Lesson 1: Pronouns and Your First Oravia Words
Grammar
Oravia has three singular personal pronouns:
nim — I / me
run — you
hay — he / she / it / singular they
hay is gender-neutral. Gender does not have to be marked unless it matters.
Here's something to remember them: nim sounds similar to me, run has u in it, and hay has h like he and she.
More than one person? Add -a
Most Oravia words do not change for plural. Personal pronouns are the exception. To create the plural personal pronouns, we add -a in the end.
If run is you, what would you guess for you all?
Click to check
Runa.
Add -a:
nim → nima — I → we
run → runa — you → you all
hay → haya — he/she/it/... → they
Possession
Put a personal pronoun directly before a noun:
nim [noun] = my [noun]
run [noun] = your [noun]
hay [noun] = his / her / their [noun]
Vocabulary
Building blocks
A lot of Oravia vocabulary is built from recurring sound-meaning pieces called building blocks.
Building blocks make vocabulary easier to learn and remember. As you learn more words, you form a web of associations and an intuitive sense for what they mean. Many times, you may even get a sense of the word before learning it.
Because this is a short course written in English, most of the mnemonics here use English or Romance-language connections. The Complete Course and the Building Blocks page use mnemonics and sound connections from languages around the world.
BOE — rooms in a house. Mnemonic: English bower, a room/chamber.
MO — food, eating. Mnemonic: mmm when food tastes good.
VAR — face/head area. Mnemonic: visage.
DUR — hardness. Mnemonic: durable, Spanish/Portuguese duro.
Try boemo
BOE = a room in a house.
MO = food.
What would you guess boemo means?
Reveal
**boemo** = **kitchen**.Try vardur
VAR = face area.
DUR = hardness.
What body part comes to mind for vardur?
Reveal
**vardur** = **tooth**.Notice we don't expect you to be able to guess all unknown words correctly. The point is that thinking about the connections may help you learn and remember words.
Words
| Oravia | Meaning | Breakdown |
|---|---|---|
| mo | food; to eat | MO food/eating |
| boemo | kitchen; to cook | BOE house space + MO food/eating |
| vardur | tooth; to bite | VAR face/head area + DUR hardness |
Put it together
Try each one before opening the translation.
nim boemo
Click to Reveal Translation
*my kitchen*run boemo
Click to Reveal Translation
*your kitchen*haya vardur
Click to Reveal Translation
*their tooth / teeth*nim mo
Click to Reveal Translation
*my food*Your turn
Write our food, your kitchen, and their tooth / teeth.
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