The Grammar of Lingwa de Planeta
The principle of facultative precision
LdP follows the principle of facultative precision in expressing grammatical meanings. It means that it is not obligatory to indicate a grammatical meaning if it may be inferred from the context. E.g. it is not obligatory to use tenses or plural form, but for precision it is possible.
Word order
Word order is direct: subject — predicate — object. An accusative particle "den" placed before the object makes it possible to change its place, e.g. for the sake of emphasis.
Nouns
Most nouns end in -a or consonants.
The basic noun form does not convey the grammatical meaning of singularity. To specify
singularity, use "un"
ending is -(e)s. If a noun ends in a vowel, add -s; otherwise add -es:
When speaking generally about a group or class of uniform objects, plural endings are not used: Bobra es animal. - Beavers are animals.
After any indication of plurality (numerals; quantifiers like "mucho"
personal pronouns "nu" we, "li"
mucho yar - many years
Li es hao jen. — They are good people.
Gender is not indicated in most nouns. If there is need to indicate sex, add particles "man-" or
"gin-": man-doga
-ina for feminine; if a noun ends in -a, the latter is dropped, otherwise the suffix is simply added:
In several cases different words are used for the male and female:
mata/patra — mother/father
oma/opa — grandmother/grandfather
docha/son — daughter/son
kindocha/kinson — granddaughter/grandson
tia/onkla — aunt/uncle
sinior/madam — sir/madam.
Verbs
There are two verb types: i-verbs (type 1) and other verbs (type 2).
i-verbs are the verbs that end in «consonant+i», e.g.:
vidi - to see
audi - to hear
fini - to finish
sidi - to sit
dumi - to think
fobisi - to frighten
pri — to like
chi — to eat
pi — to drink.
Monosyllabic i-verbs like
(ср.: swimi — swimer, swiming).
Examples of type 2 verbs: jan — to know gun - to work
zun - to be occupied with, devote oneself to
shwo - to say, to speak
go - to go
yao - to want
lwo - to fall
flai - to fly
krai - to cry
prei - to pray
joi - to rejoice, be happy
jui - to enjoy, revel in
emploi - to employ
kontinu - to continue.
Verbs with prefixes fa- and mah-, which contain adjectives, are type 2 verbs too: fa-syao - to diminish, become smaller (syao
The basic verb form does not convey the grammatical meaning of tense or aspect. The latters can
be specified through special particles.
ve — future tense marker;
he — past tense marker;
zai — marker of continuous aspect;
wud — conditional marker;
gwo — remote past tense marker («some time ago, earlier in life, have been to somewhere or used to do smth»);
sal — immediate future marker («to be going to do smth.»);
yus — immediate past marker («have just done smth»; the word «yus» means «just»);
gei — marks the passive of becoming (unfinished process): dwar gei ofni — the door is being
opened.
-te — past tense marker (means the same as
before the verb);
-she — active participle marker;
-yen — verbal adverb marker;
-ney — passive participle marker:
zwo-ney gunsa — the done work/the work being done
gunsa es zwo-ney — the work is done.
The imperative and incentive particle ba is placed after the verb: Lai ba! - Come! Nu go ba! - Let's go! Lu lai ba! - Let him come!
Negation is formed by means of particle bu. It is placed before the verb or tense particle.
Verbs in LdP may be intransitive and transitive in the same form, if this doesn't cause ambiguity.
Usually, if the verb is followed by an object, the verb is transitive, otherwise it is not:
me begin gun I
The prefix fa- ("to get, to become") may serve as intransitivity marker:
The causative prefix mah- may serve as transitivity marker:
The infinitive particle 'tu' is used to substantivise a verb: Tu samaji es tu pardoni. - To understand is to forgive.
To make a verb reflexive, add swa: woshi swa
There is one exceptional verb — bi
form "bin", in all the other cases it's "bi":
Se es hao. — This is good.
Se bin hao. — This was good.
Se ve bi hao. — This will be good.
Bi hao! — Good luck! Bless you!
Hay olo bi hao! — May everything be good!
Adjectives
Adjectives don't change. Most of them end in -e or (if derived from nouns) in -ney: forte - strong
There are also some other endings (-an, -ao). Also some adjective suffixes (-ful, -lik, -shil, -val) end in a consonant.
The adjective usually precedes the noun. However, to stress it or to add a poetic connotation it may be placed after the noun: you may say "She has large blue eyes" either as "Ela hev gran blu okos" or "Ela hev okos gran blu", or even "Ela hev gran okos blu".
The particle "lo" imparts to the adjective the meaning of general notion:
lo hao
If the adjective has the suffix -e, changing it to -a produces a noun with the meaning "something or somebody characterized with this quality":
Using the pronoun
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:
If adjective ends in a consoinant, -em is added:
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
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
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"
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'
The equality of compared objects: sam... kom -
Lu es sam riche kom ela. - He is as rich as she is.
The expression
Compound words
In compound words the modifying word stands before the main word: guntaim
The adjective suffix -e may be dropped: garibjen
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:
denta
barela
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
The suffixes are used to form nouns only, while the particles may be used with different speech parts:
gro-gran
It should be noted that there is also an intensifying adverb "gro", so that the mentioned phrases may also be constructed as: chifan gro; pluvi gro. "Gro" expresses a greater extent of augmentation/intensification, than "muy" (very): muy hao!
The particles may also be used with proper nouns: Jon-ki
Nouns meaning action
The correspondence between noun's form and its meaning is basically the following:
Act and its
manifestation/instance/result/resulting state
-a
-sa
The very action as process; repeated action; occupation, hobby, sport
-ing
-ing
Examples:
Further examples:
The concretizing suffixes -(i)ka, -tura, -wat
The suffix -(i)ka has the meaning "object, thing, something concrete":
mole
ski — ski-ika pi — pi-ika.
It should be reminded that the ending -ika is unstressed.
On the whole, one can regard this suffix as an equivalent of "kosa" (thing) or "koysa" (something). Thus the suffix -(i)ka is polysemantic, the exact meaning of a word following from the context. In order to be more precise, one can use the suffixes -er (tool, device), -tura (stresses the result, product of action), or -wat (indicates the object of action).
The suffix -tura denotes an end result/product of action:
One can distinguish between
The suffixes of doer and tool
The suffix -er means both doer (person) and tool/ device/appliance. When added to a verb, the final -i of the verb is dropped (except for the monosyllabic verbs ending in -i). When added to a noun, the final -a of the noun is dropped. In other cases -er is just added:
banka
astronomia
To specify the meaning of doer, the suffix -sha may be used which is derived from the active
participle marker -she; it is used only with verbs:
lekti
To specify the meaning of tool/ device/appliance, one may use the suffixes -(i)ka (see above) or
compound words with «tul» («tool, instrument»):
The suffix -ista denotes a person in relation to a certain doctrine ('ism') or profession: komunista
The words ending in -or, -ator.
LdP also imports common European words ending in -or, -ator which mean either doer or tool: kalkulator
NB: Not every word meaning a tool must have a suffix. Many verbs are derived from tool-nouns: hamri
"Yuan" means "employee, worker, organization member": kafeeyuan
Particles NEY, SHE and their derivatives
ney - genitive particle; modifier-making particle; with verbs denotes passive participle; makes ordinal numerals. Ex.:
mata
nem - the adverbial form from -ney:
she - active participle marker:
shem - the adverbial form from -she:
sha - suffix of doer:
Compound words with
Affixes
Hyphenated prefixes
ek - denotes that something is done only one time or rather suddenly (from Hindi "ek" one): tuki
hao
ko - joint action or being: ko-exista
mah - causative prefix meaning "to make, to bring into a condition": hao
Prefixes
bu - negation: gran
de(s) - opposite action ("des" if before a vowel): desharji
dusfama-ney
mis - incorrectly, wrongly: misyusi
yun - with names of animals means animal's young: doga
Suffixes
bile - "-able, -ible": samaji - samajibile
dan - denotes container: chaydan
ful - "possessing (esp. in great quantity), full of": joisaful
sneginka
enilok — anywhere. nesa - makes abstract nouns from adjectives: dule
Prepositions
al — when (doing smth.), at, under
ausen — outside
bli — near, nearby, beside, close by
depos — since, starting from
inen — inside, within inu — into
inplas — instead (of), in place (of)
inter — between
kontra — against
krome — besides, in addition to
kun — with, along with
malgree — in spite of
miden — amid, in the middle (of), in the midst (of), among om — about, concerning; on
per — per, for each (every)
por — due to, because of
pro — pro, in favour of
pur — for, in exchange for
segun — according to, in accordance with
sin — without
sirke — approximately, about, around sobre — above, over sub — under til — till, until
tra — through; over, across, to (on) the other side of versu — towards via — via
Conjunctions
bat — but e — and
i...i — both...and ni...ni — neither...nor o (oda) — or oda...oda... — either...or obwol — though, although si — if
si...dan — if...then
Greetings
The greetings like «Good day!» have similar structure in LdP:
Good morning! — Hao sabah!
Good day! — Hao dey!
Good evening! — Hao aksham!
Good night! — Hao nocha!
Any major greetings from major languages are also acceptable:
Namastee!
Salam!
Marhaba!
Nihao!
Heloo!
Ola!
Hay!
Chao!
S drastvuy(te)! S draste!
Privet!
Haloo!
Salve!
Salut! Salud!
Many from these greetings are also goodbye words.
A universal greeting and goodbye word is
It means «Good luck! May fortune favour you! Everything good to you!»
Other important interjections are: danke — thank you swaagat — welcome adyoo — good-bye skusi — excuse me
Numbers
The cardinal numbers.
nol - 0
un - 1
dwa - 2
tri - 3
char - 4
pet - 5
sit - 6
sem - 7
ot - 8
nin - 9
shi - 10
shi-un - 11 (the numerals from 11 till 19 are written with the hyphen; the accent is on the second
syllable)
shi-dwa - 12
shi-tri - 13...
dwashi - 20 (20, 30...90 are written together, the accent on the first syllable) dwashi-un - 21 dwashi-dwa - 22...
trishi - 30 charshi - 40 petshi - 50... sto - 100
sto-un - 101 sto-dwa - 102 ...
dwasto - 200 tristo - 300 charsto - 400... mil - 1000
milion -million
25473 - dwashi-pet mil charsto-semshi-tri (mil, milion are written separately, the others with a hyphen).
The ordinal numerals are formed with the help of the particle "ney": un-ney - first dwa-ney- second tri-ney - third...
sto-petshi-char-ney - one hundred fifty forth.
un-nem - firstly; at first dwa-nem- secondly...
-fen —forms fractions: un de dwafen — one half sem de shifen — seven tenths tri de stofen — three hundredths
The decimal fractions are pronounced with the help of the word
tri koma pet — 3,5
dwa koma semshi pet — 2,75
One can also say "dwa koma semshi pet de stofen".
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 admissible:
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).
Dey sem de mey — The seventh of May.
Dey dwashi-un de mes-nin. — The twenty first of September.
Names of countries, peoples and languages
Names of countries are written with a capital letter and are close to how they sound in the
official language of the country:
Espania - Spain
Jungwo - China
Portugal - Portugal
Rusia - Russia
Nipon - Japan
Doichland - Germany
Frans - France
Ingland - England.
In case the country has two names or two official languages, it may have also an alternative name, especially if those names are not similar to each other: Suomi / Finland - Finland Bharat / India - India.
But: Belgie - Belgium (based on Dutch, the country's name in the two other official languages, German and French, sounds similar).
Composite names are translated into LdP:
Unisi-ney Statas de Amerika (USA) - The United States of America.
A compound word from country's name and 'jen' (man) denotes an inhabitant/subject of the country (written with a hyphen): Suomi-jen - a Finland's inhabitant
Rusia-jen - a Russia's inhabitant Jungwo-jen - a China's inhabitant USA-jen - a person living in the USA.
These compound words should not be mixed with words for etnicity (a Russian, a Finn).
For etnicity and the corresponding language a special word is used. It is close to how people refer to themselves. It plays the role of noun as well as adjective. "jen" and "lingwa" may be used for precision. Examples:
ruski - Russian; a Russian; the Russian language me es ruski (jen) - I am Russian me shwo ruski (lingwa) - I speak Russian ruski fabula - a Russian fairy tale
inglish - English; an English; the English language me bu shwo inglish - I don't speak English
doiche - German; a German; the German language doiche exaktitaa - the German punctuality
amerikan - American (expressing the culture and national values of the USA); an American
fama-ney amerikan poeta — a famous American poet
ta es amerikan, ta shwo inglish - he/she is American, he/she speaks English
espaniol - Spanish; a Spanish; the Spanish language portuges - Portuguese; a Portuguese; the Portuguese language
me shwo espaniol, yoshi me samaji portuges - I speak Spanish, also I understand Portuguese han - Chinese (ethnical); a Chinese; the Chinese language
Ta es han (jen), ta shwo han (lingwa). - He/she is a Chinese, he/she speaks Chinese. Me es Jungwo-jen, bat me bu es han (jen). - I live in China but I am not a Chinese.
hindi - Hindu; a Hindu; Hindi
suomen - Finnish; a Finn; the Finnish language
ukrainska - Ukrainian; a Ukrainian; the Ukrainian language
Ela es ukrainska jen, ela shwo ukrainska. — She is a Ukrainian, she speaks Ukrainian ukrainska-ruski lexikon — a Ukrainian-Russian dictionary
nihon - Japanese; a Japanese; the Japanese language
romale - Gipsy; a Gipsy; the Gipsy language jamile romale gana - a beautiful Gipsy song.
If a proper name ends in several consonants and produces a difficult consonant cluster together
with a following word, it's recommended to insert a neutral sound (which however isn't written).
For example, it's recommended to pronounce
as if it were written
LdP grammar with examples