Sentence Structure

SUL sentences use the same order as English: who is doing it, then what they do, then what they do it to.

Basic Structure

Who + does what + to what

Chaining

When the doer is a little word like me, you, or xhe, it glues right onto the verb with 'n', making one word: me-eat. When the doer is a thing ("bird", "the dog"), it stays its own word - and the thing being acted on is always its own word. The reason for the difference: me already points at one exact person, so gluing onto it can't be misread - but a word like dog uses its glue for descriptions (dog-fast = the fast dog), so the dog stands apart and the gap keeps "which dog" and "the dog does..." from ever mixing:

Saying what something is like

No word for "is": put the describing word after the thing (dog fast = "the dog is fast"). It behaves like a verb - pronouns glue on (you-smart), tense too (dog fast-past). The word 'is' has one job: two things are the same thing (xhe-is friend-me) - an ordinary verb. "There is" and "is at" use 'exist': water exist - xhe-exist home.

How do you tell "the fast dog" from "the dog is fast"? By the glue: dog-fast glued into one word names a thing (the fast dog) - dog fast as two separate words is a whole sentence. The gap between the words is doing the job "is" does in English - and skipping "is" is the world's normal: Mandarin, Arabic, Russian and many more drop it, because it never says anything the gap doesn't.

Saying "not"

There is no separate word for 'not' - glue the ordinary word 'no'. As always, the n glue cancels everything before it, the w glue only its neighbour (word chaining lesson). Compare the last two rows:

Questions

Glue the question word onto the end of any statement - it always goes dead last, no exceptions.

Asking words are ordinary words that sit wherever the answer would sit - no flipping the sentence around:

Answering is one word: is (yes) or ak (no) - the same 'no' you glue in to say "not".

Pointing and owning

Glue a pointing word on: 'this' for near, 'yon' for over there (English overworks "that" for three jobs, so lessons borrow 'yon' for the pointing one). Both stand alone too ("I want this") - same for here/there:

Owning is gluing too: chain the owner onto the thing (dog-me = my dog). No my/your/his words to learn:

Joining two thoughts: if, when, because

Joining words always stand alone between the two halves - never glued. Fewer than English: 'from' covers after/since, 'until' covers before, and saying things in order covers 'then':

Comparing two things: 'from'

There is no word for 'than': glue more or less onto the description, then 'from' marks what you measure against - dog fast-more from cat = "the dog is faster than the cat":

Thoughts inside thoughts: 'that'

The word 'that' announces an inner thought. It stands alone, never glues, and is never dropped. Nest as deep as you like:

Picking one out: 'which'

'which' right after a thing opens a description of it: dog which run-past = "the dog that ran". It covers English who/which/that-the-picker - inside the description, leave a gap where the thing would go. Stands alone, never dropped:

'that' and 'which' are different words doing different jobs, and the difference matters:

The first tells the person news - the second tells you which person. Two jobs, two words.