Hey, great job! You know how to build basic sentences now! So, let's focus on a different aspect now: questions! Communication is a two-way street, so being able to ask for knowledge, or things, is incredibly useful! Let's start you off with some more vocabulary:
Selsimicu has a simple interrogative, that being cenar! cenar is a noun, and it can stand in for any other noun in a sentence! This then makes it a sort of "fill in the blanks" as you can answer by stating what cenar is meant to be, or just repeat the sentence with the cenar subbed in for the real word. let's see a couple examples
(who are you?)
(what is this place?)
(what is she thinking about?)
(what am i searching for?)
(who's searching for me?)
As you can see, Selsimicu doesn't differentiate between what, who, where, etc. You figure it out with the rest of the sentence!
You can also adjectivize cenar (cenarun) to use it to stand in for an adjective, rather than a noun. "pulwoto cenarun Poli mable" - "which bird is called Polly?"
Selsimicu can easily handle yes or no questions. All you have to do is state the sentence that you're asking about (ex. "birds fly" -> "pupulwoto kosaño") and add in the particle "tzat" to the beginning!
This makes "tzat pupulwoto kosaño?", or "do birds fly?". These sentences can be answered in 3 basic ways: ken (no), wañ (yes), or twen (mayyyybe? kind of. sort of)
(do i know you?)
(do you want beans?)
(is her name Chelsea?)
(am i your friend?)
Aren't quite sure you heard something correctly? Well, if this has ever happened to you, and you were told off for saying "what?" instead of... something else? Then don't worry! Selsimicu distinguishes between these two, so no one can tell you off! If you want someone to repeat what they just said, or are seeking confirmation about something, you say "ce"! This usually looks pretty similar to cenar, especially in isolated sentences:
(what did he say?)
(he said WHAT?)
...but, "ce" works under the assumption that the other person already stated the information, and you're just replying shocked or confused. So, if the other person said:
(he said that i'm ugly!)
then you'd say the cenar sentence before this ("what did he say", genuinely asking), and the ce sentence after (to express confusion or shock about what he said)! Once you get the hang of it, it becomes a very useful distinction to make!
Congratulations! You are now one step closer to learning Selsimicu for realsies! If you ever get to holding an actual Selsimicu conversation, this lesson will have been very useful!
Next up is your first ever recap, where we'll go through exercises featuring all the topics of our previous 5 lessons! Click continue whenever you're ready, or just go to Lesson 6 if you want.