[lojban-beginners] Re: using ko with xamgu

[Jorge Llambías <jjllambias@gmail.com>]

On 9/21/05, Sunnan <sunnan@handgranat.org> wrote:
> Robin Lee Powell wrote:
> >On Wed, Sep 21, 2005 at 09:25:42PM +0200, Sunnan wrote:
>
> >>For example, is {ko selxau lo ckafi} an acceptable way to say
> >>"Enjoy your coffee"?

I would prefer {ko selpu'a le ckafi} for "enjoy".

{ko} should not be thought of as a command only. It can be
used to issue an order, but also to make a request, a suggestion,
to encourage someone to do something, etc.

> >No; that means "Make it so that you enjoy your coffee", whereas the
> >English means "I hope you enjoy your coffee", which is something
> >like ".a'o do nelci tu'a le ckafi".

Doesn't "enjoy your coffee!" mean more like "I'm confident
this is good coffee, go ahead and drink it, you will enjoy it".
If you can vouch for the coffee (which would be the
case when you are serving it, at least in theory) then
"hope" sounds kind of weak.

> Is it okay to use a'o in front of sentences that aren't currently true,
> or do I need to qualify them somehow?
> Can I write {a'o do prami mi} to my dear friends or would that be
> presumptuous?

Yes. In fact, {a'o} requires that you don't know the truth of
the statement. If you know it is true, then why would you
hope it is true? You would simply be happy: {ui do mi prami}.
On the other hand, if you know that it is false, you can't really
hope that it is true, but in that case you may wish that it
were {au do mi prami}, "I wish you loved me".

mu'o mi'e xorxes