[lojban-beginners] Re: amounts

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

On Monday 13 April 2009 12:24:36 Scott Weller wrote:
> I've never had a good grasp of how to *use* numbers.
>
> Let's say I'm waving a wad of bills under your nose.  If I said:
>
> ti rupnu li munono
>
> would you understand that as "this is $500" ?
>
> If not, how would you say that?

That is correct. You could equally well say "ti rupnu li munono" of a fancy 
blender that you bought for that amount of money. To state that it's bills 
rather than merchandise, you can say "ti rupnu be li munono plesicni li reno" 
(this is 500$ in twenties).

Measuring units work the same way as "rupnu". "tu ki'ogra li pa" is true both 
of a liter of water in California and of a platinum-iridium cylinder in 
Sèvres. "tu te ki'ogra" is true only of the latter.

Trivia question: lo rupnu be fi re ma cu fepni li mu?

Pierre