Lesson 12: Longer sentences§

yen "and", lu "or" and un "but" join nouns, verbs, describing words or whole clauses. To list nouns, use yen: mole yen wede "mother and father". Two nouns side by side don't make a list. lu X lu Y means "either X or Y, not both": lu osa lu pasu.

don "if", gi "because", nin "while", wo "after" and ya "before" can each start a clause. wun is "that", as in to pume wun … "I think that …".

man clauses§

A man clause after a noun describes it, the way "who", "which" and "where" do in English. The noun fills the missing part of the clause. It can be the one doing the action, ewo man obu "the person who comes", or the one it's done to, mabo man me la yaga "the papers you put".

For a place or time, end the clause with the relation word: kemu man to nume mon "the place where I live" (place that I live at).

A comma closes a man clause, since there's no word for the job, and nothing else in the phrase can come after it.

Opening a sentence§

A time or place phrase can open the sentence: mon minfi, … "at noon, …". To set a topic, start with pi: pi tale la, to mu lugo. "As for the cars, I don't know." An if or when clause can open it too: don me obu, to gun sogi. "If you come, I'll be happy."

When several of these open a sentence, the linker comes first (gi tan, "so"), then time, place or topic, then the if or when clause, each followed by a comma. The particle comes after all of them (lesson 4).

Only a person word at the very start can be someone being called (lesson 8). Anything else there is a time, place or topic.

Commas§

Put a comma where you'd pause:

after someone called at the start, and before someone called at the end
after anything that opens the sentence
after a subject that contains a clause or a derived phrase, before its verb: ewo man obu, gun no tofo. "The person who's coming is a teacher."
between who gets something and a long thing given
between clauses joined by yen or un when the first ends in a noun
before a tone word at the end (lesson 8)
between month and day (dunan pi yawu, dili pi mape)
after a man clause, to close it before more words

In casual writing you can drop commas that are obvious.

Where a clause goes changes what it attaches to. At the start, it belongs to the main sentence: nin leso, to sin miya ewo man sigo "in the morning, I watched the person who came back". At the end, it belongs to the innermost clause before it: to sin miya ewo man sigo nin leso "I watched the person who came back in the morning". The full rule is in section 4.4 of the reference.

A quote follows a say-verb and is a full sentence with its own particle: wan oyi "tin obu." "She said, 'Come.'"

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