lo critu'''
|| ''autumn''
|-
|| '''lo dunra'''
|| ''winter''
|}
 
===Calendars in other cultures===
The names of days of the week and months match international standards. However, there can be a need to describe conventions for cultures which for example do not use a seven-day week. In ordinary speech you are free to create compound verbs for that. For example, you can call the first month of Chinese calendar as '''lo jungo pavma'i''' (literally ''Chinese January'' although the first month in China rather starts in February).
And '''lo jungo pavdei''' could be the first day of the Chinese ten-day week. ('''jungo''' means ''x1 is a Chinese'').
 
The same logic can be applied if the seasons where you live don't match this pattern. For example, the rainy season or monsoon could be '''lo carvi citsi''' (from '''carvi''' = ''rain'', and '''citsi''' = ''season''). Here are some I made up for fun to give a better idea of the weather in Britain:
 
{| class="wikitable"
|| '''lo lenku carvi citsi'''
|| ''the cold rain'' — Spring
|-
|| '''lo mligla carvi citsi'''
|| ''the warm rain'' — Summer
|-
|| '''lo brife carvi citsi'''
|| ''the windy rain'' — Autumn
|-
|| '''lo dunja carvi citsi'''
|| ''the freezing rain'' — Winter
|}
 
Later in this course we'll see how to create new words in the form of lujvo and zi'evla and those words will have precise meanings and thus become terms. You'll actually need a pretty good knowledge of Lojban to make up lujvo on the spot, but we'll learn how to make some simple lujvo later on in this course.

Latest revision as of 20:01, 3 December 2023

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