Lojban grammar examples
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"verb" forms | |
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ko'a dunda ko'a dunda ko'e ko'a dunda ko'e ko'i |
He gives. He gives it. He, gives it to her. |
ko'a se dunda | It is a gift. |
ko'a te dunda | He is a recipient. |
ko'a ca dunda ko'a pu dunda ko'a ba dunda |
He now gives. He gave. He will give. |
ko'a pu pu dunda ko'a ba pu dunda |
He had given. He will have given. |
ko'a ca ca'o dunda | He is now giving. |
ko'a pu ca'o dunda | He has been giving. |
Lojban grammar derives great flexibility and variety from manipulation of tense particles that do much of its work. as demonstrated here, it is the particles that determine whether a predicate—a term of extralinguistic reference, such as dunda and bajra—is to serve in a given statement as a noun, verb, adjective or adverb, as in more familiar grammars. thus pu (before), ca (now) and ba (after) give the predicate dunda (to give) the function of a verb (upper left) and "conjugate" it through the future, present and past tense. compound forms of these operators yield the compound tenses. for example, pu pu (before-before) indicates the pluperfect tense. in such combinations they not only duplicate all of the familiar grammatical forms but go far beyond to express relationships that can be only clumsily approximated in the natural languages, as is indicated by the translation of the compound operator ba zi ze'u at center left. the flexibility of the system is suggested further by the transformations of dunda (in this table give, giver, gift, generous, generously, generosity, and so on) in accord with its association with operators and connectives or its place in a multiple predicate. |
"adverb" forms | ||
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ko'a ro roi dunda ko'a so'e roi dunda ko'a so'o roi dunda |
She always gives. She usually gives. She sometimes gives. | |
ko'a pu zi dunda ko'a pu zu dunda ko'a ba zi dunda |
She recently gave. She gave long ago. She will soon give. | |
ko'a vi dunda ko'a va dunda ko'a vu dunda |
She gives here. She gives there. She gives over there. | |
ko'a bu'u ro da dunda | She gives everywhere (in all places). | |
ko'a ba zi ze'u vi dunda | Soon she will be giving here for a long time. |
negatives | ||
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ko'a na ku dunda na ku da dunda no ko'a dunda |
He doesn't give. It is false that anyone gives. None of them gives. |
"noun" forms | ||
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lo prenu lo vi prenu lo va prenu |
a person this person that person | |
lo ro prenu lo so'e prenu lo so'i prenu |
all people most people many people | |
no lo prenu lo pa prenu lo re prenu |
none of the people a person, one person two people | |
ro lo ci prenu | all of the three people |
abstract "nouns" | ||
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lo nu dunda lo nu bajra |
a/the giving a/the run |
"adjective" forms | ||
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lo laldo prenu lo dunda prenu |
an old person a giving person | |
lo melbi verba zdani lo verba melbi zdani |
a pretty-child home a childishly pretty home | |
lo prenu poi laldo lo prenu poi na'o dunda lo prenu poi na'o dunda gi'e laldo |
a person who is old a person who is generous a person who is generous and old | |
lo prenu poi dunda ko'e lo prenu poi dunda ko'e ko'i |
a person who gives it a person who gives it to him | |
lo laldo prenu poi pu dunda ci ko'e lo ze vi bajra | the old person who gave three of them to these seven runners |
identities | ||
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ko'a du la djon ko'a du lo nanmu ko'a du lo laldo nanmu poi pu dunda ci ko'e lo ze vi bajra |
He is John. He is the man. He is the old man who gave 3 of them to these 7 runners. |
compound forms | ||
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ko'a bajra gi'a cadzu ko'a bajra gi'e cadzu |
He runs or walks. He runs and walks. | |
ko'a a ko'e bajra ko'a e ko'e bajra |
He or she runs. He and she run | |
ko'a bajra i ja ko'e cadzu ko'a bajra i je ko'e cadzu ko'a cadzu i janai ko'e bajra ko'a bajra i jo ko'e cadzu |
He runs or she walks. He runs and she walks. If he runs then she walks. He runs if and only if she walks | |
ko'a bajra ki'u lo nu ko'e cadzu ko'a bajra tai lo nu ko'e cadzu |
He runs because she walks. He runs like she walks. | |
ki'u lo nu ko'a cadzu vau ko'e bajra | Because he walks, she runs. | |
ko'a bajra ca lo nu ko'e cadzu ko'a bajra ba lo nu ko'e cadzu ko'a bajra bu'u lo nu ko'e cadzu |
He runs when she walks. He runs after she walks. He runs where she walks. | |
ca lo nu ko'e cadzu vau ko'e bajra | When she walks he runs. |
universals | ||
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ro bajra cu cadzu ko'a bajra ca ro nu ko'e cadzu ko'a bajra bu'u ro nu ko'e cadzu ro dunda cu dunda da |
Anyone who runs walks. She runs whenever he walks. She runs wherever he walks. Everyone who gives gives something. |
attitudinal forms | ||
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le'o ko'a bajra ue ko'a bajra oinai ko'a bajra |
What! She runs? [anger] Well! So she runs. [surprise] How nice that she runs! [pleasure] | |
xu ko'a bajra ma bajra bu'u ma ko'a bajra |
Does she run? Who runs? Where does she run? | |
je'u ko'a bajra la'a ko'a bajra ju'o cu'i ko'a bajra je'u nai ko'a bajra |
Yes; she runs. She probably runs. Perhaps she runs. No, she doesn't run. | |
ai mi bajra au mi bajra a'o mi bajra e'u do bajra |
I'm going to run. I want to run. I hope to run. I suggest you run. | |
e'i mi bajra | I must run. |