Skip to main content
24

First Steps in Lojban

Lesson 24. Pronouns and pro-bridi

Personal and demonstratives

mi, mi'o, mi'a, ma'a, do, do'o
The personal pronouns (me, us, you-all). Lojban is very specific about whether "we" includes the listener!
ti, ta, tu
Demonstratives: this (near me), that (near you), and that yonder (far from both). These are used for pointing to things that are physically present.

ri is one of the most common words in Lojban—it repeats the very last complete sumti mentioned. It's normally used for third-person "it" or "him/her."

mi cirko lo mapku .i ri crino I lost a hat; it is green.

If ra or ru feel too vague, you can always narrow them down with a relative clause: ra noi ...

These refer to the slots of the current sentence: vo'a refers to the x1 slot, vo'e to x2, and so on.

mi cusku lo se du'u vo'a prami vo'i kei do I say to you that I love you.

go'i is used to repeat an entire previous statement. You can even place new sumti after it to override specific slots in the original sentence.

.i ti pixra .i lo se go'i cu tcati .i lo te go'e cu me la .xekir. This is a picture; its subject (x2) is tea; and the person who made it (x3) is Xekir.

You can use goi ko'a to assign a short name like ko'a to something you've just mentioned, or cei broda to assign a temporary action word. These are mostly used in legal or technical documents.

Letter variables

Initial-letter sumti for nearby la / le / lo phrases are a common shorthand; letters can act as sumti.

This is the "whatchamacallit" word—you use it when you can't think of the right verb but the meaning is clear from context.

lo moklu be do cu co'e Your mouth is... well, busy (or whatever is obvious from context).

.i mi klama lo gusta .i .e'u co'e I'm going to the restaurant. Care to join? (Or any other suggestive action).

True or false

Pick whether each statement is true or false according to the lesson.

  1. mi'o and mi'a are both personal sumti: “you and I” vs “I and someone else”.

  2. ri, ra, ru refer back to earlier sumti as text strings.

  3. go'i repeats the previous bridi; di'u is different in the same way.

  4. lo se go'i refers to the same x2 as the previous bridi’s x2.

  5. ko'a and fo'a are assignable anaphora set by cei.

  6. co'e is the bridi‑level analogue of zo'e.

  7. Latin letters can be used as sumti variables.