amerikan — American (expressing the culture and national values of the USA); an American:
fama-ney amerikan poeta — a famous American poet
ta es amerikan, ta shwo inglish — he/she is American; he/she speaks English
espaniol — Spanish; a Spaniard; the Spanish language
portuges — Portuguese; a Portuguese; the Portuguese language:
me shwo espaniol, yoshi me samaji portuges — I speak Spanish; also I understand Portuguese
han — Chinese (ethnic); a Chinese; the Chinese language
Ta es han (jen), ta shwo han (lingwa). — He/she is a Chinese; he/she speaks Chinese.
Me es Jungwo-jen, bat me bu es han (jen). — I live in China, but I am not a Chinese.
hindi — Hindu (ethnic); a Hindu (ethnic); Hindi
suomen — Finnish; a Finn; the Finnish language
ukrainska — Ukrainian; a Ukrainian; the Ukrainian language
Ela es ukrainska jen, ela shwo ukrainska. — She is a Ukrainian; she speaks Ukrainian.
ukrainska-ruski lexikon — a Ukrainian-Russian dictionary
nihon — Japanese; a Japanese; the Japanese language
romale — Gipsy; a Gipsy; the Gipsy language:
jamile romale gana — a beautiful Gipsy song.
A hint on how to pronounce proper names:
If a proper name ends in several consonants and produces a difficult consonant cluster together with a following word, it's recommended to insert a neutral sound (which however isn't written).
For example, it's recommended to pronounce:
Doichland-jen
as if it were written
Doichlanda-jen. Adjectives Adjective endings
Most of adjectives end in -e:
forte — strong
basike — basic
gamande — haughty
or (if derived from nouns) in -ney:
sekret — secret
sekret-ney — secret, confidential
abyas — habit
abyas-ney — habitual
Besides, there are adjectives some ending in -an:
blan — white
gran — big
suan — sore
some ending in -ao (of Chinese origin):
hao — good
gao — high
syao — little (in size)
lao — old
some ending in -im (of Arabic origin):
muhim — important
karim — kind, good
rahim — merciful
also some adjective suffixes (-ful, -lik, -shil, -val) end in a consonant:
joisaful — joyful
ginalik — womanly
gunshil — industrious
Then there are some adjectives ending in -u and -y:
blu — blue
kway — quick.
The final –е of adjectives may be dropped if this doesn't complicate pronunciation:
jamile, jamil – beautiful
dine, din – thin.
Nouns and adjectives
One may qualify an object by placing a noun before another noun:
lingwa kanunes — language laws
akwa sportas — water sports
westa feng — western wind
A noun with the modifier-making particle -ney becomes an adjective:
Sey feng es westa-ney. — This wind is western.
Other ways of qualifying an object are:
1) using the preposition 'de':
kanunes de lingwa — laws of language
2) using the preposition 'do' which introduces a specific characteristic or purpose of an object that may be described in several words:
gela do grin okos — green-eyed girl
okula do surya — sun glasses
jen do lignagamba — a man with a wooden leg
es kosa do ridi — this is ridiculous Adjective suffixes
The suffixes -ale and -are have a general meaning. They are taken ready-made into LdP together with common European words (as a rule, abstract ones) and are not productive. They are very rare among most frequent words; one can mention among the latter only the following:
kordia — heart
kordiale — cordial
sentra — centre
sentrale — central
The suffix -ike (unstressed) derives adjectives which mean 'relating or pertaining to this noun':
osean — ocean
oseanike — oceanic
sistema — system
sistemike — pertaining to system
fanata — fanatic
fanatike — fanatical
harmonia — harmony
harmonike — harmonious
historia — history
historike — historical
If added to a noun ending in -a or -ia, those endings are dropped. Nouns ending in -ika produce adjectives ending in -ike:
publika — publike
gramatika — gramatike
The suffix-particle ke derives adjectives of relation from verbs or from word groups containing verbs. With polysyllabic i-verbs hyphens are not used:
kompari — compare
komparike — related to comparing, comparative
vidi — see
vidike — related to seeing, visual
audi — hear
audike — related to hearing, auditory
shwo — speak
shwo-ke — related to speaking
festi — celebrate
festike — celebratory
gusti — have taste
gustike — gustatory
helpi — help
helpike — auxiliary
mucho-safari-ke gunsa — a work involving a lot of travelling
mucho-shwo-ke bashan — a wordy speech
sempre-snegi-ke meteo — a weather of perpetual snowing
shao-pluvi-ke klima — a climate of little rain
hao-audi-ke musika — a music that is good to hear
hao-chi-ke fan — a food that is nice to eat
hao-yusi-ke sikin — a handy knife
hao-lekti-ke kitaba — a book that is easy or interesting to read
The suffix -tive means 'doing or capable of doing, connected with doing'. It is added to a verb, then -titive=>-tive, -sitive=>-sive:
puni — punish
punitive — punitive
nutri — nourish
nutritive — nutritive
akti — to act
aktive — active
konvinsi — to convict
konvinsive — convincing
sugesti — to suggest
sugestive — suggestive
atrakti — to attract
atraktive — attractive
exklusi — to exclude
exklusive — exclusive
explosi — to explode
explosive — explosive
The suffix -lik means "characteristic of, similar in appearance or character":
matalik — maternal, motherly
amigalik — friendly
manlik — manly
ginalik — womanly
domlik — homely, cozy
suryalik — sun-like
The suffix -ful means "possessing (esp. in great quantity), full of":
joisaful — joyful
jivaful — lively, sprightly, vivacious
lumaful — spotlit, luminous, alight
misteriaful — mysterious
danjaful — dangerous
The suffix -bile corresponds to '-able, -ible':
samaji — samajibile understandable
vidi — vidibile visible
audi — audibile audible
persepti — perseptibile perceptible