Lesson 7: The verb "to be"
Welcome to Lesson 7 for learning Unilange. This lesson will focus on the verb "to be". In the last lesson, you learned some phrases which use the verb "to be". One example is "Io sèr bono." or, in English, "I am good/well". In this lesson, you will be learning more about the verb itself and when it is used. Please spend a good deal of time really making sure you understand this lesson. Lesson 7 (this lesson) is a really where things start coming together. So, if you don't understand this lesson, you won't understand the next ones.
Vocabulary | Wértscha
Nouns | Nænaé
Adjectives | Ädèktivaé
Bono | GoodPronounced: Boh-no
Ørøso | HappyPronounced: uhr-ruhrz0oh
Nèto | NicePronounced: nay-toe
| Malo | BadPronounced: mah-low
Tristo | SadPronounced: treast-oh
Wascho | MeanPronounced: vash-oh
|
Verbs | Verbaé
Sèr | To bePronounced: sair
| Ültîlisèr | To usePronounced: you-til-EEZ-sair
|
Grammar | Gram
In this lesson, we are going to teach you two important things in grammar: how to use adjectives in a sentence, and how the verb to be is used.
Using Adjectives in a Sentence
First thing's first: you have to know what an adjective is. An adjective is a word that modifies the meaning of a noun. For example, look at the english phrase "good chair". The word "chair" is being modified by the word "good", which gives you the idea that the chair works well. So "good" is the adjective.
In Unilange, the adjective goes directly after the noun that it modifies. This may seem a little bit weird for native english speakers but, in a lot of foreign languages, this is how adjectives are used in a sentence. Here are some examples:
Дé hæsa bono | The good house
(day HOWZ-ah BONE-OH)
Дé mèna nèto | The nice man
(day MEN-ah NEHT-oh)
Дé fra ørøso | The happy woman
(day FRAH uhr-RUHRZ-O
In Unilange, the adjective goes directly after the noun that it modifies. This may seem a little bit weird for native english speakers but, in a lot of foreign languages, this is how adjectives are used in a sentence. Here are some examples:
Дé hæsa bono | The good house
(day HOWZ-ah BONE-OH)
Дé mèna nèto | The nice man
(day MEN-ah NEHT-oh)
Дé fra ørøso | The happy woman
(day FRAH uhr-RUHRZ-O
Using the Verb "To be" with Adjectives
Using the verb "to be" with adjectives is just doing so in English. Here are some examples:
Дé fra sèr ørøso. | The woman is happy.
(day FRAH sair uhr-ruhrz-OH)
Дé mèna sèr nèto. | The man is nice.
(day MEN-ah sair NEHT-oh)
Дé hæsa sèr bono. | The house is good.
(day HOWZ-zah sair BONE-oh)
That seems just like English, right? In Unilange, adjectives act just like they do in English, except when they directly describe a noun (The good book | Дé lå bono). That's the only time you have to worry about them differing from English.
Дé fra sèr ørøso. | The woman is happy.
(day FRAH sair uhr-ruhrz-OH)
Дé mèna sèr nèto. | The man is nice.
(day MEN-ah sair NEHT-oh)
Дé hæsa sèr bono. | The house is good.
(day HOWZ-zah sair BONE-oh)
That seems just like English, right? In Unilange, adjectives act just like they do in English, except when they directly describe a noun (The good book | Дé lå bono). That's the only time you have to worry about them differing from English.
Using the verb "to be" with other verbs
In the "Producing Sentences" section of our lessons, we've (so far) only taught you to say sentences like "The man reads the book." or "The woman eats the sandwich." You might be wondering who would ever talk like that. Most people (in English) would say "The man is reading the book." and "The woman is eating the sandwich." So, how does one go about saying this in Unilange? That's easy (like a lot of Romance Languages)! Look at this table below:
Io mangèr | I eating/I am eating/I do eat
Tü mangèr | You eat/You are eating/You do eat
Il mangèr | He eats/He is eating/He does eat
El mangèr | She eats/She is eating/She does eat
Es mangèr | It eat/It is eating/It does eat
Man mangèr | One eats/One is eating/One does eat
Nü mangèr | We eat/We are eating/We do eat
Tü mangèr | You eat/You are eating/You do eat
Sie mangèr | They eat/They are eating/They do eat
So, as you can see, even though you may have thought that the sentences we gave you seemed awkward, they actually sound quite normal to the mind of a Unilange speaker. Now that we've introduced you to the fact that one verb in Unilange can have up to three meanings in English, we will be translating Unilange sentences (in our "Producing Sentences" Exercise) that makes the most sense.
Tü mangèr | You eat/You are eating/You do eat
Il mangèr | He eats/He is eating/He does eat
El mangèr | She eats/She is eating/She does eat
Es mangèr | It eat/It is eating/It does eat
Man mangèr | One eats/One is eating/One does eat
Nü mangèr | We eat/We are eating/We do eat
Tü mangèr | You eat/You are eating/You do eat
Sie mangèr | They eat/They are eating/They do eat
So, as you can see, even though you may have thought that the sentences we gave you seemed awkward, they actually sound quite normal to the mind of a Unilange speaker. Now that we've introduced you to the fact that one verb in Unilange can have up to three meanings in English, we will be translating Unilange sentences (in our "Producing Sentences" Exercise) that makes the most sense.
Producing Sentences | Frèsaé prodüçèr
In this seventh lesson, you've really learned a lot about Unilange (especially how it translates into English). Combing that newly-learned knowledge with the vocabulary and information in the other six lessons, you can say more in Unilange than ever before!
Дé fra sèr nèto ê ørøso. | The woman is nice and happy.
(day FRAH sair NEHT-oh ay uhr-RUHRZ-oh)
Дé mèna nèto avèr дé lå. | The nice man has the book.
(day MEN-ah NEH-to av-AIR day LAW)
Дé såra v'ordina sèr malo. | The computer mouse is bad.
(day SAW-rah for-DEAN-ah sair MAL-oh)
Дé fra sèr nèto ê ørøso. | The woman is nice and happy.
(day FRAH sair NEHT-oh ay uhr-RUHRZ-oh)
Дé mèna nèto avèr дé lå. | The nice man has the book.
(day MEN-ah NEH-to av-AIR day LAW)
Дé såra v'ordina sèr malo. | The computer mouse is bad.
(day SAW-rah for-DEAN-ah sair MAL-oh)
Are you ready for Lesson 8?
Just like there was a bunch of concepts to absorb, the next lesson will have a lot, too. As we mentioned at the beginning of this lesson, this is a really crucial lesson for understanding since this is where everything starts coming together. So it is really crucial that you understand everything we've taught you here before you begin Lesson 8. You should understand the following:
- How to spell and say the vocabulary (nouns, verbs, and adjectives)
- How to use adjectives in a sentence
- How to use the verb "To be" in a sentence