On T= hu, Mar 28, 2013 at 11:10 AM, Ian Johnson <blindbravado@gmail.com= > wrote:

{lo merko ku vecnu ti mi} and {lo merko cu v= ecnu ti mi} do mean the same thing. Technically, although neither the Wave = Lessons, nor Lojban for Beginners says so, the full version is actually {lo= merko ku cu vecnu ti mi}. This closes the {lo} and then flags that the sel= bri is coming up. The reason we don't have to say this is, as the Wave = Lessons do a good job of expressing later on, is that the terminators can b= e omitted when there is only one valid parse=A0 Once you've closed the = {lo} with {ku} in the {ku} version, there's no way for {vecnu} to bind = to {merko} to make a tanru; on the other hand, once you've said that th= e main selbri is coming up with {cu} in the {cu} version, what follows has = to be that, it can't be attached to {merko} to make a tanru otherwise i= t wouldn't be the main selbri. So in either case the other one drops.
Overall I find {ku} to be simpler to understand, especially for beginne= rs, partly because it is essentially uniform: there's nothing special a= bout sumti in the front and sumti in the back when you use {ku}. {cu} becom= es more essential when you get into nesting, where you can elide quite a fe= w terminators at once by using it.

mi'e la latro'a mu'o

On Wed, Mar 27, 2013 at 7:44 PM, Nasya = L'Bert <njkanja@gmail.com> wrote:

coi=A0ro=A0do, =A0= I have been wondering about the difference between using lo and ko=A0and using cu. =A0For example, if I want to say "an= American=A0sells this to me" do the sentences=A0"lo= merko=A0ku=A0vecnu=A0ti=A0mi"=A0and "lo merko=A0cu=A0vecnu=A0ti=A0mi"=A0mean th= e same thing?
=A0
I know that cu=A0means that a selbri=A0is coming up and separates=A0that from the sumti=A0(that c= ould turn into tanru=A0without cu=A0separating=A0= it) And that lo turns a selbri=A0into a sumti=A0a= nd ko=A0finishes the conversion. =A0.uanai<= /span> I'm learning from wave lessons now instead of Lojban=A0for begin= ners=A0and they seem to be showing me different ways to say sentences=A0lol= .

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