Sentences

Observations

Observations are the simplest sentence type. They may consist of only one word, which draws the listener's attention.

mau! – A cat!
barxa! – Rain! / (It) rains!

Predicative complements

Plain complements

A predicative complement completes the meaning of a sentence by giving information about a noun by either renaming it or describing it. Often there is no linking verb (i.e. copula) between the subject and its predicative complement.

da Ali. – He is Ali.
Ali guru. – Ali is a teacher.
Ali rike. – Ali is rich.
Ali a dom. – Ali is at home.

Complementing with linking verb

The linking verb es 'to be' can be used optionally in simple predicative sentences like the ones above.

da es Ali. – He is Ali.
Ali es guru. – Ali is a teacher.
Ali es rike. – Ali is rich.
Ali es a dom. – Ali is at home.

The linking verb is used when it is necessary in order to convey the desired meaning. For example, modal verbs, like vol 'to want', always need it as the main verb because the sentences would have a different meaning without it.

da vol es guru. – He (or she) wants to be a teacher.
Compare with:
da vol guru. – He (or she) wants a teacher.

da vol es rike. – He (or she) wants to be rich.
Compare with:
da vol rike. – He (or she) wants riches.

The linking verb is used also when structural complexity of subject and/or predicate makes the boundary between the two sentence elements doubtful.

mi su kar mede baca. – My job helps children.
mi su kar es mede baca. – My job is to help children.

It is also possible to use a pause, that is indicated by a dash in writing, instead of the linking verb.

mi su kar – mede baca. – My job: to help children.

Negating the complement

All predicative complements can be negated by no 'not' and the linking verb es is optional in the same cases as before

da no Ali. ~ da no es Ali. – He is not Ali.
da no guru. ~ da no es guru. – He is not a teacher.
da no vol es guru. – He doesn't want to be a teacher.
da no rike. ~ da no es rike. – He is not rich.
da no vol es rike. – He doesn't want to be rich.
da no a dom. ~ da no es a dom. – He is not at home.
da su kar no es mede baca. – His job is not to help children.

Adjective and verb subjects

In addition to noun subjects and pronoun subjects, the previous rules apply also to adjective subjects and verb subjects.

jun – mei. ~ jun es mei. – Young is beautiful.
jun – no lau. ~ jun no es lau. – Young is not old.
gani – hau. ~ gani es hau. – Singing is good.
gani – no dus. ~ gani no es dus. – Singing is not bad.
xulafa baca – mede baca. ~ xulafa baca es mede baca. – To teach children is to help children.

Action sentences

Action sentences describe an event that involves a flow of energy from one participant to the next. The participants take different roles in the event. The most common and the most essential roles are the roles of agent and patient. There is a lot of variation in these roles but their most basic types can be described as prototypical roles.

The prototypical agent

is alive
can move
participates in the event by its own will
causes a change in another participant
exists independently of the event.

The prototypical patient

might be a non-living thing
is standing still relative to another participant
is drawn into the event by another participant
undergoes a change because of the event
might not exist without the event.

In the event, energy flows from the agent to the patient in the form that the verb describes. Consider the following sentence, where the child is the agent that departs energy in the form of a push to the ball, the patient.

la bace dape la bol. – The child hits the ball.

There can also be an instrument that mediates the flow of energy from the agent to the patient. The sequence agent > instrument > patient reflects the flow of energy in an action chain.

la bace uze la bang dape la bol. – The child uses the bat to hit the ball.

The order of the participants is in line with the order of the action chain in reality. The agent, as the origin of the energy flow, is in the beginning, the instrument is in the middle, and the patient, as the recipient of the energy flow, is in the end.

In syntactical terms the order of the words is subject–verb–object (or SVO in short). This is the normal and neutral word order in Pandunia.

For example, in the following sentence, the subject is mi 'I', the verb is vide 'see', and the object is tu 'you'.

mi vide tu. – I see you.

If the words are arranged in the opposite order, the entire sentence will have the opposite meaning.

tu vide mi. – You see me.

The subject and object roles are related to syntax, which deals with word order and other grammatical phenomena. The agent, instrument and patient roles are related to semantics, which is about the meaning of words. The semantic and syntactic roles can be mapped together in many ways. Usually the most energetic semantic participant takes the role of the subject.

If there is an agent, it becomes the subject.
- la bace uze la bang dape la bol. – The child uses the bat to hit the ball.
Otherwise, if there is an instrument, it becomes the subject.
- la bang dape la bol. – The bat hits the ball.
Otherwise the patient becomes the subject.
- la bol dape. – The ball is hit.

Is the subject the agent or the patient?

When a sentence consists of a subject and a verb (SV), the role of the subject can be ambiguous. It can be either the agent or the patient. In such cases the interpretation of its role is based on probability. What is the most likely role that fits together with the situation that the sentence describes?

Often the other words in the sentence help to define the role of the subject, and the sentence can be interpreted in only one meaningful way that is in line with the reality. In the following examples, the subject is in all likelihood a patient i.e. the recipient or the undergoer of the action.

banana yam. – Banana is eaten.
fuku gan. – Clothes dry.
ite pada. – Stone falls.

(The alternative interpretations, where the subject would be agent, banana eats something, clothes make something dry, and stone drops something, would not make sense.)

There are also SV sentences where the subject is likely the agent, as in the following examples.

mau marce. – The cat walks.
sol lume. – The sun shines.
damen lai. – They come.

However, it is possible to clarify the roles of subject and object with the help of the auxiliary verbs fa 'do, make' and be 'undergo'. fa indicates that the subject is the agent or doer of the action, and be indicates that the subject is the patient or receiver of the action.

banana be yam. – Banana is eaten.
fuku be gan. – Clothes are dried.
ite be pada. – Stone is dropped.
mau fa marce. – The cat walks. ~ The cat does walk.
sol fa lume. – The sun shines. ~ The sun makes the shining.

It is also possible to add other objects with the help of fa 'make'.

mau yam pexe. – The cat eats fish.
mi fa mau yam pexe. – I make the cat eat fish. ~ I feed the cat with fish.

fuku gan. – Clothes dry.
sol fa fuku gan. – The sun makes clothes dry.

Marking sentence elements

Sentence elements can consist of more than one word. Subject and object can be noun phrases that consist of many words, and there can be a series of verbs (i.e. a serial verb) instead of a singular verb. In such cases the boundaries between the sentence elements can become doubtful.

xiu baku meme vol xuru yam hau seng cau. – Little white sheep want to start to eat good fresh grass.

Boundaries between sentence elements can be marked with little words, like ya 'do', un 'a, one', ye 'this or these', vo 'that or those over there', la 'that or those', and yo 'some'.

la xiu baku meme ya vol xuru yam la hau seng cau. – The little white sheep want to start to eat that good fresh grass.

Verb series structure

There can be two, three or even more verbs in a series, and all of them are about the same subject.

mi ga to dom. – I go home.
mi bil ga to dom. – I can go home.
mi vol bil ga to dom. – I want to be able to go home. (Word for word: I want can go home!)

The last verb in the series is the main verb. The verbs before it are modal verbs.

tu vol yam yo fite. – You want to eat vegetables. (desire)
tu sel yam yo fite. – You had better eat vegetables. (advice)
tu halal yam yo fite. – You may eat vegetables. (permission)
tu bil yam yo fite. – You can eat vegetables. (ability)
tu mus yam yo fite. – You must eat vegetables. (obligation)

Pivot structure

Basic pivot structure

The basic pivot structure is a syntactic realization of an action chain that reflects the flow of energy from one participant to another. A basic sequence is that of agent > instrument > patient.

da uze un caku kate la ban. – He uses a knife to cut the bread.
da jete la bol dape la dike. – He throws the ball to hit the target.
mi xofe la car lai la site. – He drives the car to enter the city.

Another common sequence is that of causer > agent > patient. In such sequences the first verb typically indicates a modality such as desire, permission or obligation, and the second verb indicates what the causer wants the agent to do.

mi vol tu yam fite. – I want you to eat vegetables. (desire)
mi sel tu yam fite. – I advise you to eat vegetables. (advice)
mi halal tu yam fite. – I allow you to eat vegetables. (permission)
mi bil tu yam fite. – I enable you to eat vegetables. (ability)
mi mus tu yam fite. – I compel you to eat vegetables. (obligation)
mi rai tu yam fite. – I think you eat vegetables. (opinion)

Syntactically the pivot structure is made up of subject–verb₁–pivot–verb₂–object. The pivot is at the same time the object for verb₁ and the subject for the verb₂.

mi vol tu yam yo fite. – I want you to eat vegetables.

In the example above, mi vol has tu as its object. At the same time, the very same tu functions as the subject of the following predicate, yam yo fite. So tu is the pivot that links the clauses together.

A complete action chain is that of causer > agent > instrument > patient > recipient. The previous sequences, agent > instrument > patient and causer > agent > patient, were in fact only subsequences of this chain. One may pick any or all participants of the action chain into a sentence as long as they stay in the same order. In the following example sentence all optional participants and their verbs are enclosed in brackets.

(mi vol) (tu uze) (la caku) kate la ban (don ma). – I want you to use the knife to cut the bread and give to mother.

Short pivot structure

In pivot structures where the first action indicates a modality, such as desire, permission or obligation, the first participant can be left out when it indicates the first person ('I'). The the remaining syntactic structure is verb₁–pivot–verb₂–object.

mi sual tu lai dom. – I ask (whether) you come come?
sual tu lai dom. – Do you come come?
mi ase tu yam max fite. – I wish you would eat more vegetables.
ase tu yam max fite. – Wish you would eat more vegetables.

In commands and requests also the second participant can be left out when it indicates the second person ('you'). The the remaining syntactic structure is verb₁–verb₂–object.

mi cing tu lai dom. – I ask you to come home.
cing lai dom! – Please come home!
mi amir tu kluze la mun. – I command you to shut the door.
amir kluze la mun. – Shut the door!

Changing the focus

The topic is what is being talked about, and the comment is what is being said about the topic. Typically the topic is something that is known before and the comment is a piece of new information about the topic. In Pandunia the topic comes first so it is a topic-fronting language.

The focus of the sentence can be changed by changing the order of the topic and comment.

Maria es guru. – Maria is a teacher.
guru es Maria. – The teacher is Maria.

In Pandunia, the topic can be fronted by using various sentence structures, such as passivization and change of word order. Consider the following sentence:

mi vide tu. – I see you.

The topic of the sentence is the subject mi 'I'. The object, tu, can be topicalized by moving it to the front. There are several ways how to do it. The simplest one involves a simple change of word order and a pause.

tu – mi vide. – (It's) you I saw.

One can also use the passive construction to a similar effect.

tu be mi vide. – You were seen by me.

Another way to front the object is to use the relative clause construction.

tu es ki mi vide. – You are the one whom I saw.

This sentence can be made more impactful by fronting the linking verb es. and then even more by dropping the relative pronoun.

es tu ki mi vide. – It's you whom I saw.
es tu mi vide. – It's you I saw.

Finally, the same es... constructions can be used for emphasizing the topicness of the normal subject too.

es mi ki vide tu. ~ es mi vide tu. – It's me who saw you.
es mi ki lai. ~ es mi lai. – It's me who came.

Questions

Yes-no questions

Yes-no questions are questions that expect 'yes' or 'no' as answer. The easiest way to form a yes-no question in Pandunia is to simply attach the particle he ('eh', 'huh') to the end of a statement.

tu yam un piza. – You eat a pizza. (statement)
tu yam un piza, he? – Do you eat a pizza? (question)

It is also possible to use no ('no', 'not') or ya ('yes') instead of he to suggest the expected answer.

tu yam un piza, no? – You eat a pizza, don't you?
tu yam un piza, ya? – You eat a pizza, right?

The third way to ask a yes-no question is to contradict the verb with the A-not-A structure.

tu yam no yam un piza? – Do you or don't you eat a pizza?
tu bil no bil yam un piza? – Can you or can't you eat a pizza?

Finally, you can emphasize the question by using sual.

mi sual, tu yam un piza? – I ask do you eat a pizza?
sual tu yam un piza? – Do you eat a pizza?

Yes-no questions are answered with ya ('yes') and no ('no').

tu vide mi, he? – Do you see me?
ya. (mi ya vide tu.) – Yes. (I do see you.)
no. (mi no vide tu.) – No. (I don't see you.)

Negative questions are answered so that ya and no apply to the verb, not the whole question.

tu no vide mi, he? – Don't you see me?
ya. (mi vide tu.) – Yes. (I see you.)
no. (mi no vide tu.) – No. (I don't see you.)

Alternative questions

Questions that offer alternatives end with the particle he or start with the word sual to indicate that an answer is expected. The question is answered by repeating the chosen alternative.

tu yam un o du banana. – You eat one or two bananas. (statement)
tu yam un o du banana, he? – Do you eat one or two bananas? (question)
un. – One.

Open questions

Open questions, or wh- questions, ask for more information. In Pandunia they use the word ke.

piza es ke? – What is pizza?

The question word may be moved to the front of the sentence for emphasis. However, unlike in English, the word order may also be left alone.

ke tu zai yam? – What are you eating?
tu zai yam ke? – You are eating what?
da lai a ke sata? – When does he arrive?
tumen vizite a ke jen su dom? – Whose house did you all visit?

Relative clauses

A relative clause is a subordinate clause that modifies a noun phrase, most commonly a noun. For example, the phrase "the person who lives there" includes the noun person, which is modified by the relative clause who lives there.

There are different ways to build a relative clause in Pandunia. The relative pronoun in Pandunia is ki and it corresponds to English that, who and which.

In Pandunia, relative clauses are always set off by commas.

la buku, ki la jen fa kitabe, pada. – The book, which the person writes, falls.

It is also possible to leave ki out. This structure is called reduced relative clause.

la buku, la jen fa kitabe, pada. – The book the person writes falls.

The relative pronoun is necessary when the relativized noun is the subject of the relative clause.

la jen, ki fa kitabe la buku, pada. – The person that writes the book falls.

Also the object noun of a preposition can be the target of the relative clause. It's possible to use relative pronouns or the reduced relative clause structure.

la kalam, a ki la jen fa kitabe la buku, pada. – The pen, with which the person writes the book, falls.
la kalam, la jen fa kitabe la buku a, pada. – The pen the person writes the book with falls.

The relative pronoun can be put in its right place in the pivot structure or it can be left out by using the reduced relative clause structure.

la jen, mi vide ki fa kitabe la buku, pada. – The person, whom I see write the book, falls.
la jen, mi vide fa kitabe la buku, pada. – The person that I see write the book falls.

Also a resumptive relative pronoun can be used if needed.

la jen, mi fa kitabe la buku na ki su kalam, padu. – The person whose pen I write the book with falls.

Content clauses

A content clause is a subordinate clause that provides content that is commented or referred to by its main clause. In Pandunia they are typically introduced with the conjunction ki.

mi sabe ki tu es doste. – I know that you are a friend.
damen fikre ki mimen le cute. – They think that we have left.

A content clause can be placed before or after the clause that talks about it. The demonstrative vo points to the following content clause and la points to the previous one.

vo es bari, ki mi le no vide damen. – It is important that I haven't seen them.
ki pan jen be sana ka par, la es klar. – That all people are created as equals; it is clear.

The content clause marker ki can be combined to the prepositions in order to construct conjunctions of cause and purpose.

to ki – so that, in order that, with the result that
de ki – because, for the reason that

mi dugu ye buku to ki mi trapas la teste. – I read this book so that I will pass the test.
mi le trapas la teste de ki mi dugu la buku. – I have passed the test because I read the book.

Conditional clauses

The word si means 'to suppose', and in conditional sentences, it works in the same way as English 'if'.

mi no yam da, si mi es tu. – I wouldn't eat it if I were you.

The rest of the sentence can optionally be preceded by the word asar, which means 'then'.

si tu tocu tava, asar tu pati hanu. – If you touch the pan, then you will hurt your hand.

Combining phrases with conjunctions

e – and (connects two similar words or phrases)
o – or (connects two alternative words or phrases)
ama – but (introduces a word or phrase that contrasts with or contradicts the preceding word or phrase)

mi suke mau e vaf. – I like cats and dogs.
mi suke mau o vaf. – I like cats or dogs.
mi suke mau ama no vaf. – I like cats but not dogs.

Particles

Affirmation and Negation

Affirmative

Expressions are affirmative by default.

mi es xefe. – I am the boss.
da es neu meza. – It is a new table.

Affirmation can be emphasized with the adverb ya ('yes indeed').

mi ya es xefe. – I indeed am the boss.
da ya es neu meza. – It indeed is a new table.

Negative

Such sentences can be simply negated with no.

da no es xefe. – He is not the boss.
da no es neu meza. – It's not a new table.

The word no is used for denying anything. It affects always the next word. Different scopes of negation may result depending on the location of the negative word.

mi vide tu. – I see you.
mi no vide tu. – I don't see you.
mi vide no tu ama damen. – I see, not you, but them.

mi cing tu saf la kamar. – I ask you to clean the room.
mi no cing tu saf la kamar. – I do NOT ask you to clean the room.
mi cing tu no saf la kamar. – I ask you NOT to clean the room.

Particles ya and no are used also for answering questions.

sual tu vide mi? – Do you see me?
ya. (mi ya vide tu.) – Yes. (I do see you.)
no. (mi no vide tu.) – No. (I don't see you.)

Negative questions are answered so that ya and no apply to the verb alone and not the sentence as a whole.

sual tu no vide mi? – Don't you see me?
ya. (mi ya vide tu.) – Yes. (I do see you.)
no. (mi no vide tu.) – No. (I don't see you.)

Modifier particles

Particles di and de are used to link a noun, an adjective or a verb phrase to a noun to modify it. di connects the modifying word or phrase to the main noun word. de works in the opposite direction, it connects the main noun to the modifying word or phrase.

Modification with noun phrases

One way to use these particles is to connect an adjective or other words with a noun. It gives us more information about the noun, and the particle makes it clear in which end the main noun is.

The modifier particles are useful for creating complex adjectives that consists of two or more words.

rode rang di labi – rose-colored lips
sama rang di oke – sky-colored eyes

Or in the opposite order:

labi de rode rang – lips of the rose-color
oke de sama rang – eyes of the sky-color

The particles help in creating measure words too.

un sake di patate – one sack of potatoes
du sake di patate – two sacks of potatoes
max sake di patate – more sacks of potatoes

Note that di and de connect phrases together. So a modifier phrase with and without de can mean a different thing.

max mei hua – more beautiful flowers
max de mei hua – more of beautiful flowers

Modification with verb phrases

Verbs are turned into modifiers by placing de or di immediately next to the verb. Verb phrases can also be made into modifiers in this way, but any objects must be moved to before the verb.

xute de grafe pente – the art of picture-painting (the art of painting pictures)
ale su mede su suke – the joy of others-helping (the joy of helping others)

Possession

The possessive particle su works like the apostrophe-s ('s) in English. It indicates that the previous word has possession of the next one.

Maria su mama – Maria's mother
Maria su mama su dom – Maria's mother's house

The same particle is used with with personal pronouns too.

mi su dom – my house
tu su dom – your house
da su dom – his or her house
mimen su dom – our house
tumen su dom – your house
damen su dom – their house

Tense and Aspect Particles

In Pandunia, tense can be expressed with time words and time phrases if needed. The general time words are pas (past), zai (present) and xa (future, upcoming). They function like adverbs, so typically their place is before the verb.

mi pas ha mau. – I had cats.
ama mi no zai ha mau. – But I now don't have cats.
bil, mi xa ha mau. – Maybe I will have cats.

It's also possible to say it in a longer way like na pas zaman (in the past) etc.

mi ha mau na pas zaman. – I had cats in the past.
ama mi no ha mau na zai zaman. – But I don't have cats at present.
bil, mi ha mau na xa zaman. – Maybe I will have cats in the future.

Note! Verbs are not conjugated. So the verb ha stayed the same in all tenses in the examples above.

Naturally time words are used only when they are necessary. Usually it is enough to mention the time just once at the beginning of the text and not in every single sentence, if the tense doesn't change.

Sentence-ending particles

Sentence-ending particles are modal particles or interaction particles that occur at the end of a sentence. They indicate the speaker's mood or attitude to the meaning of the sentence. They can also indicate what kind of reaction to the sentence the speaker expects from the listener. For example, the speaker can use the particle ne to indicate that they expect the listener express their point of view.

ba indicates a suggestion or a command.

yam ba! – Eat!

fi indicates disdainment, disrespect or contempt. It translates as bah, fie.

tu fete da, fi. – You did it, bah.
fi! piza! mi no vole. – Bah! Pizza! I don't want (it).

he asks a direct yes or no question. It translates as eh? or huh?.

tu ame kafe, he? – You love coffee, huh?

me indicates indifference, boredom or lack of excitement.

me. da no neu. – Meh. It's not new.

ne asks for the listener's point of view on the matter, usually their agreement. It is different from he in that it's not directly asking a question but it only seeks confirmation. It roughly translates as right?, isn't it?, isn't that so?, etc. One uses it at the end of sentence if one is not completely sure about something but thinks it's probably true.

tu suke kafe, ne? cepe un kupe ba! – You like coffee, right? Grab a cup!
da neu, ne? – It is new, isn't it?

na is used to introduce a statement. It can fill a pause, particularly at the beginning of a response to a question. It can also introduce a statement that may be contrary to expectations.

tu kitabe da, he? – na, no le. – Did you write it? – Well, not yet.
da hau, ne? – na, ya. – It's good, isn't it? – Well, yes.

o indicates that the speaker is uncertain of the matter. It roughly translates as or...?.

da okei a tu, o... – It is okay for you, or...

va indicates that the speaker is excited, amazed or surprised. It can be used on its own or at the start or end of a sentence to express how amazing or surprising something is.

va! Wow!
va, da dai! – Wow, it's big!
da dai, va! – It's so big!

ya reinforces the meaning of the sentence or indicates agreement. The speaker is absolutely sure of what they are saying. It can be translated as indeed or truly.

mi le vide tu ya. – I truly saw you.
da ver, ya. – It is true indeed.
da neu, ne? – da neu, ya. – It is new, right? – It's new indeed.