Most languages make you memorize two things: the rules, and the long list of words that break them. SUL is built so that the second list is almost empty. This lesson is mostly a tour of exceptions SUL doesn't have - and then the one real exception that remains.
Exceptions SUL does not have
No irregular verbs. English has go/went and be/was. In SUL every verb takes the same time markers in the same place, and the verb itself never changes shape.
No gendered nouns. Unlike French or German, no word is masculine or feminine, and nothing else in the sentence has to agree with a gender.
No irregular plurals. English has mouse/mice and child/children. In SUL every word becomes more-than-one the exact same way - no word has its own special plural.
No spelling exceptions. The writing system matches the sound exactly: one symbol per sound, no silent letters. If you can say a word you can spell it, and the other way around.
No irregular numbers. No eleven, twelve, or quatre-vingt. Numbers compose from digits the same way every time.
No double-duty words, no five-ways-to-say-it. One word has one meaning, and one meaning has one word. You never have to pick the "natural-sounding" option from five choices, and no word surprises you with a second unrelated meaning (no bat-the-animal versus bat-the-club).
No special word order. Every chained word lines its pieces up the same way, and questions are always built the same way - no flipping the sentence around like English does.
Rules that look like exceptions (but aren't)
A few rules can feel like special cases the first time you meet them, but each one is the rule itself, applied everywhere:
The question part always comes last in a word. That's not it breaking the line - last is its place in line, in every sentence.
Only little words like me and you glue onto verbs - a thing doing something stays its own word. That's the gluing rule itself, and it holds with no exceptions.
The glue letters 'n' and 'w' never appear inside a basic word - they are always and only the glue between pieces. That is exactly what makes every long word easy to split back apart.
The one real exception: foreign names and words
Names of people, places, and brands are quotations, not SUL words: never translated, free to break every rule. Same for a quoted foreign word (asking how English speakers say "dog").
A dedicated word means "the next word is not SUL", said before every mention of the name - not just the first:
English
Role
SUL
Written
Hear
foreign
Said as its own word right before any foreign name or quoted foreign word
ugek
ugekuuggeekk
English
SUL
Written
Hear
Alex will go
ugekforeignAlexogakgonitfuture
ugekuuggeekkAlexogaknitooggaakknniitt
I see Alex
usmenotefseeugekforeignAlex
usnotefuussnnootteeffugekuuggeekkAlex
Three things follow from a name being a quotation, not a SUL word:
In writing, the name stays in its own script - it is not written in SUL symbols.
In speech, the name is pronounced the way its owner pronounces it - or the closest your mouth can manage. No one is expected to produce sounds their own language lacks, and there is no SUL pronunciation to learn (the hear buttons above only speak the SUL words around the name).
A name never joins a chain - nothing glues onto it, and it never glues onto anything else.
Key points
SUL has no irregular verbs, plurals, spellings, numbers, or word order - every rule you learn works everywhere.
The one exception: foreign names and quoted foreign words, which keep their original sound and writing.
Say the "foreign" word before a name every single time - it warns the listener that the next word plays by different rules.