I'm Koshon (.kocon. in Lojban). I speak Lojban pretty well and I'll be guiding you through these conversations.

And I'm Sora (.soran.). A complete beginner — so anything I find confusing, you probably will too. Good luck to us both!

Every Lojban conversation starts with coi — the universal greeting. Let's listen to a short exchange and see how much you can pick up just from context.

I like that it doesn't have a "good morning" vs "good evening" distinction yet. Just… hello!

Oh — go'i is just "yes, what you said is true." And na go'i means "no, it isn't." That's elegant.

Notice na'e — it softens a negation: not "I speak Lojban badly" but "I speak Lojban not-well." A more nuanced shade of no.

We'll expand weather talk and add the three most useful Lojban time markers: ca (now), ba (future), pu (past). And our first verb of intention: .ai.

Wait — .ai is a word? It doesn't look like one.

Lojban has a whole class of one-syllable "attitude words." .ai means "I intend to / I'm going to." You'll meet many more.

So do ba citka ma is literally "you — will — eat — what?" The question word just slots in where the answer would go?

Exactly right. ma is a slot-holder for the unknown. Put it anywhere you'd put a noun and you've asked about that noun.

Now we'll meet names — la introduces proper names — and learn to say where you are, where you're going, and how far things are.

So le panka is "the park" and le zdani be do is literally "the home of you" — possessives are just be?

Right. be links a place-slot to a specifier. le zdani be mi = the home of me, i.e. my home.

This lesson focuses on expressing intention and willingness: .au (I want), .ai (I intend), .ainai (I don't intend). You'll also get your first taste of zi — "soon."

And what's pei doing at the end of .au pei?

pei turns any attitude word into a question. .au pei = "do you want to?" .ai pei = "are you going to?" You'll see it a lot.

So .ai and .ainai are like an intention switch — on and off. And zi just tacks "soon" on without any verb tense complexity?

Exactly. ba zi = "will, soon." Time markers stack naturally in Lojban.

Now the conversation gets into daily preferences. You'll encounter lo (some / an instance of) vs le (the specific…), and lo'e which refers to a type in general — like "juices in general," not a specific glass.

Three articles already? le, lo, lo'e…

Just note the pattern for now: le = the one(s) I have in mind; lo = some; lo'e = the typical kind. You'll get it from context.

ge … gi … — "both … and …"! That's a neat coordinating construction.

And ui on its own is a complete sentence. Lojban attitudinals can stand alone as emotional punctuation.

This lesson introduces location questions with bu'u ma (where?), and the important .aunai — "I don't want to."

I feel like I've been eating and drinking for three lessons straight. When do we get to grammar?

This is the grammar. You already know tense markers, attitudinals, articles, question words, and the verb-first sentence shape — you just learned them through soup and juice.

So .aunai .i ba za go'i = "I don't want to. In a while I will [do the same thing again]." go'i is an incredible shortcut.

It echoes the last predicate. Very natural in rapid Lojban conversation.

Now we're buying things. te vecnu is "to buy" — literally the third place of vecnu (to sell): the buyer's role. And je'i is an or-question: "A or B?"

And su'o da — is that "something" like a quantity?

su'o = at least one; da = some thing. Together: "at least one thing" — natural Lojban for "something."

The A .e B structure for "A and B" — is that the same .e that means "and"?

Exactly. .e connects noun-phrases: lo titnanba .e lo jisra = "cookies and juice." For connecting sentences you'd use .i je. Lojban keeps those roles distinct.

Clocks! ti'u li cacra bu N is the formula: ti'u = at the time; li = number; cacra bu = o'clock; N = the digit. So ti'u li cacra bu pa = "at 1 o'clock."

That's a lot of machinery for a single clock time. Can't we just say "pa tcika"?

The full form is precise — you're saying "at the hour marked by the number one." In conversation people do shorten it, but knowing the full form means you always understand others.

Numbers: pa re ci vo mu xa ze bi so pa no — one through ten. And they just slot into li?

Yes. li pa no = the number 10. li pa re = 12. pa, re, ci… are standalone number words.

This lesson introduces greetings by time of day and the question ma ca tcika — "what time is it now?" You'll also meet xukau, the indirect question marker.

cerni coi — "morning hello"! So you just put the time word in front of coi?

Right. cerni coi and vanci coi are the standard greetings. You can build others: nicte coi for "good night," donri coi for "good day."

In this lesson two people negotiate a convenient time for a voice conversation. Key word: kufra — "convenient, comfortable." And ja'o for drawing a conclusion: "so, therefore."

The line "your voice is beautiful" — how flattering is that in Lojban?

About as flattering as in English. Though in Lojban you're technically saying the speaker has a "pretty voice property," which is somehow even more formal and therefore funnier.

u'u — apologetic, .i'a — accepting, ja'o — inferring. These little words do so much.

They're Lojban's emotional layer. Drop them in freely — they don't change the truth of a sentence, only the speaker's attitude toward it.

The three essential day-words: le cabdei (today), le bavlamdei (tomorrow), le prulamdei (yesterday). And birti — to be certain.

bavlamdei — "the day that arrives after" and prulamdei — "the day that passed." The words describe themselves!

That's what a logical language does — roots combine in ways that describe their own meaning. Once you learn enough roots, new words become guessable.

mi na birti — so the negation goes right after mi, before the verb? Not at the end?

na always comes after the subject and before the selbri (main verb). Never at the end — that's an English habit to unlearn.

Money! meryru'u is "US dollar" (from merko + rupnu, the Lojban currency word). Prices use li for the number. Very large numbers use gei — scientific notation.

Scientific notation for car prices?

Cars are expensive. li vo gei mu = 4 × 10⁵ = 50,000. Logical, if a little alarming when you're shopping.

mi na ponse lo jdini — "I don't possess money." Story of my life in Lojban and in life.

A practical lesson about pace and shopping. sutra = fast, masno = slow. du'enzu = too (excessively). raunzu = enough, sufficiently. These four make a complete speed dial.

Finally — I can tell you to slow down!

seva'u do — "for your benefit." I'm going to use that one constantly.

Good. It's also a polite softener: "I'll do X for you" reads more considerately than just "I'll do X."

Comparisons — nesemau (more than) and tolkargu (cheap, lit. opposite-of-expensive) — plus your first family vocabulary: le speni (spouse).

Opposite-of-expensive is literally cheaper?

tol- is a prefix meaning "the opposite of." It's a systematic way to derive antonyms. tolkargu = not-expensive = cheap. tolmasno = not-slow = fast (another way to say sutra).

ri replaces the last mentioned noun. So ri joi mi = "she and I together." That's elegant — no gender, no case.

And joi forms a joint mass — the two act as one unit. Different from .e which lists independently.

Geography! xabju = to live in / inhabit; litru = to travel; gugde = country; tcadu = city. And we introduce the welcome word fi'i and a suggestion: .e'u.

Moscow, Washington, Big Apple — suddenly we're globetrotting!

pu'i — you've done it at least once before. A "have you ever" past. That's subtle but useful.

It marks that the experience has occurred at some point. You'll find it in "have you ever tried X?" questions constantly.

Family vocabulary: panzi (child/offspring), bersa (son), tixnu (daughter), nanla (boy), nixli (girl). Plus an emotional moment: xanka — to be nervous.

Oh, this one starts with someone being afraid to speak!

A very relatable opening. Nervousness is universal in language learning — and Lojban has a word for it.

se panzi = "to be offspring-had-by." The se swaps the x1 and x2 slot. So mi se panzi re da = "two children have me as parent." Very logical.

And ko na xanka — ko is the command form ("you, do this"). Here ko na = "you, don't…"

makcu means grown-up / mature; cifnu means baby / infant. Two ends of the life-stage spectrum — and both come up in family conversation constantly.

Short lesson this time?

Short but dense. Four sentences to lock in bersa, tixnu, makcu, cifnu, and zabju — that's five words in eight lines. Efficient.

xabju vs zabju — are those different?

xabju is broader: to inhabit a region. zabju implies more settled residence, often used for an address. In practice they overlap — most speakers use them interchangeably for "lives in."

xo is the quantity question word — "how many?" And we get distance vocabulary: sepli (separated/apart), ki'otre (kilometer), cmalu (small).

Oh! So xo da = "how many somethings"?

Exactly — xo slots in where a number would go. "You-have-how-many-children?" → do se panzi xo da.

tu sepli mi lo barda — "that is separated from me by a large amount." A relative-clause-free way to say "that's far from me."

A short but warm exchange about where people live and who lives with them. lanzu = family.

Nice and compact after the last couple of heavy ones!

le lanzu be do — "your family" just like le zdani be do is "your home." The be do possessive chain works the same everywhere.

Every relational noun in Lojban takes be for the related person. Very consistent once you see the pattern.

pleji = to pay; detma'i = calendar month; kagni = company / organization. And a lovely compound: jo'u = together with (both participate equally).

Monthly electricity bills in Lojban. I feel very adult.

Congratulations. You also now know how to form "every X" using ca ro.

mi jo'u le speni be mi = "me together with my spouse." Different from mi joi le speni be mi which is "me-and-spouse as a single mass entity."

Good distinction. jo'u = side by side, parallel. joi = merged into one unit. For travel companions, jo'u is usually right.

Winding down for the night. sipna = to sleep; lerci = late; nitcu = to need; jibri = job/occupation; finti = to author/program.

Finally, the lesson where people admit they need to sleep. Relatable.

lo ka finti lo proga — "the property of creating programs" — used as a noun-phrase for "programming." That's a flexible construction.

lo ka [verb] turns any verb into a property-noun. "The-being-of programming" = programming. You can use it wherever a noun fits.

Duration vocabulary: ze'a (for a while), ze'u (for a long time), ze'i (for a short time). And kanpe — to expect. Plus taksi for taxi, and stali for staying somewhere.

When do you use ze'a vs ze'u?

ze'u = for a long time (longer than expected); ze'a = for a moderate while; ze'i = for a short time. Like spatial markers vi / va / vu but for duration.

le masti be li re = "the month of number 2" = two months. The be li construction attaches a number to any time unit.

le djedi be li ci = three days. le jeftu be li pa = one week. Same pattern for masti, nanca (year) — all the time units.

di'a means "resuming / going back" — here it's used for returning. Combined with klama it gives you "to come back / return."

So di'a klama ti = "go back here" = "return here." ti is just "here"?

Yes — ti / ta / tu are spatial demonstratives: here / there / way over there. Same distance scale as vi / va / vu but pointing at objects rather than marking locations.

ba le nu vitke kei — "after visiting." So ba le nu [clause] kei is the formula for "after doing something"?

Exactly. le nu turns a verb into an event-noun; ba puts it after that event; kei closes the clause cleanly. You'll see this pattern constantly in storytelling.

Winding down: pu'o = about to (imminent future); pluka = pleasant; kansa = to accompany. And a beautiful parting phrase: pu'o nicte co'o do — night is coming, goodbye.

I love that one. It's almost poetic.

Lojban is full of these. pu'o nicte — "night is about to happen" — is compressed and evocative. Worth memorising for its own sake.

co'e — a wild card predicate meaning "does whatever the context implies." I can see that saving a lot of circumlocution.

It's Lojban's "thing" or "do." When you can't remember a word or the context makes it obvious, co'e fills in. Speakers use it all the time.

The final lesson of the core course — and a deliberate spiral. Almost every word here has appeared before. Read it through and notice how much you understand without looking at the English column.

Oh — I actually do recognise most of this. That's satisfying.

That's what the Recycle blocks have been building toward. Let's confirm it.

From "can you speak English?" to "I ate something tasty yesterday" — I feel like I've actually been somewhere.

You have. And this is only the beginning of the path — every lesson here opened a door that goes much deeper. Keep going!