Lesson Three

We’ve been translating English into Talossan — but what about the other way around? Let’s translate some Talossan into English.

This is going to be tricky, since we’re not going to be able to just look up the words in L’Översteir, usually. Instead of the dictionary form, we’ll see the word the way it’s been used with the relevant endings. For example, instead of “coriar” (“to run”), you’re more likely to see “coriarha” (“he will run”).

As you begin to recognize endings and roots, it will get easier. You might not know what coriarha means, but you’ll recognize the root of “cori-,” and that will help you look up the forms. In time, you’ll even be able to just automatically recognize common endings.

Let’s start with a short sentence.

Els lapins pastürent.

To begin with, we should figure out which part of speech each word is. You won’t always have to do this, but it’s a smart thing to do when you get started. Since you don’t know a lot of words, you want to narrow down your possibilities by figuring out what each word is doing.

So what would you fill out in these boxes? What’s the part of speech for each of these?

Els	lapins	pastürent.
?	?	?

Type your answer for “els” here, then check it below.

Type your answer for “lapins” here, then check it below.

Type your answer for “pastürent” here, then check it below.

Answers

Els	lapins	pastürent.
Article	Noun (being used as the subject)	Verb

How did you do?

Let’s get translating! We’ll start with the verb, pastürent. As you know, the ending tells us the person and number and tense of the verb. Honestly, you should really end up memorizing the basics. It won’t take that long, and it’s much easier than constantly looking the same information up. But for right now, here’s the endings for the present tense (the tense that pastürent is in):

	Singular	Plural
First	-éu	-ent
Second	-ás	-etz
Third	-a	-ent

For right now, we’re going to just use that to identify the ending in our verb, pastürent. We’re looking for the root of the word, since we want to look up the meaning of the word. If you break it down, you can already see it: pastür + ent.

Okay, now we have the root of our word. The last step before we look it up is figuring out the dictionary form. For most words, it’s as simple as adding the ending “-ar.”

Try it now. Add -ar onto our root, and then look it up in L’Översteir. (Remember to switch it from to !) What does our word mean?

Type your answer here, then check it below.

Answer

To graze.

Did you get it?

And so now we know the whole sense of pastürent, since we know the person (third), number (plural), and tense (present).

Okay, let’s move on. Let’s take a look at our chart so far.

Chart so far

Els	lapins	pastürent.
Article	Noun (being used as the subject)	Verb
?	?	(they) graze.

The article might help us out a little, since we can see it’s a plural definite article: “els.” If it was a singular noun, then it would be “el.” English doesn’t have plural definite articles (it’s “the car” and “the cars”), but Talossan does. “Els” must mean that it’s a plural noun. (We already kind of knew this, since our verb is a plural verb. A plural verb must have a plural noun as the subject.)

Okay, here’s the bad news about pluralizing a noun in Talossan: there’s a lot of different ways to do it. The way you pluralize a noun depends on the ending, and there’s five different “declensions.”

Here’s the good news: most nouns are in the first declension and work just like English, and you only need to add “s” to the end to make them plural! So unless your noun ends in one of the special endings on the chart, you don’t need to worry.

Here’s a fun chart!

Declension	End of the Noun	Pluralizing
First	Most nouns!	add -s
Special First	Any stressed vowel except -à (-å, -è, -ì, -ò, -ö, -ù, -ü)	take off the accent mark and add -ns
Special First	-à, -ar, or -an	change to -aes
Special First	-l or -il	change to -is
Special First	-rh, -s, -sch, -scht, -xh, -tx, -z, -glh, -gnh, and -þ	add -en
Second	-eu or -éu	add -x
Third	a syllable with ä	add -ilor
Fourth	-ic or -íc	add -i
Fifth	-sc, -scu, or -x	change to -schti

Okay then: looking up at the chart’s third column, here’s the question: what is the singular form of our noun, “lapins?”

We should be able to tell pretty quickly that it’s not second, third, fourth, or fifth declension. After all, “lapins” doesn’t end with -en, -x, -ilor, -i, or -schti. It ends in an “s,” so it must be the first declension. So what’s the singular?

Here’s a hint: there’s two possibilities!

Type your answer here, then check it below.

Answer

It could be either lapì or lapin.

Did you get it?

Anyway, now that we have the possible singulars, we can look up the meaning of the word in L’Översteir. Go ahead and do so — if the first one you try doesn’t work, try the other. (That’s how everyone does it.)

Type your answer here, then check it below.

Answer

Rabbit.

Did you get it?

Let’s take a look at our chart so far. We can add in our translation of “lapins” — don’t forget to make it plural in the English!

Chart so far

Els	lapins	pastürent.
Article	Noun (being used as the subject)	Verb
?	rabbits	(they) graze.

You shouldn’t need any help at this point to translate “els.” Let’s finish up and write out the whole translated sentence.

How would you translate our sentence into English?

Els lapins pastürent.

Type your answer here, then check it below.

Answer

The rabbits graze.

Did you get it?

If you got it wrong, figure out your mistake. Don’t just move on unless you understand what you did wrong!

If you got it right, then congratulations! You are well on your way to mastery!

If you did this very easily, you might move on to the next lesson. But most people would benefit from doing the practice problems below — it is highly recommended!

FURTHER PRACTICE

	Singular	Plural
First	-éu	-ent
Second	-ás	-etz
Third	-a	-ent

Using the provided chart for present-tense verbs, translate the following words into English.

1. O parla.

Type your answer here, then check it below.

Answer

He speaks.

2. Voi trantaglhetz.

Type your answer here, then check it below.

Answer

You stagger.

3. Os plörent.

Type your answer here, then check it below.

Answer

They weep.

4. Éu tombéu.

Type your answer here, then check it below.

Answer

I fall.

5. Tu scuncarás.

Type your answer here, then check it below.

Answer

You giggle.

Declension	End of the Noun	Pluralizing
First	Most nouns!	add -s
Special First	Any stressed vowel except -à (-å, -è, -ì, -ò, -ö, -ù, -ü)	take off the accent mark and add -ns
Special First	-à, -ar, or -an	change to -aes
Special First	-l or -il	change to -is
Special First	-rh, -s, -sch, -scht, -xh, -tx, -z, -glh, -gnh, and -þ	add -en
Second	-eu or -éu	add -x
Third	a syllable with ä	add -ilor
Fourth	-ic or -íc	add -i
Fifth	-sc, -scu, or -x	change to -schti

Next, using the provided chart for noun endings, translate the following words into English.

1. Cadins.

Type your answer here, then check it below.

Answer

Judges.

2. Cafens.

Type your answer here, then check it below.

Answer

Cafes.

3. Luschti.

Type your answer here, then check it below.

Answer

Lights.

4. Pätsilor.

Type your answer here, then check it below.

Answer

Countries.

5. Amíci.

Type your answer here, then check it below.

Answer

Friends.

Write three more sentences of your own. Try using plural verbs only! The Quick Reference section on the Resources page might be helpful.

Type your first sentence here.

Type your second sentence here.

Type your third sentence here.

⇐ Previous Lesson                Next Lesson ⇒