Primer 1: Lesson 2: The verbs 'to have' 'to go,' and cases

i. Grammar

i.i The verbs

The verb 'to go' is translated as yesar. Thus, he goes (following the pattern of liesar), is liyesar. The difference in pronounciation is a slight emphasis on the y .

The verb 'to have' is ablar. The stem of the verb is abl-, which means that it cannot be used on its own. Liablar is 'he has.'

i.ii Cases

Cases are various groups that nouns, adjectives, and articles fall into. What they do is organize a sentence, so that you always know what noun is doing what, what adjective, etc. Diarenyë has four cases: Nominative (nom), Accusative (akk), Genitive (gen), and Dative (dat.) This section will describe the first two, nominative and accusative.

Please do not fear that Diarenyë will be hard to learn, the only really new thing is the accusative, the genitive we already have (called possessive) and the dative is pretty much a preposition. (Anyway, be glad because Finnish has fourteen cases!)

The nominative case is also called the 'subjective' case, because it signifies the subject of the verb. For instance, in the sentence John tells Mary, John is the subject. He is doing the action, telling Mary.

The accusative case is also called the 'objective' case, because it signifies the object. In the sentence John tells Mary, Mary is the object. Mary is receiving an action, being told something by John.

A good example is John accuses Mary. Mary is receiving the accusation, and is in the accusative case!

i.iii Test

I. What are the roots for yesar?

II. Translate 'he who has' model on 'he who is.'

III. In the sentence: I am throwing John out the window, what is the object?

IV. In the sentence: I am hungry, I will eat you, what is the subject?

V. Take one of the sentences in the previous lesson's story, and analyze for nominative and accusative.

Click here for answers!

ii Lisiesar

ii.i Instructions

  1. Follow all instructions in Lesson 1.
  2. Also, act out the story, speak it as you like, and have fun with it. Another good idea is to record it onto a tape, and play it back!
  3. This story is a bit longer than the previous one, but don't worry, a lot of it is just repitition of words you already know.

ii.ii The Story

Lisiesar yesar abra las stanas, lum carum lios. Liablar sias caras. Rum liablar sias caras? Il liablar. Tiablar sias caras? Ben, tiablar. Ai nium yesar na, tera liyesar andr las stanas, il liyesar sium carum sios ondos lios.

ii.iii Vocabulary

  1. Abra -- up [prep.]
  2. Lum -- to the [dat article]
  3. Carum -- to house [dat noun]
  4. Sias -- a [akk indefinite article]
  5. Caras -- house [akk noun]
  6. Ti -- you [pronoun]
  7. Ben -- yes
  8. Yesar -- go
  9. Ablar -- have
  10. Ai nium yesar na -- to continue [lit. let us go forward]
  11. Tera -- then [prep.]
  12. sios ondos -- of a friend [sios -- gen. a, ondos -- gen. noun]
  13. lios -- of his [gen pronoun]

Continue with Lesson 3