First Steps in Lojban
Lesson 17. Questions
Today's topic: questions! There are two main families: truth questions (yes/no) and fill-in-the-blank questions (for things or actions). First, a quick test, Sora—translate: "I am not a human."
Exercise
- Lojban?
- remna
- x1 is a human
mi na remna—but hey, I definitely am human!
Truth questions: xu
Good—glad to see you haven't forgotten na. To ask a yes/no question, just place the word xu at the beginning of the sentence (or right after the .i marker).
- xu
- An attitudinal word that asks whether the sentence is true.
[.i] xu lo vi prenu cu mamta mi
Is this person my mother?
- mamta
- x1 is x2’s mother
What kind of example is that...? And what's an "attitudinal"?
Attitudinals express emotions or attitudes—we’ll cover them in detail in the finale. For now, the important question is: how do you answer? You can use go'i to mean "Yes, that's right" or na go'i for "No, that's not it."
.i xu lo vi prenu cu mamta mi
Is this my mother?
― .i na go'i .i tu mamta do
No, I'm not. That woman over there is your mother.
- go'i
- pro-bridi; repeats the previous bridi.
(Wait, so she wasn't your mother?) So go'i basically repeats the previous statement, right?
Exactly. Grammatically, go'i acts as a selbri that means "the same as the last sentence." So na go'i just means "that sentence isn't true." This is usually all you need for answering yes/no questions.
Got it. English yes/no flips on negative questions — how does Lojban handle that?
It's a common stumbling block! In Lojban, go'i echoes the exact previous statement. If you're asked a negative question like "Is it true you're NOT my mother?", a plain "yes" or "no" can be confusing. To be perfectly clear, you can use ja'a go'i to strongly affirm the positive version of the sentence.
.i xu lo vi prenu na mamta mi
Is this person not my mother?
ja'a go'i
(affirms the positive inner bridi — roughly “yes, they are your mother.”)
Wh- questions: ma
For "fill-in-the-blank" questions, use ma. You just place ma exactly where the thing you're asking about would go. You can even use several in one sentence! The listener answers by giving the missing information in the same order.
- ma
- Asks a question that needs a thing (sumti) as an answer.
.i mi ca catlu ma
What am I looking at?
― .i lo patfu
Father.
- catlu
- x1 looks at / watches x2
To ask when, where, why, or how, just combine a tag with ma. For example: ca ma (when), bu'u ma (where), ki'u ma (why), or ta'i ma (how—from tadji, meaning method).
- ca ma
- when
- bu'u ma
- where (at …)
- ki'u ma
- why (with what reason)
- ta'i ma
- how (by what method)
mo — selbri question
mo replaces the selbri: “What is x1 / what is going on?” Answer with a selbri — same idea as ma, different slot.
- mo
- Asks a question that needs an action or attribute (selbri) as an answer.
.i lo vi prenu cu mo
Who or what is this person? (What's their relationship to the topic?)
― .i ja'a patfu
They are (truly) my father.
Exactly. mo can even be used inside tanru—for instance, mo nanmu means "What kind of man?"
Exercise
- Lojban / English drill (see Japanese edition for full table): book location; restaurant location; “what sees what”; finished eating; ma jalge … riddle.
Watch zvati vs stuzi place structure when asking “where is the restaurant?” — ma stuzi le gusta vs le cukta pu zvati ma.
True or false
Pick whether each statement is true or false according to the lesson.
ma is a question sumti; mo is a question selbri.
You may place multiple ma in one sentence.
mo cannot appear inside a tanru.
You can tag ma, but only with a limited set of tag types.
Yes/no questions are normally answered with go'i, na go'i, or ja'a go'i.