patr-ulo, a father; la patr-ulo, the father.
The noun ends in -o in the singular; in -i in the pluraclass="underline"
frat-ulo, brother; frat-uli, brothers.
la frat-ino, the sister; la frat-ini, the sisters.
The adjective ends in -a (singular and plural):
bon-a, good; long-a, long.
bona patrulo, bona patruli.
The present infinitive of verbs ends in -ar (bearing the accent or stress of voice):
kred-ar, to believe; don-ar, to give.
The present tense ends in -as:
me kred-as, I believe. me don-as, I give.
The past infinitive ends in -ir (accented):
kred-ir, to have believed. don-ir, to have given.
The past tense ends in -is:
me kred-is, I believed, I have believed.
me don-is, I gave, I have given.
Questions are asked by beginning the sentence with kad:
Kad vu kredas? Do you believe?
Kad vu komprenis? Did you understand? (= Question you understood.)
If there is a word like who, where, etc., kad is not used:
Ube vu lojas? Where do you live?
The word ne, not, is always placed before the verb or word it modifies:
Il ne esas, He is not.
The English auxiliaries, do, did, are not translated:
Do you come? (= Question you come) → Kad vu venas?
He does not say (= He not says) → Il ne dicas.
Did you speak? (= Question you spoke) → Kad vu parolis?
They did not go (= They not went) → Li ne iris.
Gender is usually left unmarked in Ido, as is often the case in English:
filio, child. sekretario, secretary. kuzo, cousin.
When necessary, the suffix -ul marks masculine, -in feminine:
fili-ul-o, son; fili-in-o, daughter.
kuz-ul-o, male cousin; kuz-in-o, female cousin.
doktor-ul-o, man doctor, doktor-in-o, woman doctor.
When necessary, the prefix ge- marks common gender (both sexes together):
ge-patri, parents.
ge-avi, grandparents.
ge-filii, children, sons and daughters.
A few words are of one gender only:
viro, man. matro, mother. amazono, amazon. damo, married lady.
The suffix -id denotes offspring: Izrael-id-o, Israelite.
bo- = -in-law: bo-patrulo, father-in-law.[1]
In the following words the final d is part of the root; it may be dropped before a consonant. But the elision is not compulsory; those who prefer to use either form only may do so:
ka, kad, question word.
e, ed, and.
a, ad, to.
o, od, or.
KARA AMIKO,
Ka vu ja lernas la nova linguo internaciona? Me komencis studiar ol kelka dii ante nun, e me trovas, ke ol esas vere tre facila. Omna-die me lektas texto dum un horo; me sempre lektas laute. Pose me facas kurta traduko e fine me skribas letro en la nova linguo. Ka vu komprenas to?
Kun kordiala saluto,
Vua amiko,
Lesson II
Adjectives are compared by:
plu … kam, more … than.
tam … kam, as … as.
min … kam, less … than.
ne tam … kam not so … as.
maxim … de, most … of.
tre, very.
minim … de, least … of.
E.g.: Me esas tam richa kam il, I am as rich as he (is).
El esas plu granda kam me, She is taller than I (am).
Ol esas la maxim bela de omni, It is the finest of all.
Il esas tre brava, He is very brave.
Kam is used in making comparisons, even where English does not use than:
Me preferas ico kam ito, I prefer this to that.
Translate as good as possible and similar phrases thus:
maxim bona posibla.
Adverbs of manner are formed from adjectives by changing -a into -e:
bon-a, good; bon-e, well. fin-a, final; fin-e, finally.
They are compared like adjectives:
Il lektas plu bone, He reads better.
The personal pronouns are:
Sing.: me, I, me; tu, thou, thee; vu, you (speaking to one person); il, he, him; el, she, her; ol, it.
Plur.: ni, we, us; vi, you (more than one person); li, they, them.
When necessary, the gender of they, them may be indicated by using the fuller forms: ili for the masculine, eli for the feminine, and oli for the neuter. And similarly in the singular lu is the common gender form of il, el, ol, corresponding to li in the plural; it is convenient in such sentences as: If the reader desires fuller details, let him or her (lu) turn to page so-and-so.