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and after lesson 19...
manual:
Xekobe a dolphin is a mammal.
= Even though there is much reason to think otherwise,
a dolphin is a mammal.
= Strictly speaking, a dolphin is a mammal.
sts: it's like saying "strange but true" or "sad but true". these are
examples for hedging, too, aren't they?
lesson19: Can you cook with mustard? Kibe sa myamegompasna tumi xomse gemeswa? sts: why "sa"? is "-sna" dinamic? lesson19: Will nine buses be able to substitute for a full train? Kibe goy tunendasna bingo komu mongo bitsando va?sts: i think the plural of "bus" is "busses", isn't it? maybe i'm influenced by my german.
lesson19: Please keep your feet high above the floor. Dwiva cinsanfoy lesucaynze tufoy cidi bucikxe. sts: why "high" above the floor? "above the floor" seems enough to me. lesson19: Why did you lie to the teacher that the students bought the booze from me? Bucada tumi kobyo kivakxe sesku lekocabyo taswa vafte mi? sts: what actually is "booze"? lesson19: I can teach but I don't like it. Koskisna mi nane bube lisi mi koha. [In the above, "koha" refers to "being able to teach". Thus, it literally means 'I have the ability to teach but I don't like having the ability to teach'. A translation that used "to" instead of "it" would be incorrect, since it would imply that the speaker doesn't like teaching. To accomplish this, we would have to use "jakoski" instead of "koha"; i.e. "Koskisna mi nane bube lisi mi jakoski" = 'I can teach but I don't like to teach'.sts: "i can teach but i don't like it" sounds to me like "i can teach but i don't like to teach". anyway, i don't understand why you, ram, introduced "sna". why didn't you resolve this with some other thing in order to put it in front of the sentence? i dislike the idea of one single verb in here... hm.
lesson19: It's almost certain that I put the sausage and the chicken at the bottom of the refrigerator. Xebe bupodimba mi cayswa ne fuji bumespu.sts: poor old chicken! isn't there any classifier in order to save the (living) chicken from being frozen in the refrigerator? ;)
lesson19: There's hardly any dog blood on the bottom of the fence. Bagonta zuvyu sumu te gelisne buvopodi mokxe.sts: i thought that "buvopodi" means "at the bottom" and not "near the bottom". well, maybe you mean that there is space between the real bottom of the fence and the ground (such fences exists, i presume). but if the fence is put into the ground, how can we see the bottom of the fence?
lesson19: The linguist owns a sick cat with a many colored tail. Setsa tababyo casne bucaygo va te ponze myu xemuntay va. sts: what is a many colored tail? it's an error, isn't it? sts.