[lojban-beginners] Re: staying aloft

[Pierre Abbat <phma@phma.optus.nu>]

On Saturday 30 December 2006 12:46, Cortesi wrote:
> 	ze'a ma ma'a vofli
> 	ze'a pano se mentu ma'a vofli
> 		[medium-duration 10-minutes we-all fly]

{pano se mentu} means "ten durations measured in minutes", that is, ten 
numbers, not ten time intervals. You could say {pano mentu} for "ten 
minutes", but when speaking precisely, remember that {pano mentu} does not 
imply that the ten minutes are contiguous, or that they are all exactly a 
minute - it means "ten time intervals, each of which is measured in minutes".

> 	ma'a cu'e vofli?
> 		[we-all what time/space? fly]
> 	ri mentu pano
> 		[prior-sumti minutes-duration-is 10]
>
> That is not a grammatical response, which should be a tense,

{ri mentu li pano} is grammatical, but I think what you mean is {la'e di'u 
mentu li pano}. {ri} repeats the previous sumti, which here is {ma'a}. To 
answer by filling in the blank, you could say {ca'o lo mentu be li pano}.

phma