Adjectives

Adjective endings

Most of adjectives end in -e:

forte — strong
basike — basic
gamande — haughty

or (if derived from nouns) in -ney:

sekret — secret
sekret-ney — secret, confidential

abyas — habit
abyas-ney — habitual

Besides, there are adjectives some ending in -an:

blan — white
gran — big
suan — sore

some ending in -ao (of Chinese origin):

hao — good
gao — high
syao — little (in size)
lao — old

some ending in -im (of Arabic origin):

muhim — important
karim — kind, good
rahim — merciful

also some adjective suffixes (-ful, -lik, -shil, -val) end in a consonant:

joisaful — joyful
ginalik — womanly
gunshil — industrious

Then there are some adjectives ending in -u and -y:

blu — blue
kway — quick.

The final –е of adjectives may be dropped if this doesn't complicate pronunciation:

jamile, jamil – beautiful
dine, din – thin.

Nouns and adjectives

One may qualify an object by placing a noun before another noun:

lingwa kanunes — language laws
akwa sportas — water sports
westa feng — western wind

A noun with the modifier-making particle -ney becomes an adjective:

Sey feng es westa-ney. — This wind is western.

Other ways of qualifying an object are:

1. using the preposition 'de':

kanunes de lingwa — laws of language

2. using the preposition 'do' which introduces a specific characteristic or purpose of an object that may be described in several words:

gela do grin okos — green-eyed girl
okula do surya — sun glasses
jen do lignagamba — a man with a wooden leg
es kosa do ridi — this is ridiculous

Adjective suffixes

The suffixes -ale and -are have a general meaning. They are taken ready-made into LdP together with common European words (as a rule, abstract ones) and are not productive. They are very rare among most frequent words; one can mention among the latter only the following:

kordia — heart
kordiale — cordial

sentra — centre
sentrale — central

The suffix -ike (unstressed) derives adjectives which mean 'relating or pertaining to this noun':

osean — ocean
oseanike — oceanic
sistema — system
sistemike — pertaining to system
fanata — fanatic
fanatike — fanatical
harmonia — harmony
harmonike — harmonious
historia — history
historike — historical

If added to a noun ending in -a or -ia, those endings are dropped. Nouns ending in -ika produce adjectives ending in -ike:

publika — publike
gramatika — gramatike

The suffix-particle ke derives adjectives of relation from verbs or from word groups containing verbs. With polysyllabic i-verbs hyphens are not used:

kompari — compare
komparike — related to comparing, comparative

vidi — see
vidike — related to seeing, visual

audi — hear
audike — related to hearing, auditory

shwo — speak
shwo-ke — related to speaking

festi — celebrate
festike — celebratory

gusti — have taste
gustike — gustatory

helpi — help
helpike — auxiliary

mucho-safari-ke gunsa — a work involving a lot of travelling
mucho-shwo-ke bashan — a wordy speech

sempre-snegi-ke meteo — a weather of perpetual snowing
shao-pluvi-ke klima — a climate of little rain

hao-audi-ke musika — a music that is good to hear
hao-chi-ke fan — a food that is nice to eat
hao-yusi-ke sikin — a handy knife
hao-lekti-ke kitaba — a book that is easy or interesting to read

The suffix -tive means 'doing or capable of doing, connected with doing'. It is added to a verb, then -titive=>-tive, -sitive=>-sive:

puni — punish
punitive — punitive

nutri — nourish
nutritive — nutritive

akti — to act
aktive — active

konvinsi — to convict
konvinsive — convincing

sugesti — to suggest
sugestive — suggestive

atrakti — to attract
atraktive — attractive

exklusi — to exclude
exklusive — exclusive

explosi — to explode
explosive — explosive

The suffix -lik means "characteristic of, similar in appearance or character":

matalik — maternal, motherly
amigalik — friendly
manlik — manly
ginalik — womanly
domlik — homely, cozy
suryalik — sun-like

The suffix -ful means "possessing (esp. in great quantity), full of":

joisaful — joyful
jivaful — lively, sprightly, vivacious
lumaful — spotlit, luminous, alight
misteriaful — mysterious
danjaful — dangerous

The suffix -bile corresponds to '-able, -ible':

samaji — samajibile understandable
vidi — vidibile visible
audi — audibile audible
persepti — perseptibile perceptible
chi — chibile edible

The suffix -ish means "to some extent, somewhat, moderately":

blan — white
blanish — whitish

interes-ney — interesting
interes-nish — more or less interesting

hao — good
haoish — passable

When adding this suffix, the final -e of adjectives or -a of nouns is dropped; -ney => -nish.

The suffix -shil means "having inclination or tendency to":

gun — to work
gunshil — industrious

kusi — to bite
kusishil — tending to bite

fobi — to fear
fobishil — timorous

The suffix -val means "worthy":

admirival — admirable
sey filma es goval — this film is worth going to see
sey geim es pleival — this game is worth playing

Substantivation of adjectives and participles

•   The particle 'lo' imparts to the adjective the meaning "that which is, things that are":

lo hao — the good, what is good
lo buhao — the bad, what is bad
lo resta-ney — the rest
lo vidi-ney — the seen, what is seen
lo vendi-ney — the sold, what is sold
lo sekwi-she — what follows
lo shwo-ney — the said
Lo tal bu mus repeti. — Such a thing must not happen again (repeat).

This particle may be dropped if there is another qualifier:

olo uuparen-shwo-ney — everything above-said
olo jamile — everything beautiful

•   If the adjective has the suffix -e, changing it to -a produces a noun with the meaning “something or somebody characterized with this quality”:

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)

garibe — alien, extraneous
gariba — stranger

konstante — constant (adj.)
konstanta — constant (noun)

absolute — absolute (adj.)
absoluta — absolute (noun)

This transformation may not be applied to shortenings of words with -ney (see "Shortenings for words with -ney, -nem, -shem")

•   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.

•   Adjectives with plural endings are used in the role of nouns:

Flori ba, yunges! — Bloom, young ones!

Koys go-te a desna, otres a lefta. — Some went to the right, others to the left.

Om morta-neys gai shwo sol hao. — Speak only good of the dead.

•   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 kelke rosa, 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.

Place in a sentence

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

"Ela hev gran okos blu".

Verbs from adjectives

The prefix mah- or suffix -isi mean "to make, render, transform into, bring into a condition":

garme — hot
mah-garme, garmisi — heat up
lenge — cold
mah-lenge, lengisi — cool

The prefix fa- or suffix -ifi mean "to get, to become":

garme — hot
fa-garme, garmifi — get hot, heat up
lenge — cold
fa-lenge, lengifi — get cold, cool down.

The suffix -fai makes verbs with meaning "to be such or act correspondingly":

hwan — yellow
hwanfai — appear/show yellow

podle — mean, base
podlefai — act meanly, behave like a scoundrel

dule — tender
dulefai — act in a tender way, indulge in caresses.

•   It is acceptable to derive verbs with the suffix -i from adjectives, under the following conditions:

1. the meaning of verb is clear from the context;

2. one should not derive nouns in -a from such verbs. Such verbs may be transitive as well as intransitive. Examples:

topale — lame
lu topali — he limps
topaling — limping, lameness

garme — hot
lu garmi akwa — he heats up water
akwa zai garmi — the water is heating up
garming — heating

tayar — ready
ela tayari sabahfan — she prepares breakfast
fan zai tayari — the food is preparing
tayaring — preparation.

Wherever ambiguity is possible, use -isi, -ifi or -fai.