Zaitan for English speakers: Lesson 3
How to agree adjectives with nouns and how to decline nouns to gender
There are three paradigms: O-A, E-A and O-E (plus the neuter paradigm (no agreement)).
Adjectives almost always follow the O-A paradigm.
?Feminine of Bello|bella
Graded (Augmentated or Diminished (we will study them later)) nouns and almost always follow the O-A paradigm as well.
?Masculine of Gatita|gatito
Stems that end I tend to follow the O-A paradigm, and stems that end in U tend to follow the E-A paradigm.
Words that end in -ORE follow the E-A paradigm. They are usually associated with Professions, like Professore/Professora (teacher)
?Masculine of Jocatora|jocatore
Except Agtore (actor), which become Agtriz (actress) as feminine.
Animals usually follow the O-A paradigm.
Except Elephant: Elephante/Elephanta. (E-A)
Except Dog: Cano/Cane (O-E)
(There might be more exceptions)
?Faminine of Gato|gata
Or they can use literally the words masuline and feminine with them. Like Uncia Mascio and Uncia Femea.
?Masculine of Leopardo Femea|leopardo mascio
Neuter adjectives will almost always end in E or in a consonant. Grand is a neuter adjective.
?Feminine of Grand|grand
Words that end in ISTA are also neuter.
?Masculine of Dentista|dentista
You will rarely see feminine words that end in O, but they can accour when you have an shortenings like Photo (photograph) and Moto (motorcycle)
Articles
You have already studied Plurals and Gender. Now for learning the 11 pure articles, you need to remind yourself of articles in English.
In English, we distinguish between The (definite) and A(n) (indefinite). You already know how to use them.
And we distinguish between A (consonantal) and An (vocalic). You also know how to use them.
In Zaitan, the articles are
Le (consonantal singular masculine definite)
La (consonantal singular feminine definite)
El (vocalic singular masculine definite)
Al (vocalic singular feminine definit)
Les (consonantal plural masculine definite)
Las (consonantal plural feminine definite)
Un (vocalic singular masculine indefinite)
Uno (consonantal singular masculine indefinite)
Une (consonantal singular feminine indefinite)
Unus (consonantal plural masculine indefinite)
Unis (consonantal plural feminine indefinite)
Adjectives almost always come after the noun.
?A beautiful photograph|une photo bella
Important = Importante (neuter)
?An important actress|une agtriz importante
Fast = Veloz
?The fast motorcycles|les motos velox
Car = Carro
?A big car|un carro grand
NOTE: This appears to be the last lesson so far. The course is not marked as finished so there should probably be more lessons in the future. In the meanwhile, you might want to check out some of the other courses we have:
| Introduction to Norwegian | a course of Norwegian with 5 lessons produced by Linas |
| Introduction to Polish | a course of Polish with 5 lessons produced by Linas |
| Introduction to Lithuanian | a course of Lithuanian with 5 lessons produced by Linas |
You can also return to the main page of the labs to see all of the courses we have here.