Let’s talk about word formation in Occidental.
You know the word "evident" in English? "We hold these truths to be self-evident..."
Occidental helps us to understand what this word truly means.
1 translation: We want to see you
So vide means "see".
The prefix ex- means "from out of".
ex + vide = "from out of see"The ending -nt is the same as the English -ing.
ex + vide + nt = "from out of seeing".So we have "exvident". But in Latin, ex in front of a consonant squashes the x and it becomes e. Occidental squashes the -x- as well.
2 translation: It is evident
Guess what: You just learned how to use the "-ing" ending of all verbs!
In the very first lesson, I said that you don’t need to say these "-ing" verbs to express the present tense.
That is still true. But now you have the option if you want to express a sort of present continuing/current action.
Just remove the final -r and add -nt.
3 translation: I am eating
You may have noticed that this form of the verb is used to describe things, though. Think of this more like an adjective.
The word for dog is can
Think of "canine" of course.
4 translation: The eating dog eats
See how that works? The word "eating" sort of describes the dog.
5 translation: I am thinking
The word "thinking" is describing yourself. You are thinking.
This is technically called the "present participle" if you want to look it up.
Now what if you want to talk about the act of doing something? For example, "Thinking is good".
In this case, you are using "thinking" like a noun. When we do this, we simply add an -e after the -nt.
6 translation: Eating food is good
The verb for to mean or to signify is significar
If a sign means something, it "sign-ifies"
Literally: "What it means"
7 translation: What does it mean
If something is meaningful, then it is "signifying".
8 translation: It is significant
Amazing, right?
The word for amazing is astonant
Think of "astonishing".
9 translation: The movie was amazing
If you remove the -nt and add an -r, you get the infinitive verb for "to astonish" or "to amaze".
10 translation: It amazes me that you are thinking
There are many more -ant / -ent words that we use in English without even thinking about it. For example, accelerant, existent. These words in Occidental have an internally coherent meaning!