Lesson 1. The language at a glance#

Alphabet#

The basic thing you need to know about Lojban is the alphabet.

Lojban uses the Latin alphabet (vowels are colored):

a b c d e f g i j k l m n o p r s t u v x y z ' .

Words are pronounced as they are written.

There are 10 vowels in Lojban:

4 vowels are written using combinations of letters:

As for consonants, they are pronounced like in English or Latin, but there are several differences:

Stress is placed on the second to last vowel. If a word has only one vowel, you just don't stress it.

The letter r can be pronounced like the the r in English, Scottish, Russian, so there is a range of acceptable pronunciation for it.

Non-Lojban vowels like the short i and u in Standard British English hit and but, are used by some people to separate consonants. So, if you have trouble pronouncing two consonants in a row (e.g. the vl in tavla, which means to talk to), then you can say tavɪla — where the ɪ is very short. However, other vowels like a and u must be long.

The simplest sentence#

The basic unit in Lojban is "sentence". Here are three simple examples:

le prenu cu tavla mi The person speaks to me.

le prenu

the person

tavla

… talks to …, … speaks to …

mi

I, me

mi prami do I love you.

prami

… loves … (someone)

do

you

mi ca cu tavla do I now talk to you.

ca

now (pronounced as shah)

Each sentence in Lojban consists of the following parts from the left to the right:

• the head:
  • consists of so-called "terms",
    • le prenu is the only head term in the example le prenu cu tavla mi above,
    • mi, ca are head terms in the example mi ca cu tavla do above.
• the head separator cu:
  • pronounced as shoe since c is for sh,
  • shows that the head has ended,
  • can be omitted when it's clear that the head is completed.
• the tail:
  • the main relation construct (called "selbrisni" in Lojban)
  • + possibly one or more terms after it,
    • tavla, prami are selbrisni, main relation constructs in the examples above.
    • mi is the only tail term in the example le prenu cu tavla mi above.
    • do is the only tail term in the example mi prami do above.

In Lojban, we mostly speak of relations rather than nouns or verbs.

Here are the two relation words, which roughly correspond to verbs:

prenu

… is a person / are people

tavla

… speaks to …

Each relation has one or more roles that can also be called "slots" or "places". Above, they are labelled with "…" Those slots are to be filled with arguments (called "sumti" in Lojban). Argument terms are constructs like le prenu, mi, do no matter whether those terms end up being in a head or in a tail of a sentence. We put argument terms in order, thus filling these slots and giving a concrete meaning to the relation.

We can also turn such relation into an argument term.

For that we put a short word le in front of it:

prenu

… is a person

le prenu

the person, the people

Similarly,

tavla

… speaks to …

and thus

le tavla

the speaker, the speakers

It might sound strange how person can be a "verb", but in fact, this makes Lojban very simple:

The first slot of the relations disappears when using le, hence such alternative translations as the one who … is possible.

Notice, that Lojban, by default, doesn't specify number between the speaker or the speakers. That is, le tavla is vague in that regard, and we will soon discover ways to define the number.

Apart from argument terms there are modal terms like ca:

mi ca cu tavla do I now talk to you.

ca

now

Modal terms do not fill slots of the main relation construct ("selbrisni"). Instead, they are applied to the whole sentence enriching or narrowing its meaning.

Thus, terms in Lojban are represented with:

• argument terms that fill in slots of relations. Examples are:
  • nouns like le prenu (the person)
  • pronouns like mi (I, me), do (you). Pronouns work exactly as nouns, but le is not used for them. They work as arguments on their own.
• modal terms that do not fill slots of relations but specify additional, сlarifying information.
  • for example, ca (now, in present).

Some more examples:

mi nintadni I am a new student.

nintadni

… (someone) is a new student, a newbie

Unlike in English we don't have to add the verb "am/is/are/to be" to the sentence. It is already implied. The relation word nintadni (… is a new student) already has this English "am/is/are/to be" built into its English translation.

do jimpe You understand.

jimpe

… (someone) understands … (something)

mi pilno le fonxa I use the phone.

pilno

… (someone) uses … (something)

fonxa

… is a phone, … are phones

le fonxa

the phone, the phones

mi citka I eat.

citka

… (someone) eats … (something)

do citka You eat.

mi citka le plise I eat the apples.

le plise cu kukte The apples are tasty.

le plise

the apples

kukte

… (something) is tasty

A simpler sentence in Lojban would contain only one main relation word:

karce Car! It is a car.

You could say this when you see a car coming. Here the context would be clear enough that there is a car somewhere around and probably it's dangerous.

karce itself is a relation word meaning is a car.

We can of course be more precise and say, for example:

bolci Ball! It is a ball.

where bolci is a relation word meaning is a ball.

ti bolci This is a ball near me.

ta bolci This is a ball near you.

ti

pronoun: this thing near me

ta

pronoun: this/that thing near you

tu

pronoun: that one away from you and me

Similarly, you can say

carvi It is raining.

where

carvi

… is a rain, … is raining

or

pluka It's pleasant.

where

pluka

… is pleasant

Notice that in Lojban there is no need in the word it in such sense. You just use the relation word you need.

prami Someone loves.

bajra Someone runs.

bajra

… runs using limbs

Again context would probably tell who loves whom and who runs.

Task#

pinxe

… drinks … (something)

le djacu

the water

Close the right part of the table. Translate the sentences on the left from Lojban.

«.i» separates sentences#

We place a short word .i to separate any two consecutive sentences:

mi tavla le prenu .i le prenu cu tavla mi I'm talking to the people. The people are talking to me.

.i separates sentences like the full stop (period) at the end of sentences in English texts.

When saying one sentence after another in English we make a pause (it may be short) between them. But pause has many different meanings in English. In Lojban we have a better way of understanding where one sentence ends and another begins.

Also note that sometimes when pronouncing words quickly you can't figure out where one sentence ends and the word of the next sentence begins. Therefore it's advised to use the word .i before starting a new sentence.

Numbers: ‘1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0’ = «pa re ci vo mu xa ze bi so no»#

le simply turns a relation construct into an argument, but such argument has no number associated with it. The sentence

le prenu cu tavla mi The people talk to me. The person talks to me.

doesn't specify the number of people talking to me. In English, it is impossible to omit the number because people in English implies more than one person. However, in Lojban, you can omit the number.

Now let's specify how many of the people are relevant to our discussion.

Let's add a number after le.

le pa prenu cu tavla mi The person talks to me. The one person talks to me.

We add a number after le and thus specify individual people.

For numbers consisting of several digits, we just string those digits together:

le re mu prenu cu tavla mi The 25 people talk to me.

Yes, it's that simple.

If we want to count, we can separate numbers with .i:

mu .i vo .i ci .i re .i pa .i no 5 … 4 … 3 … 2 … 1 … 0

The number za'u means more than … (> in math), the number me'i means less than (< in math):

le za'u re prenu cu tavla mi More than two people talk to me.

le me'i pa no prenu cu tavla mi Fewer than 10 people talk to me.

le za'u ci prenu cu tavla mi More than three people talk to me.

To say just people (plural number) as opposed to one person, we use za'u pa, more than one or simply za'u.

le za'u pa prenu cu tavla mi le za'u prenu cu tavla mi The people talk to me.

za'u by default means za'u pa, hence such contraction is possible.

le prenu

the person / the people

le pa prenu

the person (one in number)

le za'u prenu

the people (two or more in number)

Task#

stati

… (someone) is smart, … has a talent

klama

… comes to … (some place or object)

nelci

… likes … (something)

le zarci

the market

le najnimre

the orange (fruit), the oranges

le badna

the banana, bananas

Close the right part of the table. Translate the sentences on the left from Lojban.

Close the right part of the table. Translate the sentences on the left to Lojban.

Compound relation#

Compound relation construct (tanru in Lojban) are several relation words placed one after another.

tu melbi zdani That one is a nice home.

tu

that one (away from you and me)

melbi

… is beautiful, nice

zdani

… is a home or nest to … (someone)

melbi zdani

compound relation construct: … is a beautiful home to … (someone)

do melbi dansu You nicely dance.

dansu

… dances

Here, the relation melbi adds an additional meaning as it is placed to the left of another relation: zdani. The left component is usually translated using adjectives and adverbs.

Compound relations are a powerful feature that produces richer meanings. You just string two relation words together, and the left component of such compound relation adds a flavor to the right one.

We can put le (e.g. with a number) to the left of such compound relation getting a richer argument term:

le pa melbi zdani

the beautiful home

Now we know why there was cu after head terms in our example:

le pa prenu cu tavla mi The person talks to me.

Without cu it'd turn into le pa prenu tavla, which would have the meaning of the person-talker - whatever that could mean.

Consider:

le pa tavla pendo The talking friend

le pa tavla cu pendo The talking one is a friend.

Remember about placing cu before the main relation construct in a sentence to prevent unintentional creation of compound relations.

Compound relation can contain more than two components. In this case, the first relation modifies the second one, the second one modifies the third, and so on:

le pa melbi cmalu karce the pretty-small car, the car small in a pretty way

le mutce melbi zdani the very beautiful home

mutce

… is very, … is much

Task#

sutra

… is quick

barda

… is big

cmalu

… is small

mlatu

… is a cat

Close the right part of the table. Translate the sentences on the left from Lojban.

Close the right part of the table. Translate the sentences on the left to Lojban.

‘Yes/No’ questions#

In English, we form a yes/no question by changing the order of the words, for example

You are … ⇒ Are you …?

or by using some form of the verb to do at the beginning, for example:

You know … ⇒ Do you know?

In Lojban, the word order can be retained. To turn any assertion into a yes/no question, we simply insert the word xu at the beginning of the sentence:

xu do nelci le gerku Do you like the dogs?

le gerku

the dog, the dogs

Remember that in Lojban, punctuation like "?" (question mark) is optional and used mostly for stylistic purposes. This is because the question word xu already shows that it is a question.

Other examples:

xu mi klama Am I coming?

klama

… comes to … (somewhere)

xu pelxu Is it yellow?

pelxu

… is yellow

We can shift the meaning by placing xu after different parts of the sentence. Explanations what changed in the meaning are given in brackets:

xu do nelci le gerku Do you like the dogs?

do xu nelci le gerku Do YOU like the dogs? (I thought it was someone else who likes them).

do nelci xu le gerku Do you LIKE the dogs? (I thought you were just neutral towards them).

do nelci le xu gerku Do you like THE DOGS? (I thought you liked the cats).

do nelci le gerku xu You like those things, are they dogs? (You only question the validity of the relation gerku).

What is expressed using intonation in English is expressed by moving xu after the part we want to emphasize in Lojban. Note that the first sentence with xu in the beginning asks the most generic question without stressing any particular aspect.

xu is an interjection word. Here are the features of Lojban interjections:

• interjection modifies the construct before it:

do xu nelci le gerku Do YOU like the dogs?

• when placed at the beginning of a relation, interjection modifies the whole relation:

xu do nelci le gerku Do you like the dogs?

• interjections can be placed after different parts of the same relation to shift the meaning.

do nelci le gerku xu You like those entities, are they dogs?

Here, only the relation gerku (not the argument le gerku) is modified by the question word xu. So here we wonder only of that relation. We assert that you like these objects or live beings and we ask you if those are dogs.

Interjections don't break compound relations, they can be used within them:

do nelci le barda xu gerku Do you like the BIG dogs?

Now, how to reply to such 'yes/no' questions? We repeat the main relation construct:

— xu le mlatu cu melbi — melbi — Are the cats pretty? — Pretty.

To answer 'no', we use the modal term na ku:

— xu le mlatu cu melbi — na ku melbi — Are the cats pretty? — Not pretty.

na ku

term: it is false that …

Or, we can use a special relation word go'i:

— xu le mlatu cu melbi — go'i — Are the cats pretty? — Pretty.

go'i

relation word that repeats the main relation of the previous sentence

Here, go'i means the same as melbi since melbi is the relation of the previous relation.

— xu le mlatu cu melbi — na ku go'i — Are the cats pretty? — Not pretty.

The modal term na ku can be used not only in answers:

na ku mi nelci le gerku It is false that I like the dogs. I don't like the dogs.

mi na ku nelci do I don't like you.

Its opposite, the term ja'a ku affirms the meaning:

mi ja'a ku nelci do I do like you.

ja'a ku

term: it is true that …

Task#

Close the right part of the table. Translate the sentences on the left from Lojban.

Close the right part of the table. Translate the sentences on the left to Lojban.

Happiness and polite requests: ‘Yay!’ = «ui», ‘Please!’ = «.e'o»#

The interjection ui show happiness of the one who is speaking. It is used just like the smiley face ‘:)’ the smiley-face in messaging, to indicate that you're glad of something. Although, smileys can be ambiguous, and ui has only one meaning, which is handy.

ui do klama Yay, you are coming!

ui

interjection: Yay!, interjection of happiness

The interjection .e'o at the beginning of a sentence turns it into a polite request:

.e'o do lebna le fonxa Could you take the phone, please? Please take the phone.

.e'o

interjection: please (pronounced as eh-haw with a short pause or break before the word)

lebna

to take (something)

In English, to be polite, one has to use could you + please + a question. In Lojban, .e'o is enough to make a polite request.

Task#

Close the right part of the table. Translate the sentences on the left from Lojban.

le tcati

the tea

le ckafi

coffee

zgana

to watch, observe (using any senses)

le skina

the film, the movie

kurji

to care of (someone, something)

Close the right part of the table. Translate the sentences on the left to Lojban.

‘And’ and ‘or’#

do nintadni .i je mi nintadni You are a newbie. And I am a newbie.

do .e mi nintadni You and I are newbies.

mi tadni .i je mi tavla do I study. And I talk to you.

mi tadni gi'e tavla do I study and talk to you.

.i je

conjunction "and" combining sentences into one.

.e

conjunction "and" connecting arguments.

gi'e

conjunction "and" connecting sentence tails.

We can combine two sentences into one statement using the conjunction .i je, which means and:

do nintadni .i je mi nintadni You are a newbie. And I am a newbie.

Since both sentences have the same tail, we can use a contraction: the conjunction .e means and for arguments:

do .e mi nintadni You and I are newbies.

do nintadni .i je mi nintadni means exactly the same as do .e mi nintadni

We can also use .e for connecting arguments in other positions.

Both of these sentences mean the same thing.

mi pinxe le djacu .e le jisra I drink the water and the juice. mi pinxe le djacu .i je mi pinxe le jisra I drink the water, and I drink the juice.

le jisra

juice

If the sentence head is the same but the tails differ, we use the conjunction gi'e, which means and for sentence tails:

mi tadni .i je mi tavla do mi tadni gi'e tavla do I study and talk to you.

Both variations mean the same; gi'e simply leads to a more conсise form.

There are also ways to add and for components of compound relations:

le melbi je cmalu zdani cu jibni ti The pretty and small home is near.

jibni

… is near to …

ti

this thing, this place near me

je is a conjunction that means and in compound relations.

Without je, the sentence changes the meaning:

le melbi cmalu zdani cu jibni The prettily small home is near.

Here melbi modifies cmalu, and melbi cmalu modifies zdani, according to how compound relations work.

In le melbi je cmalu zdani (the pretty and small house) both melbi and cmalu modify zdani directly.

Other common conjunctions include:

le verba cu fengu ja bilma The child is angry or ill (or maybe both angry and ill)

do .a mi ba vitke le dzena You or I (or both of us) will visit the ancestor.

ja

and/or inside compound relations

.a

and/or when connecting arguments

fengu

… is angry

bilma

… is ill

vitke

to visit (someone)

dzena

… is an ancestor of …

le karce cu blabi jo nai grusi The car is either white or gray.

do .o nai mi vitke le laldo Either you or I visit the old one.

jo nai

either … or … but not both

.o nai

either … or … but not both (when connecting arguments)

laldo

… is old

Note: it's better to remember jo nai as a single construct, and the same for .o nai.

mi prami do .i ju do stati I love you. Whether or not you are smart.

le verba cu nelci le plise .u le badna The child likes the apples whether or not (he/she likes) the bananas.

ju

whether or not …

.u

whether or not … (when connecting arguments)

«joi» is ‘and’ for mass actions#

do joi mi casnu le bangu You and I are discussing the language.

casnu

… discusses …

le bangu

the language

joi

conjunction and for masses

If I say do .e mi casnu le bangu it may mean that you discuss the language, and I discuss the language. But it doesn't necessarily mean that we are in the same conversation!

This distinction can be made more visible if we expand this sentence using .i je:

do .e mi casnu le bangu do casnu le bangu .i je mi casnu le bangu You discuss the language. And I discuss the language.

In order to emphasize that you and I participate in the same action, we use a special conjunction joi meaning and that forms a "mass":

do joi mi casnu le bangu You and I are discussing the language. You and I being a single entity for this event are discussing the language.

There also exists a pronoun mi'o (you and I together), which can be rephrased as mi joi do (it's just longer). In Lojban, you may use not a single word for we but more precise constructs like mi joi le pendo (literally I and the friends).

Task#

Close the right part of the table. Translate the sentences on the left from Lojban.

Close the right part of the table. Translate the sentences on the left to Lojban.

But …#

le najnimre cu barda .i je ku'i le badna cu cmalu The oranges are big. But the bananas are small.

ku'i

interjection: but, however

Actually, in English, but is the same as and, and it adds a flavor of contrast.

In Lojban, we just use the conjunction .i je (or .e, gi'e, je, depending on what we connect) and add the flavor of contrast to it with the interjection ku'i. As usual, the interjection modifies the construct before it.

Events: ‘dancing and being together’ — «le nu dansu .e le nu kansa»#

Some slots of relations expect an event:

le cabna cu nicte Now it's nighttime. At present it's night.

cabna

… (event) is at present with …; … (event) happens now

le cabna

the present time, the present event

nicte

… (event) happens at night

But what if we want to describe an event using a whole sentence?

Any sentence can be turned into a relation construct by putting nu in front of it:

le nicte cu nu mi viska le lunra The night is when I see the Moon. Nighttime is an event when I see the Moon.

le nicte

the nighttime, nighttimes

viska

to see (something)

le lunra

the Moon

Here, le nicte is the first argument of the sentence and nu mi viska le lunra is the main relation construct of the sentence. However, inside this main relation, we can see another relation: mi viska le lunra embedded!

The word nu transforms a complete sentence into a relation that denotes an event (in its generic sense, its can be a process, a state etc.)

Here are some more examples:

nu mi tavla

… is an event of me talking

nu do tavla

… is an event of you talking

By adding le in front of nu, we create an argument that denotes an event:

pinxe ⇒ le nu pinxe

… drinks ⇒ the drinking

dansu ⇒ le nu dansu

… dances ⇒ the dancing

kansa ⇒ le nu kansa

… is together with … ⇒ being together

klama ⇒ le nu klama

… comes to … ⇒ the coming

le nu do klama

the coming of you, you coming

le nu often corresponds to English -ing, -tion, -sion.

Some more examples with slots that expect events instead of ordinary entities:

mi djica le nu do klama ti I want you to come here (to this place)

djica

… wants … (some event)

mi gleki le nu do klama I'm happy because you are coming.

gleki

… is happy of … (some event)

le nu pinxe le jisra cu nabmi mi Drinking the juice is a problem to me.

nabmi

… (event) is a problem to … (someone), … (event) is problematic to … (someone)

Task#

Close the right part of the table. Translate the sentences on the left from Lojban.

pilno

to use (something)

le skami

the computer

Close the right part of the table. Translate the sentences on the left to Lojban.

Modal terms. Simple tenses: ‘was’, ‘is’, ‘will be’ — «pu», «ca», «ba»#

In Lojban, we express the time when something happens (grammatically, in English it's usually called tense) with modal terms. We've already seen the modal term ca meaning at present.

Here is a series of time-related terms that tell when something happens:

le prenu pu cu tavla mi The people talked to me.

le prenu ca cu tavla mi The people talk to me (at present).

le prenu ba cu tavla mi The people will talk to me.

When after the time-related particle we place a bare argument then we form a term with a slightly different meaning:

mi pinxe le djacu ca le nu do klama I drink the water while you are coming.

The ca le nu do klama part is a long term meaning while you come / while you are coming. The le nu do klama is an argument meaning coming of you, you coming.

mi citka ba le nu mi dansu I eat after I dance.

Time-related particles are grouped into series by their meaning to make them easier to remember and use.

Words for simple tense:

• pu means before … (some event), pu alone denotes past tense.
• ca means at the same time as … (some event), ca alone denotes present tense.
• ba means after … (some event), ba alone denotes future tense.

Tenses add information about time when something happens. English forces us to use certain tenses. One has to choose between

• The people talk to me.
• The people talked to me.
• The people will talk to me.

and other similar choices.

But in Lojban tense particles are optional, we can be as vague or as precise as we want.

The sentence

le prenu cu tavla mi The people talk to me.

actually says nothing about when this happens. Context is clear enough in most cases and can help us. But if we need more precision we just add more words.

ba means after … (some event) so when we say mi ba cu citka we mean that we eat after the moment of speaking, that's why it means I will eat.

We can combine tense particles with and without arguments after them:

mi pu cu citka le plise ba le nu mi dansu I ate the apples after I danced.

Note that the term pu (past tense) is put only in the main relation (mi pu cu citka). In Lojban, it is assumed that the event I danced occurs relative to the event of eating.

We shouldn't put pu with dansu (unlike English) as mi dansu is viewed relative to mi pu cu citka so we already know that everything was in past.

More examples of time-related terms:

le nicte cu pluka The night is pleasant.

pluka

… is pleasant

ba le nicte cu pluka After the night it is pleasant.

Here, the head of the sentence contains one term ba le nicte, a modal term with its inner argument. Then after the separator cu, the main relation of the sentence pluka is followed (pluka alone means It is pleasant.)

To say will be pleasant we should use the future tense term:

le nicte ba cu pluka The night will be pleasant.

Also note that adding an argument after a time-related particle can lead to a drastically different meaning:

le nicte ba le nu citka cu pluka The night is pleasant after eating.

Note that ca can extend slightly into the past and the future, meaning just about now. Thus, ca reflects a widely used around the world notion of "present time".

It's also possible to integrate modal particles into the main relation construct:

le nicte ba cu pluka le nicte ba pluka The night will be pleasant.

Both sentences mean the same, ba pluka is a relation construct meaning … will be pleasant.

The structure of le nicte ba pluka is the following:

• le nicte — the head of the sentence with just one term le nicte
• ba pluka — the tail of the sentence that only consists of the relation ba pluka

Contrast this with the previous sentence le nicte ba cu pluka:

• le nicte ba — the head of the sentence with two terms le nicte and ba
• pluka — the tail of the sentence that only consists of the relation pluka

The advantage of le nicte ba pluka over le nicte ba cu pluka is only in conciseness; you can usually skip saying cu in such cases since the sentence can't be understood otherwise anyway.

If you wish to put a modal term before an argument term you can separate it from the following text by explicitly "ending" the term with the helper word ku:

ba ku le nicte cu pluka le nicte ba cu pluka le nicte ba pluka The night will be pleasant.

ku prevents ba le nicte from appearing thus retaining ba ku and le nicte as separate terms.

One last note: English definitions of Lojban words may use tenses even when the original Lojban words do not imply them, e.g.:

tavla

… talks to …, … speaks to …

pluka

… is pleasant

Although talks, is etc. are in the present tense (we can't always get rid of tense in English words because that's how English works), we must always assume that tense is not implied in the meaning of the defined Lojban words unless the English definition of such words explicitly mentions such tense restrictions.

Modal terms. Event contours: «co'a», «ca'o», «co'i»#

Another series of time-related particles, event contours:

co'a

tense particle: the event is at its beginning

ca'o

tense particle: the event is in progress

mo'u

tense particle: the event is complete

co'i

tense particle: the event is viewed as a whole (has started and then finished)

Most relation words describe events without specifying the stage of those events. Event contours allow us to be more precise:

mi pu co'a сu cikna mi pu co'a cikna I woke up.

cikna

… is awake

co'a cikna

… wakes up, becomes awake

pu co'a cikna

… woke up, became awake

To precisely express the English Progressive tense, we use ca'o:

mi pu ca'o сu sipna mi pu ca'o sipna I was sleeping.

sipna

… sleeps

mi ca ca'o pinxe I am drinking.

mi ba ca'o pinxe I will be drinking.

mo'u is used for describing the completion of events:

mi mo'u klama le tcana I arrived at the station.

le tcana

the station

co'i usually corresponds to the English Perfect tense:

le verba ca co'i pinxe le jisra The children have drunk the juice.

We could omit ca in these sentence since the context would be clear enough in most such cases.

he English Present Simple tense describes events that happen sometimes:

le prenu ca ta'e tavla The people (habitually, sometimes) talk.

ta'e

simple tense: the event happens habitually

We can use the same rules for describing the past using pu instead of ca or the future using ba:

le prenu pu co'i tavla mi The people had talked to me.

le prenu ba co'i tavla mi The people will have talked to me.

The relative order of time-related particles is important. In ca co'i we first say something happens in present (ca), then we state that in this present time, the described event has been completed (co'i). Only when using this order do we get the Present Perfect tense.

Modal terms. Intervals: ‘during’ — «ze'a»#

Another series of modal particles emphasizes that events happen during an interval:

ze'i

for a short time

ze'a

through some time, for a while, during …

ze'u

for a long time

mi pu ze'a cu sipna mi pu ze'a sipna I slept for a while.

mi pu ze'a le nicte cu sipna I slept through the night. I slept all night.

Note: we cannot elide cu here since nicte sipna (… is a night sleeper) is a tanru and thus would lead to some other (if weird) meaning.

mi pu ze'i le nicte cu sipna I slept through the short night.

Compare ze'a with ca:

mi pu ca le nicte cu sipna I slept at night.

le nicte

the nighttime

When using ze'a, we are talking about the whole interval of what we describe.

Note that nicte is itself an event, so we don't need nu here.

Modal terms. ‘because’ — «ri'a», ‘towards’ — «fa'a», ‘at (place)’ — «bu'u»#

Modal particle for because:

mi pinxe ri'a le nu mi taske I drink because I am thirsty.

mi citka ri'a le nu mi xagji I eat because I am hungry.

ri'a

because … (of some event)

taske

… is thirsty

xagji

… is hungry

Modal particles denoting place work in the same way:

mi cadzu fa'a do to'o le zdani I walk in the direction of you away from the home.

Note that, unlike klama, the modal particles fa'a and to'o denote directions, not necessarily start or end points of the route. For example:

le prenu cu klama fa'a do The person comes towards you.

means that the person is simply moving towards your direction, but not necessarily to you (maybe to some place or person near you).

mi cadzu bu'u le tcadu I walk in the city.

tcadu

… is a city

fa'a

towards …, in the direction of …

to'o

from …, from the direction of …

bu'u

at … (some place)

Note: nu shows that a new inner embedded sentence starts within the main sentence. We put kei after such relation to show its right border, similar to how we use ")" or "]" in math. For example:

le gerku cu plipe fa'a mi ca le nu do ca'o klama The dog jumps towards me when you are coming.

plipe

to jump

but

le gerku cu plipe ca le (nu do ca'o klama kei) fa'a mi The dog jumps (when you are coming) towards me.

Brackets ( and ) are used here only to show the structure; they are not necessary in a normal Lojban text.

We use kei after the inner sentence do ca'o klama to show that it ended, and the tail of the external sentence (*le gerku cu plipe...) continues with its terms.

Compare this sentence with the following:

le gerku cu plipe ca le (nu do ca'o klama fa'a mi) The dog jumps (when you are coming towards me).

As you can see, do klama fa'a mi is a relation inside the bigger one, so fa'a mi is now inside it.

Now, it's not the dog that comes towards me, but you.

At the end of sentences, kei is never needed as the end of any sentence is a right border by itself anyway.

Consider the following example with a time-related particle:

mi pu citka le plise ba le nu mi dansu I ate the apples after I danced.

mi pu citka ba le nu mi dansu kei le plise I ate (after I danced) the apples.

We can rearrange the sentence by moving ba le nu mi dansu around, as long as it remains after pu.

Task#

Close the right part of the table. Translate the sentences on the left from Lojban.

le tsani

the sky

zvati

…is present at … (some place or event), … stays at … (some place)

le canko

the window

le fagri

the fire

mi'o

You and I

le purdi

the garden

le tcati

the tea

Close the right part of the table. Translate the sentences on the left to Lojban.

Names. Choosing a name#

cmevla, or name word, is a special kind of word used to build names. It's easy to recognize le cmevla in a text flow, as they are the only words that end in a consonant and are wrapped by one dot on each side.

Examples of le cmevla are: .paris., .robin.

If one's name is Bob then we can create a cmevla ourselves that would sound as close as possible to this name, for example: .bab.

The simplest example of using a name would be

la .bab. cu tcidu Bob reads/is reading.

tcidu

… reads

la is similar to le, but it converts a word into a name instead of a simple argument.

In English, we start a word with a capital letter to show that it is a name. In Lojban, we use the prefix word la.

Always use la when producing names!

A name can consist of several cmevla one after another:

la .bab.djansyn. cu tcidu Bob Johnson reads/is reading.

Here, we separated the two cmevla with just one dot, which is enough.

It's common to omit dots in front of and at the end of le cmevla to write texts faster, for example, when text chatting. After all, le cmevla are still separated from neighboring words by spaces around them:

la bab djansyn cu tcidu

However, in spoken language, it is still necessary to put a short pause before and after le cmevla.

Bob's first name, the name of the language Lojban, can be used in Lojban without many changes:

la .lojban. cu bangu mi I speak Lojban. Lojban is a language of me. Lojban is a language I use.

bangu

… is a language used by … (someone)

mi nintadni la .lojban. I am a new student of Lojban.

mi tadni la .lojban. I study Lojban.

Lojban letters directly correspond to sounds, so there are some rules for adapting names to how they are written in Lojban. This may sound strange — after all, a name is a name — but all languages do this to some extent. For example, English speakers tend to pronounce Jose as Hozay, and Margaret in Chinese is Mǎgélìtè. Some sounds simply don't exist in some languages, so you need to rewrite the name so that it only contains Lojban sounds and is spelt according to letter-sound correspondence.

For example:

la .djansyn.

Johnson (probably, closer to American pronunciation)

la .suzyn.

Susan (the two letters s are pronounced differently: the second one is actually a z, and the a is not really an a sound)

Pay attention to how the name is pronounced natively. As a result, the English and French names Robert come out differently in Lojban: the English name is .robyt. in UK English, or .rabyrt. in some American dialects, but the French is .rober.

Here are "Lojbanizations" of some names:

• Alice ⇒ la .alis.
• Mei Li ⇒ la .meilis.
• Bob ⇒ la .bab.
• Abdul ⇒ la .abdul.
• Yan or Ian ⇒ la .ian.
• Ali ⇒ la .al.
• Doris ⇒ la .doris.
• Michelle ⇒ la .micel.
• Kevin ⇒ la .kevin.
• Edward ⇒ la .edvard.
• Adam ⇒ la .adam.
• Lucas ⇒ la .lukas.

Notes:

• Two additional full stops (periods) are necessary because if you don't put those pauses in speech, it might become difficult to know where the name starts and ends, or in other words, where the previous word ends and the next word begins.
• The last letter of a cmevla must be a consonant. If a name doesn't end in a consonant, we usually add an s to the end; so in Lojban, Mary becomes .meris., Joe becomes .djos., and so on. Alternatively, we can leave out the last vowel, so Mary would become .mer. or .meir.
• You can also put a full stop between a person's first and last names (though it's not compulsory), so Jim Jones becomes .djim.djonz.

Rules for making le cmevla#

Here is a compact representation of Lojban sounds:

• vowels:
  • a e i o u y au ai ei oi
• consonants:
  • b d g v z j (voiced)
  • p t k f s c x (unvoiced)
  • l m n r
  • i u. They are considered consonants when placed between two vowels or at the beginning of a word. iaua — i and u are consonants here. iai — here is the consonant i with the vowel ai after it.
  • ' (apostrophe). It is placed only between two vowels: .e'e, .u'i
  • . (dot, word break)

To create a Lojban name, follow these rules:

1. the name must end in a consonant except '. If not, add a consonant at the end yourself. Additionally, wrap it with a dot from each side: .lojban..
2. vowels can only be placed between two consonants: .sam., .no'am.
3. double consonants are merged into one: dd becomes d, nn becomes n etc. Or a y is placed between them: .nyn.
4. if a voiced and an unvoiced consonants are next to each other, insert a y between them: kv becomes kyv. Alternatively, you can remove one of the letters instead: pb can be turned into a single p or a single b.
5. if one of c, j, s, z are next to each other, insert a y between them: jz becomes jyz. Alternatively, you can remove one of the letters instead: cs can be turned into a single c or a single s.
6. if x is next to c or next to k, insert a y between them: cx becomes cyx, xk becomes xyk. Alternatively, you can remove one of the letters instead: kx can be turned into a single x.
7. the substrings mz, nts, ntc, ndz, ndj are fixed by adding a y inside or deleting one of the letters: nytc or nc, .djeimyz.
8. double ii between vowels is merged into a single i: .eian. (but not .eiian.)
9. double uu between vowels is merged into a single u: .auan. (but not .auuan.)
10. the sound for the English "h" as in Harry can be either dropped or replaced with x. Harry can become .aris. or .xaris.

Relation words as names#

You can select an enjoyable nickname in Lojban by using not only cmevla but also relation words. You can also translate your present name into Lojban if you know what it means, or choose a completely new Lojban name.

Here are a few examples:

‘he’ ‘she’#

Lojban doesn't have distinct words for he or she. Possible solutions:

le ninmu

the woman (in gender sense)

le nanmu

the male man (in gender sense)

le ninmu cu tavla le nanmu .i le ninmu cu jatna The woman talk to the man. She is a leader.

jatna

… is a leader, commander

Lojbanists have proposed various words for other genders like

le nonmu

the agender person

le nunmu

the non-binary-gendered person

However, in most situations, using le prenu (the person) or personal names is sufficient.

Another choice is to use the short pronoun ri, which refers to the previous argument term:

mi pu klama le nurma .i ri melbi I went to the countryside. It was beautiful.

le nurma

the rural area

melbi

… is beautiful, nice to … (someone)

Here, ri refers to the country side.

mi tavla le pendo .i ri jundi I talk to the friend. He/she is attentive.

jundi

… is attentive

Here, ri refers to the friend.

Note: ri skips pronouns mi (I) and do (you):

le prenu cu tavla mi .i ri pendo mi The person talks to me. He/she is a friend of mine.

Here, ri skips the previous pronoun mi and thus refers to le prenu which is the preceding argument term available.

Other two similar pronouns are ra and ru.

ra

refers to a recently used argument term

ru

refers to an even earlier used argument term

le pendo pu klama le nurma .i ri melbi ra The friend went to the countryside. The countryside was beautiful to her/him.

Here, since ri is used ra has to refer to a more recent completed argument term, which for this isolated example is le pendo. Arguments like mi and do are also skipped by ra.

If ri is not used then ra can refer even to the last completed argument:

le pendo pu klama le nurma .i ra melbi ru The friend went to the countryside. The countryside was beautiful to her/him.

ra is more convenient when you are lazy and context would resolve reference anyway.

Introducing yourself. Vocatives#

In Lojban, vocatives are words that behave like interjections (such as xu which we earlier discussed), but they require an argument to be attached to the right of them:

coi do Hello, you!

coi

vocative: Hello! Hi!

We use coi followed by an argument term to greet someone.

co'o do Goodbye to you.

co'o

vocative: goodbye!

coi ro do Hello everyone! Hello each of you

— is how people usually start a conversation with several people. Other numbers are possible of course: coi re do means Hello you two etc.

Since vocatives work like interjections we have nice types of greetings:

cerni coi Good morning! It's morning — Hello!

vanci coi Good evening!

donri coi Good day!

nicte coi Nightly greetings!

Note: in English Goodnight! means Goodbye! or denotes wishing someone a good night. By its meaning, Goodnight! doesn't belong to the series of greetings above. Thus, we use different wording in Lojban:

nicte co'o Good night!

or

.a'o pluka nicte Pleasant night!

.a'o

interjection: I hope

pluka

… is pleasant to … (someone)

Of course, we can be vague by just saying pluka nicte (just meaning pleasant night without any wishes explicitly said).

The vocative mi'e + an argument is used to introduce yourself:

mi'e la .doris. I'm Doris. This is Doris speaking.

mi'e

vocative: identifies speaker

The vocative doi is used to address someone directly:

mi cliva doi la .robert. I'm leaving, Robert.

cliva

to leave (something or someone)

Without doi, the name might fill the first argument of the relation:

mi cliva la .robert. I'm leaving Robert.

doi is a like Old English O (as in O ye of little faith) or the Latin vocative (as in Et tu, Brute). Some languages don't distinguish between these contexts, although as you can see, Old English and Latin did.

Two more vocatives are ki'e for saying thanks and je'e for accepting them:

— ki'e do do pu sidju mi — je'e do — Thank you, you helped me. — Not at all.

sidju

… helps … (someone)

We can omit the argument after the vocative only at the end of the sentence. For example, we can just say:

— coi .i xu do kanro — Hello. How do you do? — Hello. Are you healthy?

kanro

… is healthy

Here, a new sentence starts immediately after the vocative coi, so we omitted the name. Or we can say:

coi do mi djica le nu do sidju mi Hello. I want you to help me. Hello you. I want that you help me.

Thus, if you don't know the name of the listener and you want to continue the same sentence after the vocative, you just place do after it.

If you use the vocative on its own (without an argument after it) and the sentence is not finished yet, then you need to separate it from the rest. This is because the things that are most likely to follow the vocative in a sentence could easily be misconstrued as describing your addressee. To separate it from the following argument, use the word do. For example,

coi do la .alis. la .doris. pu cliva Hello! Alice left Doris. Hello you! Alice left Doris

coi la .alis. la .doris. pu cliva Hello, Alice! Doris left.

And if you want to put both vocatives and interjections, modifying the whole sentence please put the interjections first:

.ui coi do la .alis. la .doris. pu cliva Yay, Hello! Alice left Doris.

Note: in the beginning of a sentence, interjections are usually put before vocatives because:

coi .ui do la .alis. la .doris. pu cliva means

Hello (I'm happy about this greeting) you! Alice left Doris.

So an interjection immediately after a vocative modifies that vocative. Similarly, an interjection modifies the argument of a vocative when being put after it:

coi do .ui la .alis. la .doris. pu cliva Hello you (I'm happy about you)! Alice left Doris.