From nobody@digitalkingdom.org Mon Mar 02 15:14:11 2009 Received: with ECARTIS (v1.0.0; list lojban-beginners); Mon, 02 Mar 2009 15:14:11 -0800 (PST) Received: from nobody by chain.digitalkingdom.org with local (Exim 4.69) (envelope-from ) id 1LeHKt-0004sz-BN for lojban-beginners-real@lojban.org; Mon, 02 Mar 2009 15:14:11 -0800 Received: from sunflowerriver.org ([205.201.137.24]) by chain.digitalkingdom.org with esmtp (Exim 4.69) (envelope-from ) id 1LeHKq-0004sK-SO for lojban-beginners@lojban.org; Mon, 02 Mar 2009 15:14:11 -0800 Received: from sunflowerriver.org (IDENT:rcxaicv5gm9bjdo0zih9@sunflowerriver.org [205.201.137.24] (may be forged)) by sunflowerriver.org (8.14.3/8.14.3) with ESMTP id n22NE1Yf021939 for ; Mon, 2 Mar 2009 16:13:37 -0701 (MST) Received: (from a@localhost) by sunflowerriver.org (8.14.3/8.14.3/Submit) id n22NE0wf028436 for lojban-beginners@lojban.org; Mon, 2 Mar 2009 16:13:36 -0701 (MST) Received: by sunflowerriver.org (tmda-sendmail, from uid 1337); Mon, 02 Mar 2009 16:13:36 -0700 (MST) Date: Mon, 2 Mar 2009 16:13:33 -0700 To: lojban-beginners@lojban.org Subject: [lojban-beginners] grammar check for my first few sentences Message-ID: <20090302231357.GF25033@sunflowerriver.org> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline From: Alan Post Mail-Followup-To: lojban-beginners@lojban.org X-Delivery-Agent: TMDA/1.0.3 (Seattle Slew) X-Spam-Score: 1.6 X-Spam-Score-Int: 16 X-Spam-Bar: + X-archive-position: 1378 X-ecartis-version: Ecartis v1.0.0 Sender: lojban-beginners-bounce@lojban.org Errors-to: lojban-beginners-bounce@lojban.org X-original-sender: alanpost+keyword+lojban.420f97@sunflowerriver.org Precedence: bulk Reply-to: lojban-beginners@lojban.org X-list: lojban-beginners I've begun the process of memorizing vocabulary, and have selected the first few words from Robin Lee Powell's flashcards[1]. I'm constructing sentences using these words, and I'd like to know if my sentences are gramatical. My first sentence: .i mi cusku le mlatu do la lojban (I talk about the cat to you in lojban.) I'm not sure that saying "le mlatu" in the x2 is proper. I'm not sure if the x2 place of cusku permits saying "the cat" or whether I need a different or additional word. My second sentence: .i se lu pa re ci li'u cusku do ("123" you said.) Are the lu/li'u required here? Is this the same sentence as "se pa re ci cusku do" or is that saying "the concept of 123 you speak about?" I assume the status of lu/li'u is the same if you replace "pa re ci" with "coi." I suppose I might be tripping up on the exact meaning of the x2 "cusku" in both sentences, though I'm also trying to construct sentences with cmavo in them, as that is what is recommended to learn many of first. As a final aside: In "Direct quotations" in Lojban for Beginners[2], the sample sentence for lu/li'h has a "cu" in it: lu le munje li'u cu cmalu I would guess that the "cu" is optional, because the terminator li'u is used. Is this correct? Thank you for your help, -Alan [1]: http://www.digitalkingdom.org/~rlpowell/hobbies/lojban/index.html [2]: http://www.tlg.uci.edu/~opoudjis/lojbanbrochure/lessons/less7quote.html