leften — at the left (of)
a desna — to the right
desnen — at the right (of)
nich — down(wards)
nichen — down (at what place?)
uupar — up(wards)
uuparen — up (at what place?)
miden — in the middle of
afte — after
aften — afterwards, later on
bifoo — before
bifooen — formerly
One can see that the spatial adverbs expressing movement towards a certain point end in different ways, while those expressing being in (at) a certain point end in -en (this ending is unstressed).
• Some adverbs are composed of (abridged) words:
kadalok — everywhere
enitaim — anytime
koygrad — to some extent
• The preposition pa (of a wide meaning) introduces an adverbial phrase:
pa fortuna — fortunately
pa aksham — in the evening
pa un-ney kansa — by first sight
shwo pa LdP — speak LdP Comparison
• The comparative degree of adverbs and adjectives is formed with the help of the words 'pyu' more ('... kem' ... than) and 'meno' less ('... kem' ... than); the superlative degree is formed with the help of the words 'zuy' most and 'minim' least.
hao — good; well
pyu hao — better
zuy hao — the best
meno hao — less good
minim hao — least good
bade — bad
pyu bade — worse
zuy bade — the worst
meno bade— less bad
minim bade — least bad
Es zuy muhim kwesta. — It's the most important question.
Sey kamisa es pyu hao kem toy-la. — This shirt is better than that one.
Pyu hao tardem kem neva. — Better late than never.
Ela es meno atenta-ney kem lu. — She is less attentive than he.
minim long — the least long
Lu hev zuy shao mani. — He's got the least money.
Lo zuy hao es tu returni. — The best thing is to return.
• Equality of comparison:
sam… kom — as... as:
Lu es sam riche kom ela. — He is as rich as she is.
• Pyu, meno, zuy and minim are also adverbs meaning to a greater/lesser/the greatest/the least extent:
Me pri se pyu. — I like this more.
Me pri se meno. — I like this less.
Me pri se zuy. — I like this most.
Me pri se minim. — I like this least.
• The adverbs ‘mucho’ many, much and ‘shao’ few, little, besides regular comparative forms (pyu mucho, meno mucho, zuy mucho, minim mucho; pyu shao, zuy shao), have also short forms pyu, meno, maiste, minim:
Lu hev pyu. — He has more
Lu hev meno. — He has less.
Lu hev minim. — He has least. (=Lu hev zuy shao.)
Lu hev maiste. — He has most. (=Lu hev zuy mucho.)
‘Maiste’ is also an adjective meaning most, greatest in number/extent:
in maiste kasu — in most cases
maiste jen — most people
maiste parta — the most part
maiste taim — most of the time, the most time
• Expressions like “as soon as possible”, “as little as possible” are expressed by means of 'tanto... kom posible', 'zuy ... posible':
Lai tanto kway kom posible. (Lai zuy kway posible.) — Come as soon as possible.
Shumi zuy shao posible. — Make as little noise as possible.
Safara mus bi zuy lente posible. — The journey should be as slow as possible.
• The expressions "the more…, the more", "the less..., the less" — "kem pyu... tem pyu", "kem meno... tem meno":
Kem pyu lao, tem pyu stupide. — The older, the sillier.
Kem meno mani, tem meno problema. — Less money, less problems.
The word "tem" can also be used beyond the expression "tem...kem":
tem pyu hao — so much the better
Es tem pyu surprisive ke… — It's all the more surprising that… Numerals The cardinal numbers
nol — 0
un — 1
dwa — 2
tri — 3
char — 4
pet — 5
sit — 6
sem — 7
ot — 8
nin — 9
shi — 10
(the numerals from 11 to 19 are written with a hyphen; the accent is on the second syllable)
shi-un — 11
shi-dwa — 12
shi-tri — 13
shi-char — 14
shi-pet — 15
shi-sit — 16
shi-sem — 17
shi-ot — 18
shi-nin — 19
(20, 30...90 are written together, the accent on the first syllable)
dwashi — 20
dwashi-un — 21
dwashi-dwa — 22...
trishi — 30
charshi — 40
petshi — 50
sitshi — 60
semshi — 70
otshi — 80
ninshi — 90
sto — 100
sto-un — 101
sto-dwa — 102 ...
dwasto — 200
tristo — 300
charsto — 400
petsto — 500
sitsto — 600
semsto — 700
otsto — 800
ninsto — 900
mil — 1000
milion — million
25473 — dwashi-pet mil charsto-semshi-tri (mil, milion are written separately, the others with a hyphen) The ordinal numerals
These are formed with the help of the particle “-ney”:
un-ney — first
dwa-ney — second
tri-ney — third
char-ney — forth...
shi-ney — tenth
shi-un-ney — eleventh...
sto-petshi-char-ney — one hundred fifty forth.
Replacing –ney with –nem gives adverbial forms:
un-nem — firstly; at first
dwa-nem — secondly
tri-nem — thirdly
char-nem — in the forth place...
shi-nem — in the tenth place
shi-un-nem — in the eleventh place...
sto-petshi-char-nem — in the one hundred fifty forth place. Numeral suffixes
• -ka — the suffix forming nouns from numerals. For example, "petka" may denote a bus number 5, or grade of "five" signifying "excellent", or a five-dollar note ("fiver"), etc. Such nouns are practical with rather small numbers, up to 100.
unka — one
dwaka — two, deuce
trika — three
charka — four
petka — five…
shika — ten
shi-dwaka — dozen
dwashika — twenty
trishika — thirty
stoka — a hundred
• -fen —forms fractions:
un (de) dwafen — one half
un trifen — one third