Introduction

Dr. C. George Boeree

Lingua Franca Nova was designed to be a particularly simple, consistent, and easy to learn language for international communications. It has a number of positive qualities: 

1. It has a limited number of phonemes. It sounds similar to Italian or Spanish. 

2. It is phonetically spelled. No child should have to spend years learning irregularities. 

3. It has a completely regular grammar. It is approximately as restrained in this regard as English or Indonesian. 

4. It has a limited and completely regular set of productive affixes for routine word derivation. 

5. It has well-defined rules for word order, in keeping with many major languages. 

6. It has a word base strongly rooted in modern Romance languages.  These languages are themselves wide-spread and influential, plus have contributed the major part of English vocabulary. 

7. It is designed to be naturally accepting of Latin and Greek technical neologisms, the de facto "world standard." 

8. It is designed to seem relatively "natural" to those who are familiar with Romance languages, without being any more difficult for others to learn. 

I hope you like it.

Lingua Franca Nova es desiniada per es un lingua vera simple, coerente, e fasil aprendeda, per comunica internasional. El ave alga cualias bon:
 
1. El ave un numero limitada de fonemes. El sona simil a italian o espaniol.

2. El es scriveda como el sona. No enfante debe perde multe anios studia nonregulas!

3. El ave un gramatica vera simple e regula. El es min complicada ce engles o indonesian.

4. El ave un grupo limitada e tota regula de afises produinte per crea parolas nova.

5. El ave regulas de la ordina de parolas bon definada, como multe linguas major.

6. El ave un lista de parolas fundada en la linguas romanica moderne. Esta linguas es comun e influos, e ia contribui la parte major de parolas engles.

7. El es desiniada per es asetante natural de parolas tecnical de latina e elenica, comun tra la mundo.

8. El es desiniada per aperi la plu parte "natural" per los ci comprende la linguas roman, ma no min fasil per otras.

Nos espera ce tu va trova ce esta lingua es interesante!

The Basics

The alphabet:
  • a b c d e f g h i j l m n o p r s t u v x z
Pronunciation:
  • car, boy, cat, dog, cake, fun, go, ha, see, azure, low, mama, new, coat, pen, ray, see, tea, food, view, ash, zoo
Word order:
  • subject - verb - object
    • la fem ama la casa "the woman loves the house"
  • particles - noun - adjectives
    • la casa grande "the big house"
  • auxiliaries - verb - adverbs
    • me debe pasea atendente "I must walk carefully"
The grammar:
  • -s (or -es after consonants) forms the plural of nouns
    • omes e femes "men and women"
  • ia forms the past tense of verbs
    • tu ia labora "you worked"
  • va is the future tense of verbs
    • tu va labora "you will work"
  • ta is the conditional mood (optional)
    • si me pote, me ta vola "if I could, I would fly"
  • add -nte to a verb to make the active participle, which acts as an adjective or noun
    • donante "giving" (adjective) or "giver"
  • add -da to a verb to make the passive participle, which acts as an adjective or noun
    • donada "given" or "gift"
  • a verb can be used as a noun just as it is
    • nos dansa "we dance" and la dansa "the dance"
  • an adjective can be used as a noun the same way
    • un om saja "a wise man" and la sajas "the wise (ones)"
  • adverbs are identical to adjectives
    • un om felis "a happy man" and el dansa felis "he/she dances happily"
  • intransitive verbs become causative simply by adding an object
    • me senta "I sit" > me senta la familia "I seat the family"
Some useful prefixes:
  • des- - to undo...
    • infeta, to infect > desinfeta, to disinfect.
  • re- - to do over or again.
    • lua, to hire > relua, to rehire.
  • non- - not, the opposite of...
    • felis, happy > nonfelis, unhappy.
Some useful suffixes:
  • -or - a person who, as part of his or her role or job, makes ... , does ... , or works with ...
    • dirije, to direct > dirijor, director.
    • carne, meat > carnor, butcher.
  • -ador - a tool, instrument, device, or machine which makes ... , does ... , or works with ....
    • lava, to wash > lavador, washing machine.
    • umida, humid > umidador, humidifier.
  • -eria - a place of work, a shop, or office... 
    • carne, meat > carneria, butcher shop.
    • flor, flower > floreria, florist's or flower shop.
  • -able - capable or worthy of being the object of an action:
    • ama - to love > amable - lovable, lovable one.
  • -eta - miniature version, the young of some creature, inner clothing...
    • flora, flower > floreta, florette.
  • -on - very large version, outer clothing... 
    • avia, bird > avion, a giant bird, an airplane.
  • -ia after a noun or adjective makes it an abstract noun
    • madria "motherhood" or vania "vanity"
  • -i - to become, or to cause to become...
    • verde, green > verdi, become green, cause to become green
  • -i - to use a tool, instrument, or machine...
    • telefon, telephone > telefoni, call on a telephone
  • -i - fractions, e.g. un desi, one tenth.

Some Very  Basic Words

la - the
un - a/an

me - I, me, my
tu - you (singular), your
el - he, him, she, her, it

nos - we, us, our
vos - you, your (plural)
los -  they, them, their

se - his, her, its, their, himself, herself, itself, themselves

es - be
ave - have
dona - give
vide - see
dise - say
vade - go

esta - this
acel - that

tota - all
cada - each, every
cadun - everyone
multe - many
alga - some
algun - someone
poca - few
nun - no one

cual - which
ce - what/that
ci - who/whom
cuando - when
cuanto - how much
do - where
como - how
per ce - why
car - because
afin - so that

vole - want to
pote - can
debe - should

plu - more
min - less

e - and
o - or
ma - but
si - yes, if
no - no, not

a - at
ante - before, in front of
con - with
contra - opposite, against, in spite of
de - from, out of, since, of, concerning
en - in, into
entre - between, among, during
asta - beside, up to, until
par - by someone
per - for, in order to
pos - behind, after
sin - without, except
sirca - around, approximately
supra - above, over, on
su - below, under
tra -  through
ultra - across,past, beyond

zero - zero
un - one
du - two
tre - three
cuatro - four
sinco - five
ses - six
sete - seven
oto - eight
nove - nine
des - ten

sento - one hundred
mil - one thousand

alo - hello
bon dia - good day
bon note - good night
como tu es? - how are you
bon - good
mal - bad
grasias - thanks
adio - goodbye

om - man
fema - woman
fia - girl
fio - boy
ami - friend
ama - love
odi - hate

oio - eye
vide - see
orea - ear
oia - hear
boca - mouth
testa - head
mano - hand
pede - foot
colpe - hit, kick
pasea - walk
core - run

gato - cat
can - dog
cavalo - horse
bove - cow
avia - bird
pex - fish
flor - flower
arbor - tree

pais - country
site - city
vile - village
casa - house
ofisia - office
otel - hotel
scola - school
restorante - restaurant

auto - car
tren - train
avion - airplane
gida - drive
vola - fly

sala - room
seja - chair
table - table
telefon - telephone
entra - enter
sorti - exit
senta - sit
usa - use

camisa - shirt
pantalon - pants
falda - skirt
jaca - coat
sapato - shoe
xapo - hat
porta - wear
libro - book
jornal - magazine
pen - pen
nota - note
leje - read
scrive - write

tas - cup
vitro - glass
plato - plate
force - fork
cotel - knife
culier - spoon

carne - meat
vejetal - vegetable
poma - apple
orania - orange
pan - bread
pasta -  pasta
ris - rice
coce - cook
come - eat

acua - water
te - tea
cafe - coffee
bir - beer
vino - wine
bevi - drink

sol - sun
luna - moon
pluve - rain
neva - snow
tera - earth
mar - sea

color - color
roja - red
jala - yellow
verde - green
blu - blue
blanca - white
negra - black

grande - big
peti - small
distante - far
prosima - near
bela - beautiful
cara - dear, expensive
barata - cheap
costa - cost
paia - pay
compra - buy
vende - sell
abrida - open
cluida -closed