[lojban-beginners] Re: How does money work, exactly?

[Jorge Llambías <jjllambias@gmail.com>]

On 8/14/05, la cuncuxnas. <thatskotkid@gmail.com> wrote:
> Just a few minutes ago, I tried telling a friend of mine that I had ten
> dollars.  I tried {mi ponse pano lo rupnu} and {mi ponse le rupnu be li
> pano}, but when it comes down to it, I'm just not sure how {rupnu} works. 
> It seems like a finicky gismu, and I've never gotten the hang of using it
> properly.  Any help with this?

I'd say {mi ponse lo rupnu be li pano}.

{le rupnu be li pano} says that you have a particular ten dollars in
mind, as in "I have the ten dollars", the ones you had to collect from
someone, or whatever. But if it's not any particular ten dollars that
you're thinking of, then {lo} is better.

{lo rupnu be li pano} could also be anything worth ten dollars, not
necessarily an amount of money (i.e. not necessarily a ten dollar note, 
or the amount you have in your bank account), but in the absence 
of any other context the most likely interpretation I would say is that 
you are talking about money. If you want to be more precise you could
say {lo jdini poi rupnu be li pano}, "money which amounts to ten dollars".

And of course, {rupnu} need not be "dollars". It could be euros, or yens,
or rubles, or pesos, or whatever, but again the most likely would be
the local currency so it would be correct to just say {rupnu} if no 
other currency is likely in the context.

mu'o mi'e xorxes