Prerequisite: Lesson 25.
No new words. Two rules that this course has been using since Lesson 1 and Lesson 10 without ever teaching them, because until September 3, 2026 neither had been granted: the command, and the one-word answer. Both are in sentence-types.md, and both cost the language nothing — no word was added and no word changed shape.
A command is a verb with no subject
| Otur sini. | Sit here. |
| Buka pintu. | Open the door. |
| Espera momen. | Wait a moment. |
| Lai dom mi. | Come to my house. |
| Dengar mualim. | Listen to the teacher. |
| Kirim surat por mama yu. | Send a letter to your mother. |
That is the whole rule. Amadunia never leaves a subject out of a statement, so a sentence that begins with a verb can only be one thing.
The subject is what makes it a statement
| Go! | Go! |
| Yu go. | You go. |
| Kula! | Eat! |
| Yu kula pan. | You eat bread. |
Yu go is a statement about you, however loudly it is said. Putting the pronoun back “for emphasis” would make one sentence mean two things, and this language does not do that. Emphasis is the voice and the mark: Go!
Saying no to a command
no goes in front of what it denies, exactly as it does in a statement.
| No go. | Do not go. |
| No kula nyama itu. | Do not eat that meat. |
| No lala sasa. | Do not sleep now. |
| No kimbia hayai. | Do not run fast. |
The order is no → verb → adverb, which is the order you already know.
plis is politeness, not grammar
| Otur, plis. | Sit, please. |
| Beri akua, plis. | Give water, please. |
| Madad, plis. | Help, please. |
Take plis away and the sentence is still a command. Add it and nothing changes grammatically — which is why a warning does not take it: No go!
One word is an answer
A phrase may be a whole turn when what it answers is clear.
— Yu mau ke? — Ca.
— Kab? — Besok.
— Nali? — In dom.
— Yu suda kula? — Ya.
The last one means yes, I ate. The tense, the subject and the verb all come from the question; nothing is repeated and nothing is marked.
A command and an answer can be the same word
— Yu mau suru ke? — Kula.
Kula at the start of an exchange is eat!; Kula answering a question is eating. Context does the work, and English does the same with Eat.
A conversation
— Mama, mi bimar. — Otur sini. Buka mulut. — Ya. — Yu bimar. No go skola besok. — Mi mau go! — No. Lala sasa. Mi saufa leta ca aur ilac. — Mersi, mama.
Mother, I’m ill. — Sit here. Open your mouth. — Yes. — You are ill. Don’t go to school tomorrow. — I want to go! — No. Sleep now. I’ll bring tea and medicine. — Thank you, mother.
Seven of those eleven sentences are commands or short turns — four commands (Otur sini, Buka mulut, No go skola besok, Lala sasa) and three turns that are a single word of answer: Ya, No, and the thanks that closes the exchange, whose second word is the person addressed rather than part of what is said.
The three were unnamed until September 6, 2026, and naming them is what makes the seven checkable. Counted strictly — a sentence of exactly one word — there are two, Ya and No, and the total is six. Both readings are defensible and only one of them was written down, which is the difference between a figure and a claim.
Practice
- Buka pencere, plis. — Open the window, please.
- No nomu akua itu. — Do not drink that water.
- Lai sini aur otur. — Come here and sit.
- — Yu mau ca o kafe? — Ca. — Do you want tea or coffee? — Tea.
- Kara hao libro ini. — Read this book well. — the adverb stays with its verb; Kara libro ini hao would be “read this good book”.
- Yu kara libro ini. — You read this book. — a statement, because it has a subject.
What this lesson could not do
There is no way to tell someone to be something. Be quick, be careful, be a doctor have no form: a sentence-initial es is already the existential, so Es doktor is “there is a doctor”. The mother above says Otur sini and Lala sasa because she cannot say be still. That is the open question the command rule left, and text 12 wanted it three times on one page.