Re: [lojban-beginners] How to say "I have (only) one brother"?

[ianek <janek37@gmail.com>]

On Thursday, July 25, 2013 8:28:13 PM UTC+2, selpa'i wrote:
> On 25.07.2013 20:02, la .temlat. wrote:
> > I know I can say things like {mi ponse pa lo karce} but I can't say
> > {mi ponse pa lo bunre}.
>
> (bruna)
>
> Indeed, owning a brother *probably* isn't what you mean. (but owning a 
> brown object is of course possible, e.g. a teddy bear)
>
> > I know I could say {mi se bruna pa lo prenu (po'o)},
>
> You'd want to put the {po'o} after the number:
>
> {pa po'o prenu}
> "Only 1 person."
>
> The {po'o} is mostly emphatic, because {pa} (as an outer quantifier) by 
> itself already means "there exists exactly 1".
>
> If you mean "only" as in "I feel lack" or as in "It's a small number 
> that I am unhappy about", you could try: {so'u pa ui nai} - "few and one 
> :( "

Maybe offtopic, but I'm not sure {so'u pa} does that. I would understand that as "few tens and 1", ie. 11, 21 or 31.

mu'o mi'e ianek

 

>  or {pa be'u} - "one and I feel lack about the number".
>
> > but could I say {mi pamei se bruna}?
> > {mi ckini pa lo bruna}?
>
> The most precise, shortest, unadorned way is:
>
>       (1) mi se bruna pa da      (or: pa da mi bruna)
>           "There exists exactly one X such that I brother X."
>           "I have exactly one brother."
>
> mu'o mi'e la selpa'i

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