FRATER GRAMMAR

Click here to download the Grammar of Frater in pdf.

ALPHABET

Vowels

Consonants

Stress

The stress is placed on the last syllabe of the word:

          Sistemfrater

There is neither diphtong nor mute in Frater. Every letter is pronounced:

          ebdoma (eb-do-ma)

Roots

Frater roots never change. The noun, the adjective, the verb and the adverb have the same root:

          frater - brother; fraternal; fraternize; fraternally

The roots of Frater belong mostly to Latin and Greek. They have been chosen in consideration of their greatest internationality.

In Frater, we can form all logical words:

          temkia - when
          tem + kia
          time + what

          samberkulina - kitchen
          samber + kulinia
          room + cook

Article

There is no definite or indefinite article in Frater.

Feminine

In Frater, it is always the word gine (woman) that forms the feminine of the noun. There is no gender concord.

          frater - brother > fratergine - sister

Plural

There is no number concord in Frater:

          mensa longa - a long table
          tri mensa longa - three long tables

We use the word multi (many) to forestall doubt about whether the topic is singular or plural, when there is no qualifier such as several, many, all, three, etc. 

          ili obliga presen informamulti anu a Mitin Komon - it shall submit annual reports to the General Assembly

Compounds

Compounds are formed by combining two or more roots, the main one being placed the first. The root used as a qualificative to the other is placed after the main one:

          domposta - postoffice

Adjectives

In Frater, adjectives are invariant and placed after their nouns with the exception of the cardinal numbers:

          frater - brother, fraternal
          bi frater - two brothers
          frater maga mi es a London - my elder brother is in London

Possessive adjectives

They are formed by placing the personal pronouns after their nouns with the preposition ot (of) between the two. Yet the use of ot is optional.

Comparative of adjectives

When the compared object is not mentioned, the comparison is not expressed in Frater:

          kia (es) maga?
          which be big
          which is bigger?

          dis es maga
          this be big
          this is bigger

When the compared object is mentioned:

1. The comparative of superiority "more than" is translated with plus; e.g. mensa dis es mikro - this table is small; mensa na es mikro plus - that table is smaller; mensa mi es mikro plus ot ni - my table is smaller than yours.

2. The comparative of inferiority "less than" is translated with plusne; e.g. kas ni es serius plusne ot ili - your case is less serious than his.

3. The comparative of equality "as... as" is translated with je; e.g. biblo ni es maga je ot mi - your book is as big as mine.

Remark: As for verbs and adverbs, the degrees of comparison are formed in the same way as with adjectives:

          mi logo belo plus ni - I speak more rapidly than you
          mi logo belo plusne ni - I speak less rapidly than you
          mi logo belo je ni - I speak as rapidly as you

Superlative

Simple superlative: tele - very.

          ros es bel tele - the rose is very beautiful

Relative superlative:

1. plasuni - the most; e.g. ros es bel plasuni inter flor - the rose is the most beautiful among flowers;

2. plasunine - the least; e.g. ili es andro desirleban plasunine, mi kones na - he is the least ambitious man that I know.

Cardinal numbers

In Frater, the first nine numbers are:

          1 - uni
          2 - bi
          3 - tri
          4 - kuar
          5 - kuinti
          6 - ses
          7 - sep
          8 - okta
          9 - nona
          0 - nul

Tens: They are formed by combining the first nine numbers with the word deka (ten):

          10 - deka
          20 - bideka
          30 - trideka
          40 - kuadrideka
          50 - kuintideka
          60 - sesdeka
          70 - sepdeka
          80 - oktadeka
          90 - nonadeka

Hundreds, thousands, millions: They are formed by combining the first nine numbers with the words senti (100), mil (1000) and milion (1 000 000): 

          100 - senti
          300 - trisenti
          1000 - mil
          5000 - kuintimil
          1 000 000 - milion
          6 000 000 - sesmilion

Reading of numbers: In Frater, numbers are read as they are written. We read each figure in indicating successively the number of hundreds, tens, and unities.

From 10 to 20:

          11 - dekauni
          12 - dekabi
          13 - dekatri
          14 - dekakuar
          15 - dekakuinti
          16 - dekases
          17 - dekasep
          18 - dekaokta
          19 - dekanona  

From 20 to 100:

          21 - bidekauni
          24 - bidekakuadri
          52 - kuintidekabi
          55 - kuintidekakuinti
          86 - oktadekases
          87 - oktadekasep

The number 365 is read: trisenti-sesdeka-kuinti.

The number 1957 is read: mil-nonasenti-kuintideka-sep.

As for telephone calling, we may read as follows: 21 346: bi-uni-tri-kuadri-ses.

Ordinal numbers

The cardinal numbers once placed after their nouns become ordinal numbers:

          mensa bi es na - the second table is there

Multiplicative numbers

They are formed by adding the word tem (time) to the cardinal numbers:

          bitem  double
          sestem sextuple

Fractional numbers

They are formed by adding the word unisur (one above) to the cardinal numbers:

          unisurbi - a half
          unisurtri - a third
          unisurkuadri - a quarter

Remark: As the noun, the adjective, the verb and the adverb have the same root:

          uni is also a unity
          deka is also a ten
          dekabi is also a dozen
          senti is also a hundred
          mil is also a thousand
          milion is also a million

Time

Words: To indicate time, we use the following words: sekun (second); minut (minute); ora (o'clock); unisurkuadri (a quarter); unisurbi (a half).

          es kuadri (ora) - it is four o'clock a. m.
          es deka ses (ora) - it is four o'clock p. m.
          10.12 - es deka (ora) dekabi (minut)
          2.30 - es bi (ora) unisurbi
          4.45 - es kuadri (ora) kuadrideka kuinti
          5.55 - es kuinti (ora) kuintideka kuinti

How to ask time

          tem es kia? - what time is it?

Dat

          A Paris, 11 Lunadekauni, 1917 - In Paris, 11 November 1917
          Lito es morta dat 21 Lunasep, 1920 - Peter died on the 21st of July, 1920

Personal pronouns

Reflexive pronouns: auto - oneself.

          Lito eksbio auto - Peter kills himself

Possessive pronouns: They are formed by adding ot (of) to the personal pronouns.

e.g. frater mi es beni, ot ni je - my brother is happy, yours too

Verb

The verb is absolutely invariant in person and in number.

• PAS (past) denotes the past tense;

• FUTUR (future) denotes the future tense;

• INTEM (in time) denotes the gerund;

• PROBABLE (probably) denotes the conditional tense.

The passive voice is formed by adding the auxiliary verb es (to be) to the infinitive.

Verb IDE (think)

Present

Past

Future

Imperative

Conditional

Passive voice

Construction of Frater

In Frater, the grammatical order of the sentence is: subject-verb-object. There is no inverting in the word order of Frater.

          mensa bi es na
          table two be there
          the second table is there

          mi resta futur a Paris peri bi luna
          I stay future in Paris about two month
          I shall stay in Paris about two months

          mi abe ne dola
          I have no money
          I have no money

          ni abe futur ne dola
          you have future no money
          You will have no money

          ili abe pas ne dola
          he have past no money
          he had no money

          dom (ot) mi es maga
          house of me be big
          my house is big

Interrogation

The interrogative form is obtained by placing the verb before the subject or by using the words: kia (what); prokia (why); antropkia (who); temkia (when); kak (how); multikia (how much; how many), in following the word-order of Frater.

          es biblo ni sur mensa?
          be book you on table
          is your book on the table?

          dis es kia?
          this be what
          what is this?

          ni desir kia?
          you want what
          what do you want?

          antropkia es na?
          who be there
          who is there?

           ni es plaskia?
           you be where
           where are you?

           ili fag temkia?
           he eat when
           when does he eat?

           prokia ni filo na?
           why you like that
           why do you like that?

           ili fakto kak na?
           he do how that
           how does he do that?

           ni abe multikia ot paper dis?
           you have how much of paper this
           how much of this paper have you?

Yes or No

           abe ni dola? - have you money?
           ia, mi abe - yes, I have
           ne, mi abe ne - no, I have not

Adverbs

Every noun is also an adverb. It is placed after the verb.

           leban - height; high; highly
           ili fag multi – he eats much

antebsera day before yesterday

antetem soon

belo quickly; rapidly

belone slowly

ben  well

benne  badly

bsera  yesterday

eks out; outside

ia  yes

intem  while

je  also; then; thus

jurbel  some day

jurtuta  always

kak  how

komple  quite; enough

longane  shortly

longaplusne  no longer

multi  much; many

multieks  too

multikia  how much; how many

multine a little

na  there; overthere

natur  of course

ne  no; not

ne... ne  neither... nor

ne ot tuta  not at all

ne je  not even

ne uni  not only

ot plus besides

ot tem a tem  now and then

pas  already

peri  about; round

plaskia  where

plasnul  nowhere

plasomone  elsewhere

plastuta  anywhere; wherever

postesaftra  day after tomorrow

plus  more

plusne  less

postetem  late

prokia  why

promulti  however

rare  rare; seldom

re again; ne... re not... yet

saftra  tomorrow

sekuen  according to

sekur  certainly; no doubt

sub bellow; under

sur  above

suragri  immediately; as soon as

surtuta  especially; particularly

tak  such

tele  very

telene  near

telenetuta  almost

temdis  now; just; ot temdis ante  from now on

temkia  when

temmulti  often

temnul  never

tempaleo  formerly

uni  only; unitem  once

Conjunctions

akaus  because

benkia though; even

e  and

es... o  either... or

intem  while

je  then

kon  with

kon kondision na on condition that

na  that

o  or

omo si  as if

ot fob na  for fear of

pro  for; in order that

prona  therefore

sed  but

si  if

sine if not

suragri as soon as

uni  only

Prepositions

a  toward; at

abene  without

akaus thanks to; because

ante  before

anti against

desirne  in spite of

dia  through

in  in; within

in plas ot  instead of

intem  while

inter  between; among

kon  with

kontenne  except

meta  beyond

ot  of; since; from

per  by

per medisin ot  by means of

peri  about; concerning

poste  after; behind

pro  on behalf of; for; in favor of

sub  below ; under

sur  above; upon; on

sura  till; until