Occidental for English Speakers: Lesson 9

In the last lesson, we learned the words possibil and ínpossibil

The root of these words are poss.

The verb for to be able is posser.

So, "possible" in English means something like ableable; or canable.

?I am not able|Yo ne posse

Another way to translate posser is can.

If we want to say "I can’t eat" in Occidental, we would say "I not can to eat" or "I not able to eat".

?You can’t do it|Tu ne posse far it

Bring it together!

?I can’t sleep because I want to eat|Yo ne posse dormir pro que yo vole manjar

?I will be able to do it, but not today|Yo va posser far it, ma ne hodie

The English word "could" is tricky. Sometimes it means "was able" or "were able".

The word for to practice is practicar

Do you remember how to form the past tense of a verb?

?I could do it because I practiced|Yo posset far it pro que yo practicat

The word for tomorrow is deman

Think something like, "I demand that it be done tomorrow".

Sometimes "could" means something more like "would be able to".

?I wanted to do it yesterday|Yo volet far it yer

?I didn’t do it today|Yo ne fa it hodie

?I could do it tomorrow|Yo vell posser far it deman

The word for if is si

?I could do it today if you want|Yo vell posser far it hodie si tu vole

Next lesson >