| Lojban For Beginners — velcli befi la lojban. bei loi co'a cilre | ||
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| Prev | Chapter 4. Numbers, and a few more articles | Next |
I've said that words like most and many are numbers in Lojban, which is pretty logical if you think about it. The following 'numbers' are particularly useful:
| no | none (we've already seen this as 'zero') | |
| ro | each / all |
| du'e | too many | |
| so'a | almost all | |
| so'e | most | |
| so'i | many / a lot of | |
| so'o | several | |
| so'u | few |
| su'e | at most | |
| su'o | at least |
Some examples:
This last sentence is logically the same as lo prenu cu prami do, which means "there exists at least one person such that that person loves you," but it makes the meaning clearer and more emphatic. In fact, all articles in Lojban have such default numbers associated with them; lo by default means su'o pa lo ro "at least one out of all...".
no le ninmu cu nelci la bil.
None of the women like Bill.no lo ninmu cu nelci la bil.
No women like Bill.(because lo ninmu potentially includes all women that exist)
coi rodo
Hi, everyonemi nelci ro lo mlatu
I like all cats.mi na nelci ro lo gerku
It's not true that I like all dogs.(This is not the same as "I don't like any dogs", which would be mi nelci no lo gerku. There are other ways of saying this, but we haven't got enough grammar under our belt yet.)
so'i lo merko cu nelci la nirvanas.
Many Americans like Nirvana(The group, not the mystical state. Although on second thought...)
Note: Yes, names are ambiguous in Lojban, because they're used Humpty-Dumpty style: they mean what the speaker means.
so'u lo jungo cu nelci la nirvanas.
Few Chinese people like Nirvana.su'e mu le muno prenu cu cmila
No more than five out of the fifty people laugh(ed)(Let's say a comedian told a bad joke).
su'o pa lo prenu cu prami do
At least one person loves you.
Vocabulary
| Exercise 3 |
Translate the following sentences.
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