Lesson 2

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English-Romana
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This lesson teaches you all about nouns, adjectives and articles.

All singular nouns in Romana end in a vowel. The vowel sometimes indicates the gender of the noun (masculine or feminine) and the way the plural of the noun is formed.

In Romana, there are three possible vowel endings in the singular. The first is always feminine and ends in 'a'. The second ends in 'o' and is always masculine. The third ends in 'e' and is masculine or feminine, depending on the gender of the Latin derivative.

To form a plural, change the final vowel to 'e' for 'a' endings, or to 'i' for the all others.

In general, nouns ending in "ione", "ute", and "ate" are feminine, and those ending in "ore" and "ite" are masculine.

Adjectives

Adjectives are essentially nouns that can change gender depending on the noun they describe. Adjectives in Romana can be of any of the three vowel endings.

Adjectives are usually given in their masculine form, so you will see them in dictionaries as ending in 'e' or 'o'. For the 'o'-adjectives, to make them feminine, just change the 'o' to 'a'.

To form an adverb from any adjective, use the feminine singular form of the adjective and add "mente" to the end. If the adjective ends in 'e', remove the 'e' from the adverb. If you end up with an 'ntm' combination like 'recentmente', remove the 'nt' before the 'mente' as well, to make it 'recemente'.

The Definite Article

The definite article is il for masculine singular and la for feminine singular. For the plurals, it's i and le respectively.

An Indefinite Article

Note the pun in the title. The indefinite article is none other than the same word for "one", "uno" but without the 'o'. That is, for masculine it's un and feminine is una. It is fully used exactly as an adjective but coming before the noun rather than after it. Only difference is it cannot have a plural.

Before a word beginning with a vowel, the last vowel of "una" is replaced by an apostrophe.

Practice

Change these nouns to plural.

Singular Noun Meaning
primo first
vulpe fox
sorore sister
pela girl
pero boy
cultro knife
lupo wolf
femina woman
dente tooth
tempore time

Sentence:
Il nome de la mea sorore este Lisa, ed ela ni da felicitate.
Translation: My sister's name is Lisa, and she brings us joy.

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