Walas00 - Adjectives Lesson [Copy From IRC]

[Mune]

I managed to log the entire lesson, [and corrected spelling mistakes, I'm THAT awesome] Haha joking, but here's the key.

Walas00 - Teacher - Light Blue

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Questions - Students - Green

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Left in-comments- Students - Light Pink

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BEGINNING OF LESSON - ADJECTIVES

<Walas00> This won't take too long.
<Walas00> I've chosen a short subject to discuss - adjectives.
<Walas00> They're already covered in a lesson of mine on ToS, but it's always better to ... you know, discuss it.
<Walas00> An adjective is a word used to describe something, to show it's attribute
<Walas00> There are two basic ways to use adjectives in English. (There might be more I guess...)
<Walas00> So, let's make an example.
<Walas00> We see a river that is pretty long, and you want to tell someone what you saw.
<Walas00> You could say:
<Walas00> "I saw a long river." - or - "I saw a river which was long."
<Walas00> The first sentence uses an attribute.
<Walas00> I saw a long river- The river's main attribute is that it's long.
<Walas00> The second one is a typical adjective usage, "a river is long" - what is what.
<Walas00> Let's cover the typical usage first, since it's the easiest one to remember.
<Walas00> "A long river" would be:
<Walas00> Kilvan ngim lu
<Walas00> "river" "long" "to be"
<Walas00> Translates very simply into English.
<Walas00> A river is long (since we can move the words around, we could say "kilvan lu ngim", or whatever. The receiver will definitely understand the message.)
<Walas00> It is logical when you think about it, since we use that kind of construction all the time
<Walas00> "The weather is nice", "This food is yummy", "You are nice"
<Walas00> Object - attribute - "to be"
<Walas00> Adjective^
<Walas00> Since attributes are a bit different... let's discuss them now
<Walas00> The first example sentence was "A long river" (typical was "A river is long")
<Walas00> As I've said, "long" is "river"'s main attribute, and we want to say something more about "a long river" (a sentence "a river is long" is a complete sentence, it would be hard to put more information in it)
<Walas00> We didn't need any prefixes or suffixes with the typical usage, but with attributes we will use a simple prefix "-a-"
<Walas00> We put this little particle in the adjective. (the describing word - here: long)
<Walas00> The important thing to note here is: We put it on the side closest to the noun it's describing.
<Walas00> So it would look like this:
<Walas00> Noun a-adjective , and adjective-a noun
<Walas00> Using the example above:
<Walas00> "A long river"
<Walas00> Kilvan angim
<Walas00> Kilvan a-ngim
<Walas00> "river" ATTRIBUTE-"long"
<Wallflower> Whats the difference?
<Wallflower> The long river verses a LONG river?
<Wallflower> Why a need for two spellings /usages in the attribute form?
<Walas00> Well, I guess it depends on what do you want to say.
<Walas00> "The river that is long is now dry" vs "The long river is now dry"
<Walas00> It's up to you Wallflower which construction will you use, just keep in mind that the receiver will have to understand the message.
<Walas00> That's the most important goal-
<Walas00> The difference grammaticly is:
<Walas00> Typical "kilvan ngim lu" (a river is long) - attribute "kilvan angim" (a long river)
<@HumanNoMore> So there's no actual specific time when you have to use it one way?
<Walas00> Not really-
<Walas00> Hmm, let's say we'd like to describe someone.
<Walas00> "You are nice"
<Walas00> Nga siltsan lu
<Walas00> We use the typical construction here, why?
<Walas00> Nga asiltsan - That would simply mean "a nice you"
<Walas00> And that doesn't make much sense
<mikkowilson> ..But we wnt to speak directly to them?
<mikkowilson> ..Instead of just describing them?
<mikkowilson> ..But we wnt to speak directly to them?
<mikkowilson> ..Instead of just describing them?
<@HumanNoMore> If you're describing them, then it would be (person) a-siltsan, I think
<@HumanNoMore> Nga siltsan lu would be telling someone they are.
<Walas00> Yeah, that would be "You are nice", and that's correct.
<Walas00> Since we're actually saying, that "you are nice", it's a fact.
<Walas00> "lu" - to be <- that's the word that will help you with both constructions
<Walas00> "lu" - is/are <- in this case
<Walas00> "He is nice"
<Walas00> Po siltsan lu
<Walas00> "A nice he dies"
<Walas00> Po asiltsan terkup
<Wallflower> Why would you say a nice he dies?
<Walas00> In the second sentence we want to concentrate on the fact that a person dies
<Walas00> it's just an example
<Walas00> we don't want to actually say that a person IS nice (lack of "lu")
<mikkowilson>
<Walas00> Here's another example
<Walas00> "My white socks are too big"
<Walas00> "White" is an attribute for "socks"
<Walas00> "My socks are white" - (are - "lu")
<@HumanNoMore> I don't know Na'vi words for white or socks
<@HumanNoMore> Don't know if they have a word for socks hahaha
<Walas00> It's not for translation, lol.
<Walas00> It's just an example to point differences between attributes and the typical usage.
<Walas00> So yeah, if you want to say that something is nice/bad/cool/awesome, you want to use "lu" there, since something IS nice/bad/etc.
<mikkowilson> Oeru atana socks?
<mikkowilson> Oeru atana socks lu?
<Walas00> You don't use "lu" with attributes "-a-"
<mikkowilson> Oeru tanaa socks lu?
<mikkowilson> FAIL.
<Walas00> "You are nice"
<mikkowilson> Oeru atan socks lu?
<Walas00> According to your method.
<Walas00> "Nga asiltsan lu" - "A nice you are ..."
<@HumanNoMore> Doesn't atan mean light?
<@HumanNoMore>
<mikkowilson> Oeru atan [socks] lu
<Wallflower> Can we get back to the topic, I will never need to say socks.
<mikkowilson> Yes it does .. closes to "white" I could find
<Walas00> Anyway, let's continue.
<Walas00> Let's move to the famous prefix le-
<Walas00> You might have seen it with "leNa'vi"
<Walas00> le- basicaly turns a noun into an adjective
<@HumanNoMore> Ah... I wondered how that worked
<@HumanNoMore> Like leNa'vi
<Walas00> A good example:
<Walas00> "Poland language" -> with le- before Poland : "Polish language"
<mikkowilson> Aha!
<Walas00> Language le-Poland
<Walas00> Same with all other nouns
<Walas00> Why leNa'vi ?
<Walas00> Because it's "the Na'vi language":
<@HumanNoMore> So leskxawng = how most people act?
<Walas00> Li'fya leNa'vi
<Walas00> "Language" ADJ-"the People"
<Walas00> The people-ish language.
<Walas00> Leskxawng - Idiotish.
<Walas00> Yeah.