Lesson 2

Welcome to Lesson 2! In Lesson 1 you should have learnt the basics of the conjugation of the present tense, how to recognise gender of nouns, agreement of adjectives, personal pronouns, some basic vocabulary and some useful phrases, all that sort of thing. If you're not ready for Lesson 2, go back to Lesson 1 now. Unless you're fed up with it all, in which case you might want to hurry straight back home before you get involved in all this nonsense.

Lesson 2: more verbs, negatives, vocab, phrases.

Let's start off with some more useful verbs. Don't forget that you need to use 'ey' for the first person singular, but other personal pronouns aren't usually used.

GILENU -- to go, walk
go
ges
ga
gos
gilen

FILENU -- to do, make
fo
fes
fa
fos
filen

VILENU -- to see, watch
vo
ves
va
vos
vilen

Notice how the verbs above work in the same way as SILENU, which appeared in Lesson 1.

HEPLENU -- to have
hep
hepes
hepa
hepos
heplen

DAKENU -- to give ("dative" verb, uses o + pronoun)
o me/te/sa/os/ilen
dak
dakes
daka
dakos
dalen

PHRASES

Ges o li shina estra socha? Are you going to the cinema this evening?
Ya, ey go o li shina, da sa ga o li pisha. Yes, I'm going to the cinema, but SHE'S/HE'S going to the swimming pool.
Shay fes li morna? What are you doing tomorrow?
Gos o in party. We're going to a party.
Hepes in kata? Have you got a cat?
No, ey no hep in kata, da ilen in heplen. No, I haven't got a cat, but THEY'VE got one.
Ves estro precho Cheesecake? Can you see that lovely Cheesecake?
No, ey no li vo. / No, no li vos. No, I can't see it. / No, we can't see it.

VOCABULARY

shina -- cinema
ya -- yes
no -- no
da -- but, although
pisha -- swimming pool
aklenu -- to go shopping
morna -- tomorrow [note it takes the definite article]
party -- party
kata -- cat

A few brief grammar points:

Negatives are formed by adding 'no' in strategic positions, ie after 'ey' or before the verb if 'ey' is not used.
Notice how 'in' and 'li' are used to mean 'one' and 'it', as in "I've got one," or "He said it."
Verbs go to the end of subordinate clauses (eg "da ilen in heplen").

I was going to go on to stuff like modals and a couple of other tenses, but now I just can't be arsed. There's something very dull about typing all this up. I don't think I'll ever be a teacher. Right, that's it, I'm going to go and do something interesting. Come back for Lesson 3 if I can be bothered writing it...

Lesson 3

Class dismissed!

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