Re: [lojban-beginners] Numbers of unspecified objects

[selpa'i <m3o@plasmatix.com>]

la .din. cu cusku di'e
> When you want to use a number of unspecified things in lojban, for
> example: "Three are going" or "Five are blue-green" , what would one use?
> {mu cu blari'o} and {mu zo'e blari'o} sounded grammatically incorrect.

*{mu cu klama} is indeed not grammatical, but {mu zo'e klama} is.

> {li mu cu blari'o} would refer to the number 5 being blue-green, right?

Correct. "The number five is blue-green."

> Using {mei} would be a possibility, but it would imply they did/are that
> en masse, which means it wouldn't work with for example {klama}

The definition of {mei} that uses a mass and a set is old. Many people 
do not use it with the mass-sense anymore, I don't. Whether or not the 
mei-construct acts as a mass (non-distributively) or individually 
(distributively) is left up to context with this new definition of {mei}.

So, {mei} is a very good option here:

lo ci mei cu klama
"Three are going."

> I expect a simple construct, since in lojban it generally is made easy
> to choose what you want to include and what not.

Apart from {mei}, you can also use {da}:

ci da klama
"There exist three things that are going."

You generally need to be a little bit more careful with {da}, which is a 
logical variable, especially if negation or additional logical variables 
are used in the same sentence. I won't go into the details since it 
seems you're just starting out. Just know that {da} can be a good option 
as well, but you're on the safe side with {mei}.

mu'o mi'e la selpa'i

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