Answers to Exercises

Exercise 1

  1. lenu jamna cu se fengu

  2. la jan. te xatra [mi ti] (Whether or not you include the mi and ti depends on whether they are important in this context — probably they are obvious and can be missed out.)

  3. loi jdini cu ve xlura mi lenu cliva le gugde ("Money is an inducement for me to emigrate.")

  4. la lojban. ve tavla fo lo prenu ("There is a conversation in Lojban." We don't need lo prenu, though, since we can assume that it is people chatting in Lojban and not, say, chimpanzees.)

  5. mi te dunda le cukta lo prenu

Exercise 2

  1. le se klama

  2. le ve klama

  3. le te cmene

  4. le xe fanva

  5. le fanva (Hope you weren't fooled!)

  6. le ve cpedu (le se cpedu is what you ask for, not your request)

  7. le te penmi

  8. le ve ciska

  9. le ve skicu

  10. le te spuda

Exercise 3

  1. lo veltivni

  2. lo terta'a

  3. lo seltcica

  4. lo nalvu'e

  5. lo teryre'e

  6. lo nalvai

  7. lo nalselvi'a

  8. lo naltercni

Exercise 4

  1. Jyoti's car is the means by which Jyoti, Ranjeet and Susan get to the restaurant.

  2. Susan looks at her reflection. (This is the more Lojbanic version of "looks at herself in the mirror." There are other ways to say this, but we haven't covered the requisite grammar yet.)

  3. She puts on more lipstick. (Literally, "She adds to her lip paint.)"

  4. When this is happening, Susan and Ranjeet see each other's reflection.

  5. Susan asks Jyoti, "Where does this street go to?"

  6. Ranjeet says, "The Pakistani suburb."

  7. "The cuisine there is very spicy."

  8. Jyoti irritatedly says, "We, Ranjeet, have been going from south to north and back" (i.e. from south to north and from north to south. This is probably one of the few times you'll see soi vo'e instead of soi vo'a.)

  9. "I think the way of (= to) the restaurant is unknown to you."