Lojban For Beginners — velcli befi la lojban. bei loi co'a cilre
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Summary

Apart from times and dates, this lesson has covered some important points of Lojban grammar.

Vocabulary

barja 

x1 is a tavern/bar/pub serving x2 to audience/patrons x3

birje 

x1 is made of/contains/is a amount of beer/ale/brew brewed from x2

botpi 

x1 is a bottle/jar/urn/flask/closable container for x2, made of material x3 with lid x4

briju 

x1 is an office/bureau/work-place of worker x2 at location x3

cpedu 

x1 requests/asks/petitions/solicits for x2 of/from x3 in manner/form x4

denpa 

x1 awaits/waits/pauses for/until x2 at state x3 before starting/continuing x4 (activity/process)

djica 

x1 desires/wants/wishes x2 (event/state) for purpose x3

dotco 

x1 reflects German/Germanic culture/nationality/language in aspect x2

jimpe 

x1 understands/comprehends fact/truth x2 (du'u) about subject x3; x1 understands (fi) x3

lerci 

x1 (event) is late by standard x2

nandu 

x1 is difficult/hard/challenging for x2 under conditions x3; x1 challenges (non-agentive) x2

penmi 

x1 meets/encounters x2 at/in location x3

pinxe 

x1 (agent) drinks/imbibes beverage/drink/liquid refreshment x2 from/out-of container/source x3

sruma 

x1 assumes/supposes that x2 (du'u) is true about subject x3

tcita 

x1 is a label/tag of x2 showing information x3 (as in sumti tcita)

viska 

x1 sees/views/perceives visually x2 under conditions x3

xebni 

x1 hates/despises x2 (object/abstraction); x1 is full of hate for x2; x2 is odious to x1

zvati 

x1 (object/event) is at/attending/present at x2 (event/location)

Exercise 6

Translate the following from Lojban:

Note: In the following, there are some instances of nu which would properly be expressed using du'u instead. Since you don't know what du'u is yet, use nu for now, but stay tuned for Lesson 7.

Note: You'll notice that every new sentence begins with .i. That is in fact the default for Lojban, which does not rely on punctuation or intonation for its grammatical structure: .i is used consistently to separate one sentence in running text from the next.

  1. .i la jan. cu zvati le barja (Though you might not be able to tell, this is in fact Zhang. Remember from Lesson 1 that final ng in names is changed to n.)

  2. .i la jan. denpa lenu la suzyn. zvati le barja

  3. .i la jan. cpedu fi le dunda fe re birje

  4. .i lenu pinxe loi dotco birje cu se nelci la jan.

  5. .i .uu la suzyn. loi dotco birje cu xebni

  6. .i la jan. djica lenu li reno pi mu tcika lenu la suzyn. klama

  7. .i li repa tcika lenu la jan. djuno lenu la suzyn. na klama

  8. .i pinxe pici le pa birje

  9. .i la jan. cliva le barja

Exercise 7 (Advanced)

Translate into Lojban (but only if you're feeling intrepid!):

  1. Susan goes to the bar at 22:00 from the office.

  2. Susan assumes that Zhang knows that Susan is late. (Hint: actually even harder than it looks. Look carefully at the definition of the gismu for 'late'.)

  3. Susan sees one of the two bottles.

  4. It is not difficult for Susan to understand that Zhang left. (Hint: try it as "To understand that Zhang left is not difficult for Susan.")

  5. At 22:15, Susan wants to meet Jyoti at 22:45.

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