| Nouns | Verbs/Adjectives |
| nemџ - somebody, anybody,
person, etc. |
maж - eat, drink
goda - good, simple; to fix, to repair |
| iж - I, me, we, our | gada - big, tall, long, important |
| maж - food | |
| suna - you | Grammatical Words |
| daran - sun, light | uten - separates a 3rd person subject |
| telon - water, liquid | from its verb (see notes below) |
Sentences with
iж or suna as the subject
Okay, one of the first things you'll need to learn about
Duжar is that there is no form of the verb to be
like there is in English. For example:
iж goda. = I (am) good.
suna gada. = you (are) big/important.
Simply state iж or suna, then complete the sentence with a verb or
adjective. These are the absolute simplest type of sentences in
Duжar, but already you've
come across something that you're probably not used to: All those
beloved words like is, was, and will be are gone.
Say goodbye! Although this might seem strange to you, it's actually
easier, if you think about it. There are other languages that don't
have a form of to be, so don't think this lack of to be is completely strange. It'll just take some practice to get used to the idea.
The
Ambiguity of Duжar
Okay, now comes another concept which will probably seem odd to you. Do
you see how several of the words in the vocabulary have multiple
meanings? For example, gada can mean either long or tall... or big... or
important. By now, you might be wondering, "What's going on? How can one word
mean so many different things?" Well, welcome to the world of
Duжar!
The truth is that lots of words are like this in
Duжar.
Because the language has such a small vocabulary and is so basic, the ambiguity
is inevitable. However, this vagueness is not necessarily a bad thing: Because
of the vagueness, a speaker of
Duжar is forced to focus on
the very basic, unaltered aspect of things, rather than focusing on
many minute details.
Another way that Duжar is ambiguous is that it can not specify whether a word is singular (There is only one thing.) or plural (There is more than one thing.) For example, nemџ can mean either "person" or "people". -- If you've decided that Duжar is too arbitrary and that not having plurals is simply the final straw, don't be so hasty. Duжar is not the only language that doesn't specify whether a noun is plural or not. Japanese, for example, does the same thing. So, if you learn the concept now in Duжar, you will gain some of the same skills in a much shorter time. That's a comforting thought, now isn't it?
The "Verb"
And now we're going to study yet another thing that will probably seem weird to you. Observe these examples:
iж maж. = I eat. OR I am food.
suna goda. = You are good. OR You fix.
Once again, you can see the ambiguity of
Duжar.
Because Duжar lacks to be, the exact meaning is lost.
maж in this sentence could be a verb, or it could be a noun; just as
goda
could be an adjective or could be a verb. In situations such as these,
the listener must rely on context. After all, how often do you hear
someone say I am food? You can be fairly certain that iж maж means I'm eating
or I'm hungry.
For sentences like suna goda, there is another way that will let you specify what you mean, but you'll learn about that in the next lesson.
The Lack of Tense
The "verbs" in
Duжar have no tense.
iж goda. = I am good. OR I was good. OR I will be good.
This is yet another example of the vagueness of
Duжar.
If it's absolutely necessary, there are ways of saying that something happened
in the past, present, or future, but it will be a long while before you learn
about that.
Sentences without
iж or suna as the subject
We've already looked at iж and suna sentences, which are the simplest
sentences possible in
Duжar. For sentences that don't use
iж or suna
as the subject, there is one small catch that you'll have to learn.
It's not very complex; it'll just take some practice to remember to use
it. Look at how uten is used:
telon uten goda. = Water (is) good.
daran uten gada. = (The) sun (is)
big.
maж uten goda. = Eating/food (is) good.
uten is a grammatical word that separates the subject from its "verb". Remember: It's only used when the subject is not
iж or suna. Although uten might seem worthless right now, as you continue
to learn Duжar you will see that some sentences could be very confusing if
uten weren't there. So, try to practice using it whenever you get a chance until it becomes normal to you.
Practice
Try translating these sentences from English to Duжar.
People are good.
I'm eating.
You're tall.
Water is simple.
The lake is big.
And now try changing these sentences from Duжar into English:
daran uten gada.
iж gada.
nemџ uten maж.