Ido Language Learners

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   sheysse Creator
   sheysse · Thu Aug 27, 2020 4:31 pm

   Nouns are people, places, things, and all that. A cat is a noun. Adjectives are used to describe nouns. A tall cat is a noun with an adjective. An adverb is used to describe a verb. A cat running quickly is a noun with an adjective performing an action with an adverb.
   
   In English, you generally can't tell these words apart without knowing what they mean. Ido, however, has specific endings for each part of speech.
   
   All nouns end in the letter o. If you want to pluralize them, then replace that o with an i. "Libro" is "book", but "libri" is "books".
   
   Adjectives modify nouns, and can come either directly before the noun or directly after the noun. Whichever you choose is up to you, but be aware that both are valid so that you can understand when someone else uses the other one. All adjectives end in the letter a.
   
   Adverbs end in the letter e, and they can go anywhere in the sentence that preserves the intended meaning. They are often derived from adjectives, so that "bona" (good) can become "bone" (well).
   
   Word order otherwise is generally as it is in English. However, in English, we can only ever list the subject (the noun performing the action) before the object (the noun upon which the action is being performed). We have to say "the dog chases the cat". But in Ido, you can say "la hundo chasas la kato" or "la katon chasas la hundo". Both mean the dog chases the cat, because the order of the nouns is switched. When the object doesn't come after the subject, such as in the second sentence, an n must be added to the end of the word. You can see that kato became katon. This is to show that despite the cat appearing in the sentence first, the dog is still doing the chasing.
   
   Again, this is entirely at your own discretion. But you should at least be aware of this second option, as some speakers will use it and you need to be able to understand it.

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