[lojban-beginners] Re: Firefox Add-on: Lojban Popup Dictionary

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

On Monday 30 July 2007 18:26, m.kornig@sondal.net wrote:
> Let's take {vipsi} then. In many cases the translation "deputy" or
> "assistant" or maybe "deputy/assistant" would be sufficient, wouldn't it?
> I would claim that just one or two words would be helpful in many cases.
> Often not all places are needed. So why show the entire definition
> by default?

So that you can tell which place to use. Let's take {troci} as an example, as 
that's one whose places I get mixed up and have to look up. The distinction 
between {troci fe} and {troci fi} would be equally confusing to someone 
learning English, since it's made by using either the infinitive or the 
gerund as object of "try", which with other verbs usually either just sounds 
funny or makes no difference.

mi troci lo nu gasnu = I try to do
mi troci fi lo nu gasnu = I try doing

Here's a phrase I saw on a fridge magnet: "What would you attempt to do if you 
knew you could not fail?" In Lojban that is {do djuno da'i le du'u do na ka'e 
fliba .iseni'ibo do troci ma}. I tried to translate it in the store and got 
it wrong.

Pierre