Lingwa de Planeta | Verbal Particles
In this lesson you will learn:
- 14 verbs (kan, slu, telefoni, weiti, miti, klosi, ofni, begin, fini, stopi, chi, pi, bikam, repeti, maini)
- 8 nouns (dwar, leta, versa, kafee, aiskrem, chay, vino, dela)
- 10 particles (ba, bye, hay, magari, nomagari, wud, he, sal, zai, gwo)
- 6 affixes (en-, ek-, fa-, mah-, -(i)fi, -(i)si)
- 1 conjunction (si)
- 4 useful words (shayad, mogbi, yo, haishi)
- 3 courtesy words (plis, danke, skusi)
In total 47 vocabulary units (+167 from lessons 1-3 = a total of 214 units)
Expressing commands, requests, wishes
The basic form, used without a subject, expresses the imperative:
- Jawabi! (Answer!)
To express a request, plis (please) or bi karim (be so kind) is usually added.
Lidepla | English |
---|---|
Helpi (a) me, plis. | Help me, please. |
if the verb obviously has only an indirect object, the preposition can be omitted: helpi a me = helpi me
To explicitly express the imperative, the particle ba can be added:
Lidepla | English |
---|---|
Shwo ba! | Speak! |
Plis, bu ofni ba sey dwar. | Please, don't open this door. |
To express the imperative in negative form, the particle bye is also used (in this case the particle ba is not necessary):
Lidepla | English |
---|---|
Bye klosi dwar! | Don't close the door! |
The meaning "let's (do something)" can also be expressed with the particle ba:
Lidepla | English |
---|---|
Nu go ba! | Let's go! |
Ta go ba! | Let him/her go! |
A wish can also be expressed with the following particles (they are placed at the beginning of the sentence):
- Hay - Volitive, I wish
- Magari - hopefully
- Nomagari - hopefully not
Lidepla | English |
---|---|
Hay ta lai! | May he/she come! |
Magari ela shwo om me! | I wish she would talk about me! |
Nomagari li kwesti om se! | I hope they don't ask this! |
After these particles, not only the basic form of the verb can be used.
Lidepla | English |
---|---|
Magari ta he kwesti om to! | I wish he/she had already asked about that! |
wish that the action has already occurred
Translation Exercise
- Please don't run: I can't understand what you're telling me.
- Please give me my flower. It's there.
- Please read this book to me: I want to hear you read.
- I wish he/she understood me!
- I wish I hadn't believed them!
- Wait for me here, please.
- Let him/her talk to me about it.
Condition and conditionality
When responding to a request, sometimes the word "would" is needed: wud.
Lidepla | English |
---|---|
Me wud helpi yu, bat me bu mog: me mus go. | I would help you, but I can't: I have to go. |
And the word "would" is closely related to the word
- si - if...
- dan - then
Lidepla | English |
---|---|
Me wud mog helpi yu si yu wud pregi. | I could help you if you asked. |
Si yu wud pregi dan me wud mog helpi. | If you asked, then I could help. |
The word (conjunction) "if" can, of course, be used without "would":
Lidepla | English |
---|---|
Si yu pregi, (dan) me ve helpi. | If you ask, I will help you. |
Translation Exercise
- If you don't believe me, I won't come.
- If you want to play and not work, don't come.
- Could you sleep if we sang and danced here?
- I would answer you, but I don't understand what you're asking about.
Clarification of the time of the action
When responding to a request, explaining something in the answer, sometimes it is necessary to specifically indicate that an action is happening at this moment, soon, or, on the contrary, that it has just finished.
For this, in Lidepla there are special clarifying particles:
- zai - "right now"
- sal - "very soon", "I'm going to"
- he - "already finished"
- yus he - "just finished"
Lidepla | English |
---|---|
Me bu mog jawabi nau: me zai chi. | I can't answer now: I'm eating. |
Me bu mog lai: nu sal chi deyfan. | I can't come: we are about to have dinner ("to eat dinner"). |
The particles wud and he can go together before the verb if it is about a supposition about the past:
Lidepla | English |
---|---|
Si yu wud he kwesti, me wud he jawabi. | If you had asked, I would have answered. |
Bat yu bu he kwesti e me bu he jawabi. | But you didn't ask, and I didn't answer. |
Pay attention that some verbs can participate in the construction of verbal sequences:
Lidepla | English |
---|---|
go somni | go to sleep |
begin shwo | begin to speak |
stopi gani | stop singing |
Translation Exercise
- I came, I'm eating and I'm going to sleep.
- He just finished dancing.
- He's about to start playing now.
- I would have told you, but you didn't come.
It can also happen that you need to say that the action, in principle, took place, at some point, no matter when.
Or that it never happened. For this there is the particle gwo:
Lidepla | English |
---|---|
Me gwo visiti ela. Me bu yao go adar snova. | I visited her. I don't want to go there again. |
Me bu gwo shwo kun ela. | I didn't talk to her (not once in my life). |
Translation Exercise
- He says he just arrived and therefore cannot read the letter (leta) right now.
- He didn't understand that she had (never) seen him, and wouldn't come if I didn't talk to her.
- I had to work today, so I just got home, I'm eating and talking to the kids about why there are no crocodiles (krokodil) in America ("ik" unstressed, the accent falls on the e).
- I will not open the door (dwar) of my house, whoever comes and whatever they say. I will not go because she does not want to open the door for me.
Aspect prefixes
Often, especially when telling a story, when it matters how actions relate to each other, it is important to show that the action began, or that it was abrupt, brief, unique.
For this there are the following verbal prefixes:
- en- - beginning of the action
- ek- - sudden, one-time
Lidepla | English |
---|---|
Nu promeni e ta en-gani. | We are (were) walking, and he starts to sing (started to sing, began to sing). |
Nu audi ke koywan ek-krai. | We hear (heard) that someone suddenly cried out. |
With the help of these prefixes, verbs corresponding to Russian perfective verbs can also be formed:
- jan - to know
- en-jan - to find out
- krai - to shout
- ek-krai - to shout suddenly
Translation Exercise
- to want
- to get up
- to remember
- to move
- to fall asleep
Transitivity / intransitivity particles
Many verbs in Lidepla can be used with or without an object:
Lidepla | English |
---|---|
Dwar ofni. | The door opens. |
Me ofni dwar. | I open the door. |
However, in some cases it is necessary to specifically emphasize the absence of an object (intransitivity of the verb).
This can be done with the particle fa-:
Lidepla | English |
---|---|
Ela fa-astoni. | She is surprised (was surprised). |
Oni mog audi musika. Musika fa-audi. | One can hear music. Music is heard, the sound arrives. |
With the particle mah- you can emphasize transitivity or form a transitive verb:
- astoni - to surprise (oneself)
- mah-astoni - to surprise
- remembi - to remember
- mah-remembi - to remember, to bring to mind
- chi - to eat
- mah-chi - to feed
Translation Exercise
- to give to drink
- to plant
- to be visible
The same particles are also used with adjectives to indicate a change in quality:
- mah- (to make or turn something)
- fa- (to become or turn into something)
they are written before the adjective with a hyphen
- syao - small
- mah-syao - to decrease
- gran - big
- fa-gran - to increase, to grow
It should be noted that these verbs mainly denote a change in quality. To indicate the establishment of a new quality, there is also the verb bikam (to become):
Lidepla | English |
---|---|
Kinda sal bikam aika gao. | The child will soon become quite tall. |
To form verbs (from adjectives or other verbs) suffixes can also be used:
- -(i)fi - synonym of fa
- -(i)si - synonym of mah
- klare - clear
- klarifi - to become clear
- klarisi - to clarify
The particle fa- can also be used with nouns that designate, for example, the time of day:
- dey - day
- fa-dey - to dawn, to become day
Expression of supposition
A supposition can be expressed with the words:
- shayad - probably
- mogbi - perhaps
- musbi - must be
after these words, the basic form of the verb is usually used if the supposition refers to the future:
Lidepla | English |
---|---|
Shayad ta bu lai sedey. | He/she probably won't come today. |
Mogbi li he lai? | Perhaps they have already come? |
In such sentences, the words yo (already) and haishi (still, yet) can be useful:
Lidepla | English |
---|---|
Shayad yur kinda haishi bu janmog shwo. | Probably your child still can't speak. |
Mogbi yur kinda janmog gani yo? | Perhaps your child can already sing? |
New verbs
Lidepla | English | Example |
---|---|---|
kan | to look | me bu kan, ob yu bu kan-te? nu bu ve kan |
slu | to listen | ob yu bu slu? me bu ve slu, yu bu slu-te |
telefoni | to call by phone | me ve telefoni a yu, ob yu he telefoni? ela bu telefoni a me neva |
weiti | to wait | ob ela ve weiti? me bu weiti-te, lu bu weiti |
miti | to meet | me bu miti, ob yu bu gwo miti mutu? nu ve miti |
klosi | to close | li klosi-te, me ve klosi, yu bu klosi |
ofni | to open | me ofni-te, nu ve ofni dwar fo yu, ela zai ofni |
begin | to begin | nu begin, ob yu begin-te? ob li sal begin? |
fini | to finish | nu fini, li ve fini, me bu he fini shwo |
stopi | to stop | me stopi, ob yu stopi-te? li bu ve stopi |
chi | to eat | ob yu zai chi? li chi, nu ve chi |
pi | to drink | me pi, ob yu pi-te? ta bu ve pi |
Text
In animal-shop.
- Ob ye papagay?
- Non, bat yu mog kupi pelatuk (woodpecker).
- Ob ta toshi janmog shwo?
- Non, bat ta janmog yusi Morse-alfabet.
- animal-shop (pet shop)
- papagay (parrot)
- kupi (to buy)
- yusi (to use)
- Morse-alfabet (Morse alphabet)
Etiquette: Thank you! Excuse me, what did you say?
To express gratitude, the word Danke! (thank you) or the expression Danke gro! (thank you very much) is used.
You can respond to gratitude with the expression Bi hao! (You're welcome! With pleasure! No problem!) or Es syao dela. (It's nothing. Don't mention it).
If you didn't hear what your interlocutor said, you can ask again:
- Skusi? (Excuse me?)
Lidepla | English |
---|---|
Kwo yu he shwo? | What did you say? |
Repeti ba, plis. | Repeat, please. |
If you heard, but don't quite understand what it's about, you can ask like this:
Lidepla | English |
---|---|
Kwo yu maini? | What do you mean? |
Language in focus: The Arabic language
The number of native Arabic speakers is estimated at around 250 million people. However, classical Arabic, as the language of the Quran, is used in a limited way by followers of Islam worldwide, which already totals more than one and a half billion people.
The appearance of the Quran, written in Arabic, in the 7th century, became a decisive moment in the history of the Arabic language. From that moment, Arabic script was fully formalized, and the standardization of the language (which existed mainly as a set of related dialects) and the development of its literary form began.
Linguists point out that the first monuments of the Arabic language testify to a significant amount of borrowings from neighboring Semitic and Aramaic languages, from Persian, Greek, Latin, and later also from Turkish.
The next crucial period in the development of the Arabic language was the turn of the 18th-19th centuries, when economic contacts between the Arab East and the West intensified. Today, international scientific and technical terms and expressions characteristic of the media actively penetrate the Arabic language, despite the activity of the academies of the Arabic language, which do everything possible to preserve it in its most unaltered form.
Excerpt from The Little Prince in Arabic (the transcription only approximately reflects the pronunciation; in Arabic it is written from right to left):
ah, ayyuhaa alamiir assaghiir, maa alwakt kadartu alaa an afham hayaataka alkaiiba, waktan tawiilan mad/saa wa lam tamlik — lita'aasii nafsik — illaa jamaal mash'hid g/huruubi ashams.
amaltu bihaad/saa fii ssabaahi alyawm arraabi.
amaltu bihaad/saa fii alyawmi arraabi indamaa kult :
"anaa uhibbu mashaahid ghuruubi ashams kat/siran, ta'aala, dina nuraakib hidaahaa.
Words from Lidepla with Arabic origin:
Nouns:
- salam - peace, hello!
- talim - education, enlightenment
- kitaba - book
- dafta - notebook
- kalam - pencil, pen
- taraf - side
- arda - earth
- sabah - morning
- bulbul - nightingale
- ramla - sand
- sahil - shore
- saif - summer
- fauha - smell
- hamsa - whisper
Verbs:
- shakwi - to complain
- jawabi - to answer
- ahfi - to hide
- balbati - to murmur, to bubble
- raki - to ride something, to go on something
- safari - to travel
Adjectives:
- karim - kind
- rahim - merciful
- salim - whole, unharmed
- muhim - important
- jamile - beautiful
- garibe - strange, foreign
- swate - black
- jatile - cunning, ingenious, complicated