Subject: Re: [lojban] Intro and questions

From: [email-masked]
Date: Fri, 5 May 2000 13:03:28 EDT

In a message dated 5/4/00 8:11:57 PM CST, [email-masked] writes:

<<.i mi cilre fi la lojban. i .e'o ro ko fraxu mi le se srera
(I'm still learning lojban. Please forgive my mistakes.)

What is the best way to express the English 'still' part of that? >>

Which "still" do you want? I suppose you mean minimally that you did a 
little learning in the past and are doing some now, no comments about 
completing the task though some hint of going on. Or maybe that does play a 
role and you are saying you have started and have not yet quit. Maybe even 
are at it now, as you seem to be. Or, as Robin, in the quote after means, 
you have gone on at it much longer than might reasonably be expected. 
1. mi pujeca cilre la lojban
ca'o
2. mi pujenaico'u ... or is it
pujeco'unai
3. mi za'o cilre...
I suspect you just want ca'o for now.

<< .i la'e zoi gy. counterfactuals .gy mo
(What are counterfactuals?)>>
Sentences that contain references to situations known or believed not to 
obtain, typically, in English, "if , then" with subjunctives: "If I were 
inventing English, I would leave the damned things out" They have various 
functions that get glopped together in English.

<<And how would I express the idiomatic "I'm _far from_ perfect"? >>
For starters, mi na prane, but that may be too strong. Indefinitely, mi na'e 
prane, but that misses the "far from" too. So maybe mi no'e prane, though 
neutral doesn't seem to fit the scale of perfection -- unless it means "about 
as far along as most" Other possibilities go to tanru: traji na'e prane or, 
depending on what exactly you mean, mutce na'e prane, milxe na'e prane. I 
don't think ze'u (or zu, though it does make sense about learning lojban) 
will do.