Learn Lidepla

Methodology

This learning course is inspired by Margarita Madrigal and Language Transfer.

With very little grammatical explanation, you will begin to internalize the language. Don't try to memorize anything! Just take your time and really think through how to translate the phrases. And mistakes are ok! Each lesson will build upon what you learned before it. Think of this course like a puzzle. You are building neural pathways :)

Content

Despite what you may think, the language taught in this course is completely legitimate Lidepla. It may seem different because it is taking some rare particles and promoting them in importance.

I strongly believe in front-loading difficulty in language learning. Grammatical "shortcuts" should be saved for the experts, as ironic as that sounds. If a user learns the shortcuts in a language first, it will be much more difficult to learn the more expressive and complex grammar later on.

And think about it: If Lidepla says "use this particles only as needed", then the particle will be very rare. If a Lidepla learner hears the particle from a Lidpela expert, they will have no idea what it is and how it is used. So it's better to teach an explicit language that doesn't use shortcuts right away.

Other than pedagogical benefits, one secondary benefit of this method is an increase in freedom of expression.

Even if you've learned some Lidepla in the past, give this a try. I think you'll be surprised.

Table of Contents

Lesson 1

The words for I is da me (pronounced like "dah meh")

The word for see is vidi (pronounced like "veedee"

Think of the word "video" to remember.

How would you say the following? Think about it and then click to see the answer. You won't learn if you just click right away though!

I see.

Da me vidi.

The words for he/she is da ta (pronounced like "dah tah")

He / She sees.

Da ta vidi.

The words for him/her is den ta

I see him/her.

Da me vidi den ta.

The words for me is den me

He/She sees me.

Da ta vidi den me.

As you can see, da is a subject marker and den is an object marker. This works with all nouns.

The word for dog or dogs is doga

Regular nouns can be singular or plural in Lidepla. And there is no article like "the" or "a/an" for nouns.

I see the dog.

Da me vidi den doga.

I see dogs.

Da me vidi den doga.

A dog sees him/her.

Da doga vidi den ta.

Da and den give us superpowers. We are able to move word orders around to emphasize different things.The words that you put first are given more emphasis.

I see him/her.
- or, It is I that sees him/her.

Da me vidi den ta.

I see him/her.
- or, It's him/her that I see.

Den ta da me vidi.

I see him/her.
- (as opposed to doing something else to them)

Vidi da me den ta.

In some languages, da would be called a nominative case marker and den would be an accusative case marker.

In this lesson, you have learned:

Lesson 2

The words for my is de me (pronounced like "deh meh")

"my" usually comes after the thing it posesses.

My dog sees.

Da doga de me vidi.

The word for good is hao (pronounced like "how")

The word for is is es

My dog is good.

Da doga de me es hao.

The words for his/her is de ta (pronounced like "deh tah")

His/her dog is good.

Da doga de ta es hao

The word for give is dai (pronounced like "die")

He/She gives the dogs.

Da ta dai den doga.

The words for to me is a me (pronounced like "ah meh")

He/She gives the dog to me.

Da ta dai den doga a me.

The words for to him/her is a ta (pronounced like "ah tah")

I give dogs to him/her.

Da me dai den doga a ta.

The word for to is really just a (pronounced like "ah")

Think about this one carefully:

To see dogs is good.

A vidi den doga es hao.

In some languages, de would be called a genitive case marker and a would be called a dative case marker.

In this lesson, you have learned:

Lesson 3

Let's do some practice and review.

You can say the following in several different ways, depending on what you want to emphasize. This flexibility in word order is really a different way of thinking for English speakers. Meaning and relationships of ideas are the primary driver.

Give me the dogs.

Den doga dai a me.

A me den doga dai.

Dai a me den doga.

However, the most common word order will always be Subject-Verb-Object. So you should always default to that.

My dogs see him/her.

Da doga de me vidi den ta.

At this point, you've learned the 4 most common grammatical cases in languages that have cases. Nominative, Accusative, Genitive, Dative. Let's learn some more.