yunge young — yunga young man/woman (yungo young man, yungina young woman) saje wise — saja sage
jamile beautiful — jamila beautiful woman/handsome man (jamilo handsome man, jamilina beautiful woman)
konstante constant (adj.) — konstanta constant (noun) absolute absolute (adj.) — absoluta absolute (noun).
Using the pronoun wan ("an individual, one") has a similar effect: adulte adult (adj.) — adulte wan adult (noun)
Kapti-ney wan bu shwo-te nixa. — The captured (person) did not say anything. Riche wan e povre wan - oli es jen. — The rich and the poor - all are people.
The particle "la", in plural "las" (written with a hyphen) placed after adjective or participle may be optionally used as a substantivator or a substitute word, in order to avoid repetition of the same noun:
Hir ye rosas, ob yu preferi blan-las o hwan-las? — Hwan-las.
There are roses here; do you prefer the white or the yellow ones? — The yellow.
Walaa dwa kitaba. Sey-la es hao e toy-la es buhao. - Here are two books. This one is good, and
that one is bad.
Adverbs
Adverbs and adverbial phrases come directly after the verb, or at the beginning of the sentence.
Adverbs of manner are formed from adjectives by changing -e to -em:
klare clear — klarem clearly.
If adjective ends in a consoinant, -em is added:
santush satisfied, contented — santushem contentedly.
In other cases adverb has the same form: hao - good; well kway - quick; quickly.
Other kinds of adverbs may end differently: poy - then, later; wek - away; uupar - up; for - further, on, forth.
Here are some spatial and temporal adverbs and prepositions:
avan - forward (where to?)
avanen - ahead (of) (at what place?);
aus - out (where to?)
ausen - outside (at what place?);
bak - back(wards)
baken - behind;
in - in
inu - into
inen - inside;
a lefta - to the left
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 (often in -u), while those expressing being in (at) a certain point end in -en (this ending is unstressed).
Personal pronouns
me
nu
yu
yu
ta (lu, ela) it
li
me — I
yu — you (sg., pl.)
ta — he, she, it (common for animate)
lu — he
ela — she
it — it (inanimate)
nu — we
li — they
It does not have the meaning "this, that" (as reference to the actions, conditions or events mentioned in the preceding or following statement); these meanings are expressed by pronouns "se" (this) and "to" (that):
Me jan to. — I know that. ("Me jan it" would mean "I know it (something inanimate)").
Personal pronouns don't change. As a subject they come before the verb, as an object directly after the verb. The dative case is marked with the preposition "a". The indefinite personal pronoun is "oni".
Possessives:
me-ney
nu-ney
yu-ney
yu-ney
yu-oli-ney
ta-ney
li-ney
lu-ney
ela-ney
it-ney
There are also shorter forms:
may
nuy
yur
yur
suy (luy, elay) suy
ley
may — my
yur — your (sg., pl.)
suy — its, his, her, one's (general for 3rd person singular)
luy — his
elay — her
nuy — our
ley — their.
Possessives don't change.
Demonstratives
se (this), to (that) — are used in the function of noun.
sey (this, these), toy (that, those) — are used before a noun, in the function of adjective.
Kwo es se? Se es auto. — What is this? This is a car. ('Se' may be omitted in such sentences: Kwo es? Es auto). Me jan to. — I know that.
Se es auto e to es bisikla. — This is a car, and that is a bicycle. To es avion, bu es faula. — That is an airplane, not a bird.
Sey autos es hwan e toy autos es blu. — These cars are yellow and those cars are blue.
Interrogates and relatives
Kwo? — What? Kwel? — Which?
Ke — that (introduces subordinate clause): Me jan ke yu es hir. - I know that you are here. Kel — which, who, that (introduces subordinate clause, replaces subject): Es gel a kel janmog gani muy hao. - This is a girl that can sing very well.
Other interrogatives and relatives coincide:
kwanto — how much/many
wo - where; fon wo - where from, a wo - whereto
komo — how
way - why
wen - when.
Grammatical words
Some frequently used grammatical words/particles: kom — as
tanto — so much, so many, thus much
tak — so, this way koy — some eni — any, whatever kada - every otre — other, another ol — all, the whole of oli — all, everybody olo — everything
nul — no (whatever), none (whatever)
tal — such
same — same
sempre — always
neva — never
nixa — nothing.
A detailed list of grammatical words along with examples of their usage is available in the Grammatical dictionary. Ibidem compound pronouns and adverbs are explained, such as:
koysa — something koywan — someone koylok — somewhere koytaim — somewhen, sometime koygrad — to some degree koykomo — in some way
enisa — anything, whatever
eniwan — anybody, anyone, any (person)
enilok — anywhere
enitaim — anytime
enikomo — in any way
kadawan — everyone kadalok — everywhere
oltaim — all the time, constantly
nullok — nowhere nulgrad — not in the least nulwan — nobody nulves — not once, never
unves — once, one day
koyves — sometimes
otreves — next time, another time
otrelok — in another place.
Questions
There are two interrogative particles. One of them (ob) is placed at the beginning of an interrogative sentence, the other (ku) at the end or directly after the word to which it relates. It is practical to use "ob" with longer sentences and "ku" with shorter ones:
Ob yu mog shwo a me, wo es zuy blise fanshop? — Can you tell me, where is the nearest food store?
Yu lai ku? - Are you coming? Me lai, hao ku? -I'll come, OK? Me darfi zin ku? - May I come in?
The particle "ob" also plays the role of the conjunction "whether": Me bu jan, ob lu es in dom. - I don't know whether he is at home.
There is one more variant of building interrogative sentences: verb repetition with the negative particle "bu" in the middle: Yu go-bu-go? — Are you going (or not)? Ye-bu-ye koy idea? — Are there any ideas?
There is no subject-predicate inversion. A question word like "kwo" what or "kwel" which may be placed at the beginning of interrogative sentence, although it may not be the subject: Kwo yu dumi om se? - What do you think about it?
The turn of speech "isn't it?" is "bu ver?": Es hao filma, bu ver? - It's a good film, isn't it?
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.