charfen — a quarter
sem shifen — seven tenths
tri stofen — three hundredths
pet otfen — five eighths.
Decimal fractions are pronounced with the help of the word koma (comma):
tri koma pet — 3,5
dwa koma semshi pet — 2,75
One can also say "dwa koma semshi pet stofen".
There is also a special word for "half":
haf — half
un e haf — one and a half
dwa e haf — two and a half
• The suffix -ple:
dwaple — double
triple — triple
charple — quadruple, etc.
In the adverbial form it becomes -plem:
dwaplem — doubly
triplem — triply
• A noun after a numeral is not pluralized:
pet jen — five men
tristo dolar — three hundred dollars
sem pes sukra — seven pieces of sugar
• A composite modifier "numeral + noun of measure + adjective":
tri metra glube riva — a river three meters deep
Sey mur es dwa metra gao. — This wall is 2 meters high.
Govo, pagi-ney shi yar bak! — Trupa grauli. — Nu bu fai dela om osta kel es shi yar lao! — “A bull paid ten years ago!” the Pack snarled. “What do we care for bones ten years old?” Days of the week, months
Names for days of the week are compounds from a number and the particle 'di', Monday is counted as the first day:
undi — Monday
dwadi — Tuesday
tridi — Wednesday
chardi — Thursday
petdi — Friday
sitdi — Saturday
semdi — Sunday
Names for months are based on Latin ones, which are spread very widely. However, compounds ("month"+number) are also acceptable:
January — januar (mes-un)
February — februar (mes-dwa)
March — marto (mes-tri)
April — april (mes-char)
May — mey (mes-pet)
June — yuni (mes-sit)
July — yuli (mes-sem)
August — augusto (mes-ot)
September — septemba (mes-nin)
October — oktoba (mes-shi)
November — novemba (mes-shi-un)
December — desemba (mes-shi-dwa)
Possible ways of expressing the date:
Dey dwashi-un de mes-nin. — The twenty first of September.
Dey 21 mes 9 yar 1945. — The 21 September 1945. Word formation
LdP tends to keep words unchanged, so it basically uses either (hyphenated) particles or suffixes beginning with a consonant which are simply added to a word. We believe that this makes word structure clearer and understanding easier. Diminutive and augmentative particles and suffixes
There is an augmentative particle gro-, a diminutive particle -ki (these particles are hyphenated), an augmentative suffix "gron", and a diminutive suffix "kin".
The suffixes are used to make notions which qualitatively differ from the basic noun:
dom — house
domkin — a house that is inherently small (cabin, hut)
domgron — a house that is inherently large (mansion)
denta — tooth
dentagron — tusk
barela — barrel
barelakin — keg
As to the particles, they modify the meaning within the limits of a given quality; gro- is used before the modified word, -ki after it:
dom-ki — a little house
gro-dom — a big house.
The suffixes are used to form nouns only, while the particles may be used with different parts of speech:
gro-danke — thank you very much
gro-gran — huge
gro-gao — very high
lu gro-pi vodka kom akwa — he swills vodka like water
gro-chifan — to guzzle, overeat
zai gro-pluvi — it is pouring
zai pluvi-ki — it drizzles
treba chifan-ki — one should have a snack
somni-ki — to take a nap
It should be noted that there is also an intensifying adverb "gro", so that the mentioned phrases may also be constructed as: lu pi vodka gro, kom akwa; chifan gro; zai pluvi gro.
"Gro" expresses a greater extent of augmentation/intensification, than "muy" (very):
muy hao! — very well!
gro-hao! — great! excellent!
The particles may also be used with proper nouns:
Jon-ki — Johnny Particles NEY, SHE and their derivatives
ney — genitive particle; modifier-making particle; with verbs denotes passive participle; makes ordinal numerals. Ex.:
mata — mother
mata-ney klaida — mother's clothes
jen — man/woman
jen-ney — human
rude-fas-ney jen — red-faced person
gran-oko-ney gela — big-eyed girl
yu-oli-ney idea — the ideas of all of you
vidi — to see
vidi-ney — seen
tri-ney — third
nem — the adverbial form from -ney:
parta-ney — partial
parta-nem — partially, partly
un-ney — first
un-nem — at first, firstly
ofensi-ney — offended, resentful
ofensi-nem — resentfully
she — active participle marker:
ahfi — to hide, conceal
ahfi-she — hiding
respekti — to respect
respekti-she — respecting
shem — the adverbial form from -she:
respekti-she — respecting
respekti-shem — respectfully
ahfi-she — hiding
ahfi-shem — stealthily
dumi-she — thinking
dumi-shem — thoughtfully, pensively
sha — suffix of doer:
milki — to milk
milki-sha — milker (person)
kapti — to catch
kapti-sha — catcher
kan — to look
kan-sha — onlooker, viewer. Compound words
In compound words the modifying word stands before the main word:
guntaim — working time
flaifish — flying fish
suryaflor — sunflower
akwagarmiser — water-heater
mauskapter — mouse trap
lernikitaba — textbook
sendijen — envoy
saltikorda — skipping-rope
The adjective suffix -e may be dropped:
garibjen — stranger (garibe jen)
platbota — flat-boat (plate bota) Shortenings for words with -ney, -nem, -shem
For nouns ending in Ca (where C is a consonant) one may shorten Ca-ney => Ce and Ca-nem => Cem, for example:
farka-ney => farke
farka-nem => farkem
But if "ney" expresses the genitive, shortening may not be done: mata-ney kitaba (not "mate kitaba").
For polysyllabic i-verbs one may shorten Ci-ney => Cen and Ci-nem => Cem, for example:
ofensi-ney => ofensen
ofensi-nem => ofensem
If no ambiguity arises, one may also shorten Ci-shem => Cem:
ahfi-shem => ahfem
The short forms are given in the dictionary in brackets after the full forms. Endearment forms
Endearment forms of names may be constructed by shortening and adding -i:
Robert => Robi
Dimitri => Dimi
Attilio => Ati
Oxana => Oxi
Natalia => Nati
Other cases: