Lingwa De Planeta (Lidepla) Grammar With Examples

This is formed with the help of particle wud in both main and subordinate clauses:

Me wud yao audi farke opinas. — I'd like to hear different opinions.

Yu wud mog zwo to si yu wud yao. — You could do that if you'd like to.

Me wud go adar si me wud hev taim. — I would go there if I had time.

Yeri me wud go-te adar si me wud hev-te taim. — Yesterday I would have gone there if I had time.

Me bu wud go adar. — I wouldn't go there.

The particle wud may be shortened to 'd:

Me'd go. = Me wud go.

The immediate future and past

These are the constructions “to be about to do something” and “to have just done something”. The first one is “sal + verb”, the second is “yus + verb in past tense”:

Me sal chifan. — I am going to have a meal.

Me yus he chifan. — I have just had a meal.

Ta sal go a skola. — he (she) is about to go to school.

Ta yus he lai. — He (she) has just come.

Remote past tense

The remote past tense is formed with “gwo + verb” and expresses some action as a fact of the indefinitely remote past, which is connected with the present moment only in terms of having the corresponding experience. This is something that was taking place or used to take place some time ago:

Me gwo bi in Paris. — I have been to Paris.

Me gwo jivi in Paris. — I used to live in Paris.

Me gwo flai kelkem kadalok in munda. — I have flown everywhere in the world.

Me gwo audi musika de Prokofiev. — I have heard music by Prokofiev (I have had such an experience).

Ta gwo zun sporta. — He used to go in for sports.

Me bu gwo vidi ta. — I have never seen him before.

Tense marking

There are 2 variants of tense marking in LdP: the full and the simple one.

The full variant is when you mark verb tense according to sense and without tense concordance (independent from whether it is a main or subordinate clause). Basically it means that the tense in an indirect quotation (he said that he was leaving) should be the same as in a direct quotation (he said, "I am leaving").

Examples:

Me jan-te kwo lu ve yao. — I knew what he would like.

May amiga ve skribi a me wo ta bin in saif. — My friend will write me about where he was last summer.

May amiga he skribi a me ke ta bin morbe bat nau ta sta hao snova. — My friend wrote to me that he had been ill but now he was well again.

Gela diki-te a nu suy nove kukla kel mog ofni e klosi okos. — The girl showed us her new doll which could open and close its eyes.

Me vidi-te ke lu zai lai e go-te versu lu. — I saw that he was coming (to me), and (I) went to meet him.

The simple variant is when you don't mark verb tense at all but use words like ‘today’, ‘yesterday’ etc. and the context to convey the information about time of action. This variant is appropriate in speech.

Examples:

Preyeri me zai chu shop e miti may amiga. — The day before yesterday I was leaving the shop and met my friend.

Aftemanya me go fishi. — The day after tomorrow I'll go fishing.

Yeri pluvi e sedey bu pluvi. — Yesterday it rained, and today it isn't raining.

Laste mes me kan filma om polisyuan e lai-she mes me kan otre filma. — Last month I watched the film about a policeman, and next month I'll watch another film.

However, even in texts repeated past-tense marking is quite often superfluous, e. g., in narrating a series of past events.

Example

(with a literal translation):

Se eventi mucho yar bak. Dwa jen zai go This happens many years ago. Two men walk along kamina e miti un jen kel porti un along the road and meet a man who carries a nangwa. pumpkin. Li lai a ta, shwo: They come to him and say: — Hey! Kwo es sub yur bracha? — Hey! What is it under your arm?

Transitivity

The prefix “fa” (“to get, to become”) may serve as an intransitivity marker:

astoni — “to astonish”

fa-astoni — “to be (become) astonished”

The causative prefix “mah” may serve as a transitivity marker:

lwo — “ to fall”

mah-lwo — “to drop, let fall”

Many verbs in LdP may be intransitive and transitive in the same form, the same as the English verbs, for example ‘begin’ (‘to begin something’ vs ‘the film begins’) and ‘develop’ (‘to develop a theory’ vs ‘to develop into a nice personality’). Usually, if the verb is followed by an object, the verb is transitive, otherwise it is not:

me begin gun — I begin to work

kino begin — the cinema begins

If ambiguity may arise, one can use the prefixes “fa” and “mah”.

Participles with -ney

Passive participle is marked with "-ney":

pi-ney akwa — the drunk water.

If you want to say that the water is being drunk, add "zai":

zai-pi-ney akwa — the water that is being drunk.

With intransitive verbs -ney is a past active participle marker:

apari-ney jen — the person that has appeared

morti-ney jen — the dead person

With some verbs both meanings are possible:

adapti-ney — adapted (either “that has become adapted” or “that has been adapted”).

To specify the exact meaning, if needed, use transitivity markers: