Lesson 2: First sentences§
A sentence goes in the same order as in English: who, then the verb, then what.
- to nagu totu. "I see a dog." / "I see the dog."
- me momu osa. "You want water."
- wan nawi pasu. "She eats food." (wan is both "she" and "he")
There is no "a" or "the", and the verb never changes: to nagu, wan nagu, pen nagu ("we see"). Plural usually goes unmarked. You add la only when it matters, as in totu la "dogs", or you give the number: totu sa "two dogs" (numbers come in lesson 9).
When two verbs come in a row, it depends on the first one. If it takes an object (want, try, need, can, start, stop, like, help…), the second verb is that object, as in to momu isi. "I want to go." and walo alun "try to break". With any other verb, the second one describes the first: goyu pume "sit thinking".
muge "do, make" has two patterns. With a result and then a thing, it means to make the thing that way: muge upe tan "fix this" (make good this). With a thing and then a how, it means to do the thing that way: muge tan upe "do this well".
A comma marks a pause. It goes after anything that opens the sentence, as in afe, to nawi pasu. "Yesterday, I ate food." The time word afe "yesterday" sets the time, so nawi "eat" stays as it is. Tense is optional (lesson 10).
A comma also goes around a name you're calling. The full list is in lesson 12.