lajyma (Lajyma)
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[Contents] [Lesson 1: Intro] [Lesson 2: Basic Sentences] [Lesson 3: Basic Questions] [Lesson 4: Coming soon!]
Lesson 3: Basic Questions

In Lesson 2 we went over how to build a very simple statement where one thing does something to another thing, or a subject acts on an object. This STAO format provides the base foundation for building more complex statements but also for building simple questions. The word order for a simple question is Subject-Tense-Action-Object-Interrogative. It is the same as a statement except with another word added onto the end. You can think of these interrogative words as a question mark, but they also denote the type of question being asked, whether its 'how', 'why', 'when', 'what', etc. The Action phrase will still be in the same tense and the subject and object will appear the same.

Right?
The most common interrogative is "right?" or in lajyma: ge. This is also the equivalent of "did" in english (ie: Did you go to the store?). Taking off from the previous lesson we can ask someone "You eat meat, right?" and they will respond: "yes"
Questioner: ro uda kulaga aloga ge
Answerer: uda

You'll notice that we do not put a question mark to denote that a question is being asked. This is because of the interrogative word placed at the end shows that it is a question and not a statement.

Here we also see the word for "yes". In Lajyma, answering in the affirmative is the same as saying "it is true". We shorten it to just "uda" because the rest of that sentence is redundant. "uda" is the most common way to answer yes to a question (in the present tense anyway, later we will discover other ways). For "no" you would use the negative simple present tense identifier: nuda.

Who Eats Meat??
Just to reiterate what we learned in the last lesson, lets change all of those statements into questions using ge. Depending on the tense or subject of the question "ge" can be translated as "did"/"does"/"do" in English, but in lajyma there is only one word for all of these.

More Interrogatives
Using the same format and vocabulary that you've already learned you can form new questions. The vocabulary column on the right contains all of the basic interrogatives that lajyma uses. Here are some examples:

Try to combine these new words on your own to come up with new sentences. You can use the Phrase Builder HERE to help you build different simple STAOI questions.

Previous Lesson
Vocabulary
Personal Pronouns:
y: I/me/my
ro: you/your
lo: he/him/his
la: she/her/hers
ko: it/its
lyta: we/us/our
luta: they/them/their

Verb Tenses:
uda: simple present nuda: negative simple present

Nominals:
kama: water
kulaga: meal
malana: sleep
nangada: fight
rosala: candy
jarasa: like
ytarasa: love, like a lot
sankama: drink

Nouns:
aloga: meat
lero: gold
sonda: food

Interrogatives:
goragi: when
gai: why
game: what/which
ge: did/does/do
gofu: how
goge: where
gosa: who/whom

Copyright 2011 Buddy Wagner, all rights reserved.
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