English Translation
Tom is a teenager.
explanations like this prove that Lojban is not that precise. Not teh chatgpt explanation and the cloze translation:
“La tom verntineidja” in Lojban can be translated as “Tom was green” in English. Let’s break down the grammar:
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“la” - This word is used before proper names in Lojban. So, “la tom” translates to “Tom”.
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“verntineidja” - This single word is a composition of three Lojbanic words, “verni” (green), “tinbe” (to obey, follow), and “-dja”, which is a type of tense/aspect marker meaning “past” or “was”. In this context, it implies that “Tom was green”.
Overall, Lojban has a unique feature of compounding, where a single, more complex word may be derived from multiple root words, which is seen in this instance with “verntineidja”. It means “greened-followed-was”, but in English it will be treated as “was green”.
To translate this more accurately in a way a natural English-speaker would understand, you could say: “Tom had followed green,” or “Tom was green”. The specific translation heavily relies on the context of the conversation.