Prerequisite: Lesson 11.
New words
| Word | Meaning |
|---|---|
| merah | red |
| asul | blue |
| upar | up, above |
| sub | down, below |
| baru | new |
| eski | old |
| hayai | fast |
| dugu | sibling |
| kara | to read |
| katab | to write |
| anda | to walk |
| musik | music |
Colours describe, so they take no es
A colour is an adjective. It follows the noun, and nothing stands between them.
| Ruma merah. | The house is red. |
| Akua asul. | The water is blue. |
| Ca mi merah. | My tea is red. |
| Mi kan telefon asul. | I see a blue telephone. |
Compare with a noun, which does take es:
| Sol es doktor. | Sol is a doctor. |
| Sol merah. | Sol is red. |
Up and down
| Sol upar. | The sun is above. |
| Anak sub. | The child is below. |
| Familia mi upar. | My family is upstairs. |
| Ain mi kan upar. | My eyes look up. |
New and old
| Telefon mi baru. | My telephone is new. |
| Hotel eski. | The hotel is old. |
| Mi suda kupi ruma baru. | I bought a new house. |
| Rafiki eski hao. | An old friend is good. |
Two adjectives in a row? Put the owner first, then describe: ruma mi baru — my new house.
Reading and writing
kara and katab come from the same tradition: kara gave the world Quran — “that which is read” — and katab gave kitab, the word for “book” in Arabic, Turkish, Hindi, Urdu, Swahili and Indonesian alike.
| Mi kara. | I read. |
| Yu katab ke? | What are you writing? |
| Anak suda kara. | The child read. |
| Doktor saufa katab nama mi. | The doctor will write my name. |
Walking, fast
| Mi anda market. | I walk to the market. |
| Ta anda hayai. | She walks fast. |
| Kita suda anda cok. | We walked a lot. |
| Taksi hayai. | The taxi is fast. |
Sibling — one word for both
dugu is a brother or a sister, exactly as ta is he or she. Amadunia does not split people by gender anywhere.
| Dugu mi es doktor. | My sibling is a doctor. |
| Dugu-dugu mi situ. | My siblings are there. |
| Mi es dugu yu. | I am your sibling. |
A conversation
— Salam! Ruma yu nali? — Ruma mi situ, upar. Ruma merah. — Ruma baru? — No, eski. Ma hao! — Dugu yu situ? — Ya. Ta kara, mi katab. Kita ama musik.
Hello! Where is your house? — My house is there, above. The red house. — Is it new? — No, old. But good! — Is your sibling there? — Yes. She reads, I write. We love music.
Practice
- Telefon mi es baru. — careful: wrong. baru is an adjective — say Telefon mi baru.
- Sol upar, anak sub. — The sun is above, the child below.
- Yu kara ke? — What are you reading?
- Dugu mi anda hayai. — My sibling walks fast.
- Mi suda katab nama yu. — I wrote your name.
- Musik yu merah? — Is your music red? (nonsense, but grammatical)
What you can already say
Twelve lessons, 101 roots — past one hundred. You can colour things, place them above and below, call them new or old or fast, read, write, walk, and talk about your sibling without ever naming a gender.
Still open: how to say not, and the words for this and that. See the open questions in grammar/.