Prerequisite: Lesson 9.
New words
| Word | Meaning |
|---|---|
| lala | to sleep |
| otur | to sit |
| suru | to do, to make |
| ambil | to take |
| kupi | to buy |
| situ | there |
| sar | head |
| ain | eye |
| mano | hand |
| familia | family |
| hotel | hotel |
| telefon | telephone |
Here and there
sini has its pair now.
| Mi otur sini. | I sit here. |
| Yu otur situ. | You sit there. |
| Hotel nali? — Situ. | Where is the hotel? — There. |
| Familia mi situ. | My family is there. |
Doing things
| Yu suru ke? | What are you doing? |
| Mi suru rabota. | I’m working. — literally: I do work |
| Mi ambil telefon. | I take the telephone. |
| Ta suda kupi pan. | She bought bread. |
| Kita saufa kupi ca. | We’ll buy tea. |
Telling someone to do it
Leave the subject out and the sentence becomes a command. Nothing is added.
| Otur sini. | Sit here. |
| Kula pan. | Eat bread. |
| Lai sini. | Come here. |
Yu otur sini is different — it is a statement about you. A command has no subject at all, and that is what makes it one. The rule.
The third row read No go! until September 6, 2026, which put no in front of a predicate four lessons before Lesson 14 teaches it to go there, in a single line with nothing said about it. Lesson 26 is where a command is denied, and it explains the rule it is using.
The body
| Sar mi garam. | My head is hot. |
| Ain ta kabir. | Her eyes are big. — or: her eye is big |
| Mano-mano anak keci. | The child’s hands are small. |
| Mi kan yu. Ain mi hao. | I see you. My eyes are good. |
ain on its own is neutral — one eye or two, as the situation makes obvious. ain-ain when the “two” matters.
A day, start to finish
Din. Mi ambil telefon. Mi suru rabota. Mi go market. Mi kupi pan. Mi kupi ca. Mi kupi akua. Mi lai dom. Familia mi situ. Kita kula una. Rat. Mi otur. Mi lala.
Day. I take the phone. I work. I go to the market. I buy bread. I buy tea. I buy water. I come home. My family is there. We eat together. Night. I sit. I sleep.
Every verb in that story is in its one and only form. Not one of them changed for I, for we, for past or present.
A conversation
— Pardon, hotel nali? — Situ. Yu-yu es familia? — Ya, mi-mi es familia. Anak-anak mi-mi saufa lala. — Ok. Hotel hao. Yu-yu saufa lala. — Mersi!
Excuse me, where is the hotel? — There. Are you a family? — Yes, we’re a family. Our children will sleep. — Ok. The hotel is good. You’ll sleep. — Thanks!
Practice
- Yu lala kab? — When do you sleep?
- Mi suda kupi telefon. — I bought a telephone.
- Otur sini, plis. — Sit here, please.
- Sar ta mal? — Is his head bad? (does his head hurt?)
- Familia yu situ? — Is your family there?
- Ta-ta suru ke sasa? — What are they doing now?
What you can already say
Ten lessons, 93 roots — past the first milestone of 80. You can now tell the story of a whole day, name the body, point here and there, buy and take and make and sleep.
A note on word order. situ, like sini and sasa, sits at the end of its sentence — place before time. This became the rule in Lesson 15.