Novial/Testpage

Novial home - Pronunciation Guide

Contents - Lesson 1 - Lesson 2 - Lesson 3 - Lesson 4 - Lesson 5 - Lesson 6 - Lesson 7 - Lesson 8 - Lesson 9

Prefixes - Suffixes

Templates

EXERCISE • Translator • Testpage • Nominative Case

Without looking back at the lesson, try to translate these English pronouns into German:

1. we
2. they
3. he
4. you
5. I
6. you (formal)
7. it
8. you guys
9. she

SOLUTION • Novial/Testpage • Nominative Case

1. wir
2. sie
3. er
4. du
5. ich
6. Sie (Make sure it's capitalized!)
7. es
8. ihr
9. sie

 

 

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	ki- kysyvä	ti- osoittava	i- epämääräinen	ĉi- yleistävä	neni- kieltävä
-o yleinen asia	kio mikä	tio tuo	io jokin	ĉio kaikki	nenio ei mikään
-u henkilö	kiu kuka	tiu tuo	iu joku	ĉiu jokainen	neniu ei kukaan
-a laatu	kia minkälainen	tia sellainen	ia jonkinlainen	ĉia kaikenlainen	nenia ei minkäänlainen
-e paikka	kie missä	tie siellä, tuolla	ie jossain	ĉie kaikkialla	nenie ei missään
-es omistus	kies kenen	ties tuon	ies jonkun	ĉies kaikkien	nenies ei kenenkään
-om määrä	kiom kuinka paljon, minkä verran	tiom sen verran	iom jonkin verran	ĉiom kaikki, koko määrä	neniom ei yhtään, ei ollenkaan
-el tapa	kiel miten	tiel siten, niin	iel jotenkin	ĉiel kaikilla tavoilla	neniel ei mitenkään
-am aika	kiam milloin	tiam silloin	iam joskus	ĉiam aina	neniam ei koskaan
-al syy	kial miksi	tial siksi	ial jostakin syystä	ĉial kaikista syistä	nenial ei mistään syystä

Li Hunde del Familie Baskerville

Watson: Bon jorne, doktoro Mortimer.

Mortimer: Bon jorne. Ob vu es sinioro Sherlock Holmes?

Holmes: No, lo es men amike, doktoro Watson.

Mortimer: Plesure ke me renkontra vu, doktoro. Me sava vun nome. Sinioro Holmes, vu tre multim interesa me.

Holmes: Me observa fro vun fingre ke vu fuma. Bonvoli sida e fuma. Pro quu vu visita nus disdi?

Mortimer: Me have seriosi e exterordinari probleme. Me realisa ke vu es li duesmi autoritate in Europa.

Holmes: Ya, sinioro! Que es unesmi?

Mortimer: Li laboro de Monsieur Bertillon sembla bon a siential home.

Holmes: Dunke, pro quu vu non konsulta lo?

Mortimer: Lu sembla bon a siential home, ma me prefera konsulta vu in praktikal koses. Me espera ke me non ofense vu.

Holmes: Nur pokim. Rakonta a nus li nature de vun probleme.

Vocabulary Notes

Novial	English
bon	good
jorne	day
doktoro	doctor
ob	is it that?
vu	you
es	are, is, am, be
sionoro	Mr.
no	no
lo	he
es	is
men	my
amike	friend
plesure	pleasure
ke	that
me	I, me
rekontra	meet
sava	know
vun	your
nome	name
tre	very
interesa	interest
observa	observe
fro	from
fingre	fingre
fuma	smoke
bonvoli	please
sida	sit
pro quu	why
visita	visit
nus	we, us
disdi	today
have	have
exterordinari	extraordinary
probleme	problem
realisa	realise
li	the
duesmi	second
autoritate	authority
in	in
Europa	Europe
ya	indeed
que	who
unesmi	first
laboro	work
de	of
sembla	seem
a	to
siential	scientific
home	person
dunke	therefore
non	not
konsulta	consult
ma	but
prefera	prefer
praktikal	practical
kose	thing
espera	hope
ofense	offend
nur	only
pokim	a little
rakonta	tell
nature	nature

Watson: Bon jorne, doktoro Mortimer.

Mortimer: Bon jorne. Ob vu es sinioro Sherlock Holmes?

Holmes: No, lo es men amike, doktoro Watson.

Mortimer: Plesure ke me renkontra vu, doktoro. Me sava vun nome. Sinioro Holmes, vu tre multim interesa me.

Holmes: Me observa fro vun fingre ke vu fuma. Bonvoli sida e fuma. Pro quu vu visita nus disdi?

Mortimer: Me have seriosi e exterordinari probleme. Me realisa ke vu es li duesmi autoritate in Europa…

Holmes: Ya, sinioro! Que es unesmi?

Mortimer: Li laboro de Monsieur Bertillon sembla bon a siential home.

Holmes: Dunke, pro quu vu non konsulta lo?

Mortimer: Lo sembla bon a siential home, ma me prefera konsulta vu in praktikal koses. Me espera ke me non ofense vu.

Holmes: Nur pokim. Rakonta a nus li nature de vun probleme.

Vocabulary

Adjectives which often drop the final -i have it in brackets.

• a – to
• amike – friend
• autoritate – authority
• bon(i) – good
• bonvoli – (to) be willing, please
• de – of
• del – of the
• disdi – today
• doktoro – doctor
• duesmi – second
• dunke – therefore
• e – and
• es – am, are, is, (to) be
• espera – (to) hope
• Europa – Europe
• exterordinari – extraordinary
• familie – family
• fingre – finger
• fuma – (to) smoke
• have – (to) have, possess
• home – person
• hunde – dog
• in – in
• interesa – (to) interest
• jorne – day
• ke – that (conjunction)
• konsulta – (to) consult
• kose – thing, matter
• laboro – work
• li – the
• lo – he, him
• ma – but
• me – I, me
• men – my, mine
• nature – nature
• no – no
• nome – name
• non – not
• nur – only
• nus – we, us
• ob – is it that?
• observa – (to) observe
• ofense – (to) offend
• plesure – pleasure
• pokim – a little (adverb)
• praktikal(i) – practical
• prefera – (to) prefer
• pro – because of, on account of
• pro quu – why
• probleme – problem
• que – who?
• rakonta – (to) tell, recount
• realisa – (to) realize
• renkontra – (to) meet
• sava – (to) know
• sembla – (to) seem
• seriosi – serious
• sida – (to) sit
• siential(i) – scientific
• sinioro – Mr, sir
• tre – very
• tre multim – very much
• unesmi – first
• visita – (to) visit
• vu – you (one person)
• vun – your, yours (one person)
• ya – indeed

Grammar Notes

Personal Pronouns – Subject, Object and Possession

The subject and object forms (e.g English I and me) of Novial pronouns are the same:

• me – I, me
• nus – we, us
• vu – you (one person)
• vus – you (more than one person)
• lo – he, him
• los – they, them (all male)
• la – she, her
• las – they, them (all female)
• le – he or she, him or her
• les – they, them
• lu – it
• lus – they, them (all sexless objects)

Notice that in the third person, male and female have the endings -o and -a respectively. The ending -e indicates either male or female without specifying. The ending -u indicates a sexless thing. Plurals all end in -s. Les is conveniently used to mean they, them as in English, i.e. it is not specified whether they are sexless or not, and they may be any mixture of male, female and sexless things. This system is flexible and allows more speakers to follow their natural language habits. So the French may often choose to use las and los, while most English speakers would choose to use les, ignoring the sex distinction which is here absent in English. A Finnish speaker may prefer to use le (he or she), since the he/she distinction is absent in Finnish. The pronoun le is also very convenient to say he or she using a single word and avoiding sex bias.

The standard word order is, as in English, subject-verb-object, so the object need not be marked to distinguish it from the subject:

• me observa vu – I observe you
• vu observa me – you observe me

The personal possessive adjectives are formed from the pronouns by adding -n or after a consonant -en. This is in fact the genitive (possessive) of the pronoun so men means both my and mine (of me):

• lu es men hunde – it is my dog
• lu es men – it is mine

• men – my, mine
• nusen – our, ours
• vun – your, yours
• vusen – your, yours (more than one person)
• lon – his
• losen – their, theirs (all male)
• lan – her, hers
• lasen – their, theirs (all female)
• len – his or her, his or hers
• lesen – their, theirs
• lun – its
• lusen – their, theirs (all sexless objects)

Verb – Present Tense, Imperative, Infinitive and Negative

As in English the present tense of the verb and the imperative are identical:

• me dikte – I say or I am saying
• dikte! – say!

Note that the English present continuous, such as you are saying, is translated by the simple present:

• vu dikte

The infinitive is also the same as the present:

• me prefera dikte – I prefer to say

The negative is formed with non (not), which usually precedes the word which it negates. The negative answer to a question is no (no), while the positive answer is yes (yes).

• nus non sava lu – we don’t know it

The verb never varies with the person:

• me sembla – I seem
• nus sembla – we seem
• vu sembla – you seem
• vus sembla – you seem
• le sembla - he or she seems
• les sembla – they seem

Articles, Plural Nouns and Nouns with Natural Sex

The plural of a noun is formed by adding the ending -s (-es after a consonant) and the definite article li (the) is invariant as in English:

• li probleme – the problem
• li problemes – the problems

For convenience de li (of the) is usually shortened to del and likewise a li (to the) to al and da li (by the) to dal. There is no indefinite article (a, an) in Novial. This causes no ambiguity as seen in English when the plural indefinite article (some) is dropped:

• hunde – dog, a dog
• hundes – dogs, some dogs

The indication of sex in the third person pronouns with the endings -e, -o and -a is also used with nouns that have natural gender:

• doktore – doctor (male or female)
• doktora – female doctor
• doktoro – male doctor

• hunde – dog
• hunda – bitch, female dog
• hundo – male dog

• siniore – sir or madam
• siniora – madam, Mrs
• sinioro – sir, Mr
• siniores – ladies and gentlemen

• home – person
• homa – female person (adult or child)
• homo – male person (adult or child)
• homes – people

Many sexless nouns also end in -e and these of course cannot change it to indicate sex differences.

Adjectives

All adjectives end in an -i, which may be dropped if easy to pronounce. Adjectives usually precede the noun that they qualify. As in English, adjectives do not agree with their noun in number or gender:

• boni puera or bon puera – a good girl
• boni pueras or bon pueras – good girls
• boni puero or bon puero – a good boy
• boni pueros or bon pueros – good boys
• boni pueres or bon pueres – good children (boys and/or girls)

Questions

Question words such as que (who?) or pro quu (why? ) directly indicate a question and the subject-verb-object order need not be changed:

• pro quu vus visita nus? – why are you visiting us? (Literally: why you visit us? )
• que visita nus? – who is visiting us? (Literally: who visits us? )

Otherwise a question is indicated with the general question word ob (is it that?), again with no change in the standard word order of the remainder of the sentence:

• ob vu es lan amike? – are you her friend? (Literally: is it that you are her friend? )
• ob vu sava li familie? – do you know the family? (Literally:is it that you know the family? )

Exercises

Complete the following sentences by translating the English word in brackets.

1. (You) interesa me multim, sinioro Watson.
2. E (you), doktoro Watson e siniore Holmes, interesa me.
3. ( I ) sava vusen seriosi e exterordinari probleme.
4. (We) non fuma ma bonvoli sida e fuma.
5. (She) observa (my) bon amike.
6. Ob (he) renkontra les disdi?
7. Yes, (they) visita (his) bon amike, doktoro Mortimer.
8. Li hunde interesa nus: (it) nur sida e observa.
9. Li familie have problemes: (they, the problems) interesa sinioro Holmes.
10. (Their, male only) laboro sembla bon a me.
11. (They, female only) have autoritate in Europa.
12. (Her) familie prefera non fuma.
13. Holmes e Watson, pro quu (your) problemes interesa me?
14. Ob vus sava ke lus es (my) problemes?

Answers to exercises

1. Vu interesa me multim, sinioro Watson.
2. E vus, doktoro Watson e siniore Holmes, interesa me.
3. Me sava vusen seriosi e exterordinari probleme.
4. Nus non fuma ma bonvoli sida e fuma.
5. La observa men bon amike.
6. Ob lo renkontra les disdi?
7. Yes, les visita lon bon amike, doktoro Mortimer.
8. Li hunde interesa nus: le nur sida e observa.
9. Li familie have problemes: lus interesa sinioro Holmes.
10. Losen laboro sembla bon a me.
11. Las have autoritate in Europa.
12. Lan familie prefera non fuma.
13. Holmes e Watson, pro quu vusen problemes interesa me?
14. Ob vus sava ke lus es men problemes?

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Novial home - Pronunciation Guide

Contents - Lesson 1 - Lesson 2 - Lesson 3 - Lesson 4 - Lesson 5 - Lesson 6 - Lesson 7 - Lesson 8 - Lesson 9

Prefixes - Suffixes

Translations

• Danish: vaterpas Template:N, nivelleringsinstrument Template:N
• Dutch: waterpas
• Norwegian: vater Template:N
• Portuguese: nível Template:M

• Russian: уровень (úrov'en') Template:M, ватерпас (vaterpás) Template:M
• Swedish: vattenpass

• Danish: niveau Template:N, højde {{{1}}}
• Dutch: niveau Template:N, hoogte
• Norwegian: nivå Template:N
• Portuguese: nível Template:M

• Russian: уровень (úrov'en') Template:M
• Swedish: nivå

• Danish: niveau Template:N
• Greek: επίπεδο Template:N
• Norwegian: nivå Template:N
• Portuguese: nível Template:M

• Russian: уровень (úrov'en') Template:M, степень (st'ép'en') Template:F
• Spanish: nivel Template:M
• Swedish: nivå

• Danish: niveau Template:N

• Swedish: nivå

• Danish: niveau Template:N
• Dutch: niveau Template:N
• Norwegian: nivå Template:N
• Portuguese: fase Template:F, nível Template:M

• Russian: уровень (úrov'en') Template:M, этап (etáp) Template:M
• Swedish: nivå

• Danish: etage, plan
• Dutch: etage, verdieping

• Swedish: våning