Syntax
Word order
Word order is direct:
subject — predicate — object.
This is natural for a language without case endings:
"lu vidi yu" means something quite different than "yu vidi lu".
Pronouns in unstressed form before verbs, as in Romance languages (e. g. "je t’aime"), are not used in LdP.
Case particles
An accusative particle "den" placed before the object makes it possible to change its place, e. g. for the sake of emphasis:
Me pren yabla — I take an apple.
Kwo yu pren? — What do you take?
Den yabla me pren! — I take an apple!
Den sey flor me pri. – I like this flower.
den dom sobre – above the house
The nominative particle is da (used only when necessary):
Lubi da me. – I love.
Notice the difference between "da" and "den" below:
Mata samaji me sam hao kom da yu. – Mother understands me as well as you do.
Mata samaji me sam hao kom den yu. – Mother understands me as well as she understands you.
Patra lubi ela puy kem da mata. – The father loves her more than the mother does.
Patra lubi ela pyu kem den mata. – The father loves her more than his mother.
It is possible to emphasize different parts of the sentence with these particles:
Me lubi yu — I love you
Den yu me lubi — I love you
Lubi da me yu — I love you
Interrogative sentences
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? — Will you come?
Me lai, hao ku? — I'll come, OK?
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.
While ob relates to the whole clause, ku may shift the interrogative emphasis to the word that stands before it:
Yu ku lai? — Is it you who will come?
Yu bu gun! — Me ku bu gun? You don't work! — Who, me?
There is one more variant of building interrogative sentences: you repeat a verb placing 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 necessity to use special pronouns (as "anything" instead of "something" in English questions). A question word like "kwo" what or "kwel" which may be placed at the beginning of interrogative sentence, although it may not be the subject:
Kwo yu dumi om to? — What do you think about it?
Subject-predicate inversion is allowed only in the case of “es”:
Wo es may kalam? — Where is my pen?
The expression "isn't it?" is "bu ver?":
Es hao filma, bu ver? — It's a good film, isn't it?
Negative sentences
The negative particle "bu" is used in negative sentences:
Me bu jan. — I don't know.
Bu is always placed before a tense particle:
Nu bu go. — We don't go.
Nu bu ve go. — We won't go.
Nu bu he go. — We didn't go.
Nu bu wud go. — We wouldn't go.
Multiple negations are allowed:
Lu bu samaji nixa. — He doesn't understand anything.
Compound sentences
When building compound sentences, the subject and predicate of each clause should be clearly marked off. There should not be infinitive phrases:
Me yao ke yu go adar (not "Me yao yu go adar"). — I want you to go there.
Me he vidi ke lu stan dar (not "Me he vidi lu stan dar"). — I saw him standing there.
The construction with ke after a noun
A modifying group (containing subject) may be placed after a noun and "ke":
Boy ke yu vidi janmog gani gro-hao. – The boy that you see can sing beautifully.
Dom ke nu jivi. — The house in which we live.
Jen ke me shwo. — The man I am talking about.
Dao ke yu go — The way you are going.
The particles ti, na
The optional particles ti and na are used to delimitate semantic groups. Ti is a marker of a noun group, na marks an end of a semantic group:
Ti yu vidi na boy janmog gani hao. – The boy that you see can sing well.
In skay gao ti blan badal floti. — In the high sky white clouds float.
Oli gwerjen kel akompani-te shefa na he tabahi. — All the warriors that accompanied the chief have perished.
The construction ti... na allows to place subordinate clauses before a noun:
Me kwesti lu om ti lu jivi na planeta. — I asked him about the planet on which he lives.
Me bu yao diskusi ti yu shwo na kwesta. — I don't want to discuss the question that you mention.
The first element ti may be dropped if no ambiguity arises:
Ta jivi na planeta. — The planet on which he lives.
Me dumi na kwesta. — The question I am thinking about.
Eventi pa septemba na konferensa. — The conference to take place in September (or: The conference that has taken place in September).
The constructions with ti... na and ke let us avoid subordinating conjunctions.
Topic subclauses
One of the ways of building a sentence is to mention the key word of your idea (topic) and then to comment on it:
Sey winda, treba shanji it tanto kway kom posible. — This window, it should be changed as soon as possible.
Sey aksham, ob yu sal go a koylok? — Are you going to go anywhere this evening?
Adjectival predicative
In order to avoid ambiguity, by default the adjectival predicative relates to the nearest noun or pronoun:
Lu pikti ela nude. — He is painting her naked. (She is naked, and he painting her.)
Here nude relates to ela, not to lu. One can also indicate this with the apposition marker to or the equivalent combination kel es:
Lu pikti ela to nude. Lu pikti ela kel es nude.
One should note that in order to express another meaning — «He is painting her as naked» — one should use the preposition kom:
Lu pikti ela kom nude.
Impersonal sentences
Impersonal sentences do not have a subject:
Pluvi. — It rains.
Bikam-te klare ke treba akti kway. — It became clear that one should act quickly.
Sembli ke problema fo diskusi yok. — It seems that there are no problems to discuss.
Lai-te a may kapa ke... — It came to my mind that....
Punctuation
Separated with commas are:
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homogeneous parts of the sentence
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various parenthetical or explanatory clauses. Separation of subordinate clauses is optional.
The End