We will now move on to some more advanced Ido. We have seen how to use verbs in the present tense, with the ending -as. The past and future tenses are formed with the endings -is and -os respectively.
Ni venis hiere - We came yesterday
La doktorino prenis la jurnalo - The woman doctor took the newspaper
Ube eli iros morge? - Where will they (female) go tomorrow?
Eli iros ibe morge - They will go there tomorrow
Although there is another past tense in Ido, -is is enough for
most situations. So me iris means either "I went" or "I have gone". Similarly, me iros means "I will go" or "I am going to go". The correct translation into English will be clear from the context.
We will introduce two more tenses here. The conditional tense is formed from the infinitive by removing -ar and adding -us:
Me irus a la urbo se me havus la tempo - I would go to the town if I had time
Notice how in English we illogically use the past tense in the second part of this sentence. In Ido we use the conditional for both parts of this kind of if...then... statement. The imperative (command) tense is formed with -ez:
Irez a vua chambro! - Go to your room!
To negate a statement we use ne:
Vu ne havas la nova pano - You haven't got the new bread
Note that ne is always placed before the verb.
Adverbs can be formed easily from adjectives by replacing the final -a with -e:
Il skribas bele - He writes beautifully
Ni kuris tre rapide - We ran very quickly
Adverbs not derived from adjectives include ibe - there, anke - also, ante - before, and avane - in front, the last one being derived from the preposition avan = in front of.
La granda domo esas ibe, e la butiko anke
Possessive pronouns in Ido are formed from the personal pronouns with the adjective ending -a. So we have mea - my, nia - our etc. We use the forms ilu, elu, olu for this, so we have ilua - his, and so on.
Me prenos mea filii a la urbo morge - I will take my children to the town tomorrow
We also have sua, which means "his (own), her (own)" etc.
La puerini manjis sua pomi - The girls ate their (own) apples
Let's now introduce some more of the affixes that Ido uses:
-er - someone who habitually does something
fumero - smoker, from fumar - to smoke
-ist - someone whose profession is something, or who adheres to a particular idea
fotografisto - photographer (professional)
idisto - someone who uses Ido
-et, -eg - denote smallness and largeness respectively
dometo - cottage
domego - mansion
-ey - place devoted to an object or action
kavaleyo - stable, from kavalo - horse
koqueyo - kitchen, from koquar - to cook
As well as suffixes there are also some prefixes:
mis- - wrongly
miskomprenar - to misunderstand, from komprenar - to
understand
ne- - negation
ne-utila - useless, from utila - useful
There are some affixes that are only used with numbers:
-esma - ordinals
unesma, duesma,... - first, second,...
-im - fractions
duimo, triimo - a half, a third,...
We will conclude Stage 2 with some more sample sentences, to introduce some further vocabulary and constructions.
Ka vu parolis? - Did you speak?
Ka vu ja lernas la linguo internaciona? - Are you already learning the international language?
Me komencis studiar ol kelka dii ante nun - I started to study it a few days ago
Me trovis ke ol esas vere tre facila - I find that it is really very easy
La viro qua parolis - the man who spoke
Me hungras - I am hungry
Donez a me forketo - Give (to) me a fork
Ka ta esas vua libro? - Is that your book?
La matro di mea amiko iris a London hiere - My friend's mother (the mother of my friend) went to London yesterday
Me drinkas nur aquo o biro - I only drink water or beer
Quante vu evas? - How old are you?
Me evas duadek-e-tri yari - I am 23 years old
Ka vu esas ofte malada? - Are you often ill?
Me mustis restar en la domo dum du dii - I had to stay at home for two days
Me naskis ibe - I was born there
Ka vu esas shak-ludero? - Are you a chess-player?
Ni amegas voyajado - We love travelling
Li vizitis Francia e Germania - They visited France and Germany
Me habitas en granda urbego, e ol esas tre bela - I live in a big city, and it is very beautiful
Espereble, omnu balde lernos Ido - Hopefully, everyone will soon learn Ido
Stage 2 was compiled with the help of the book "Complete Manual of the Auxiliary Language Ido" by L. de Beaufront, available for just 3 GB pounds from the Ido Book Service (address below).
If you have enjoyed the Ido you have learned so far, and you would like to take your Ido even further, then why not get in touch with the International Language (Ido) Society of Great Britain or their Ido Book Service, addresses for which follow below. There may very well be an Ido society in your country or even region, wherever you live in the world, so why not try to get in touch with them? There is also an international organization, the Union for the International Language (Ido), which publishes a regular journal in Ido called "Progreso" (meaning "progress").
The International Language (Ido) Society of Great Britain, 24 Nunn Street, Leek, Staffs, ST13 8EA, UK.
The Ido Book Service, 44 Woodville Road, Cathays, Cardiff, CF2 4EB, Wales, UK.