Prerequisite: Lesson 13.
New words
| Word | Meaning |
|---|---|
| aur | and |
One new word. The other half of this lesson is a word you have had since Lesson 1.
no was waiting all along
You have used no to answer since your first conversation. It does a second job with no change at all: put it in front of what you are denying.
| Mi kula pan. | I eat bread. |
| Mi no kula pan. | I do not eat bread. |
| Mi es doktor. | I am a doctor. |
| Mi no es doktor. | I am not a doctor. |
| Dom kabir. | The house is big. |
| Dom no kabir. | The house is not big. |
| Mi sini. | I am here. |
| Mi no sini. | I am not here. |
There is no separate negative form of any verb. kula stays kula.
With past and future
no comes first, then the time word:
| Mi no suda kula. | I did not eat. |
| Yu no saufa lai. | You will not come. |
| Ta no suda es anak. | She was not a child. |
The order never changes: no → suda/saufa → verb.
Answering, as before
— Yu mau ca? — No.
— Yu mau ca? — No, mi no mau ca. Mi mau akua.
aur joins
| Mi kupi pan aur ca. | I buy bread and tea. |
| Angin aur yuki lai. | Wind and snow come. |
| Dom mi keci aur sundar. | My house is small and beautiful. |
| Mi lai aur mi kan yu. | I come and I see you. |
Nouns, adjectives, whole sentences — one word for all three.
For a list, put aur between each pair:
Mi kupi pan aur ca aur akua.
In writing you may use commas for all but the last: pan, ca aur akua. The full form is never wrong.
Why you could not just say pan ca
Because you already learned what that means. Two nouns together is possession — pan ca is “the tea’s bread”. The slot was taken, so “and” needed a word of its own.
A conversation
— Salam! Yu mau ca aur pan? — Mi mau ca. Mi no mau pan, mersi. — Yu no kula sasa? — No. Mi suda kula. Mi mau ca aur akua. — Ok. Ca garam aur akua barid. — Mersi! Yu es rafiki hao.
Hello! Do you want tea and bread? — I want tea. I don’t want bread, thanks. — You’re not eating now? — No. I ate. I want tea and water. — Ok. Hot tea and cold water. — Thanks! You’re a good friend.
Practice
- Mi no faham. — I do not understand.
- Anak no suda lala. — The child did not sleep.
- Sol aur luma. — The sun and the light.
- Dom mi no kabir aur no keci. — My house is not big and not small.
- Yu no es doktor? — Are you not a doctor?
- Mi studi aur mi faham. — I study and I understand.
What you can already say
Fourteen lessons, 118 roots. With one new word and one old word doing new work, you can now deny anything and join anything — the two things a language cannot do without.
This, that, place marking and answering a negative question are all covered in Lesson 15.