Sitemap
Contents Menu
Return
Introduction
Greetings
Lunar alphabet
Word Order
Tense
Adverb
Copula
Interrogative
Imperative
Pronoun
Preposition
Relative
Accent
Number
Conjunction
Epilogue
I found this flower in the park the other day. Is it a cherry tree, Shion? No, it's a Japanese plum, not a cherry. Hey, how do you express "is this a cherry?"? "This is a Japanese plum" is "tu et ping." We've already learnt "tu et." Likewise, "this is a cherry" is "tu et seron." You have to add "mia" to the end of the sentence to mean "Is this a cherry?", i.e., "tu et seron mia?" But we usually omit "mia" and just put a question mark instead. You pronounce a sentence with a rising intonation and you get an interrogative sentence, right? It's easier than the interrogative sentences of English because you don't need to say "do you blah-blah-blah?." In Chinese, you have to add "ma" to the end of the sentence to make an interrogative sentence. Arka is similar to Chinese on this point. On the other hand, "this is not a cherry" is " tu de seron." "de" means "is not." Girls tend to say "te" instead of "de." So It seems I should say "tu te seron." And how do you express "I don't write"? You have to put an adverb, "en," before the verb except copulas. "axt" is "to write," so "en axt" means "(I) don't write." Let me see... "Shion doesn't write Arka" is "xion en axt arka." OK, let's summarize the points so far. Interrogative sentences; put "mia?" or "?" to the end of the sentence. Negative sentences; "de" means "be not," while "en" is followed by the other verbs. Here are some questions. What do you say when you want to express "Is it a cat?," "it's not a cat. It's a dog" and "Doesn't Shion write Arka?"? I'll show you the answers next time. Atte (Do your best)!