At first glance, it may seem that learning Dudíli is difficult and really not important. But, it is always good to expand one’s boundaries, and it is fun to use a language that hardly anyone else knows! So, let’s get started!

This first chapter is dedicated to one of the most essential verbs, is. Is in Dudíli is “foli”. (We’ll focus on pronunciation later) Here a few example of is being used.

Laf a feneja foli: It is a dog.

Laf a okena foli: It is a cat.

If you examined these examples closely, you probably noticed a few things. First of all, Dudíli is not set up like English. English is SVO (subject, object, verb) while Dudíli is SOV (subject, object, verb). Secondly, Dudíli does not have a word for a/an. This can lead to some confusion in translation, but after a while, you will adjust. The third thing is the "a". This just separates the subject and the object in sentences, and is not translated to English. In questions, instead of an "a", you use "o".

Let’s move on with a new pronoun. This pronoun is I, which is “eta”. Now “eta” is only used when the subject is I, but more about that later. Here is an example.

Eta a John foli: I am John.

Fairly straight forward, right? Well, let’s move on. The next thing we are going to focus on is how to say that it isn’t something. In this case, you would use “foli nun.” For example:

Laf a feneja foli nun: It is not a dog.

Eta a Bob foli nun: I am not Bob.

Do you think you have got that? Let’s move on. The next thing to focus on is two questions, being “Is it a…..?” and “What is it?” Believe it or not, these two questions are very differently expressed in Dudíli. We’ll start with “Is it a…..?” To ask this, you just have to add “Cé” to the beginning of the sentence. Cé doesn’t really have a translation in English, so it is referred to as a question signifier.

Cé laf o feneja foli?: Is it a dog?

Now, cé isn’t used in every question. In fact, it is only used in questions that don’t have the words who, what, where, when, why, or how in them. If you want to ask “What is it?” you would say “Io laf foli?” In review,

Cé laf o feneja foli?: Is it a dog?

Io laf o foli?: What is it?

The last topic we will cover in this lesson is how to answer these questions. The two words you will need are né (yes) and nun (no). Here we go!

Cé laf o feneja foli?: Is it a dog?

Nun, laf o okena foli.: No, it is a cat.

Cé laf o ozata foli nun?: Isn’t it a book?

Né, laf o ozata foli.: Yes, it is a book.

Io laf foli?: What is it?

Laf a rakisé foli.: It is a pen.

Well, that’s it. But just to make sure, there is a review on the next page before you move on the lesson 2. As a warning, it is wise to do the reviews as future lessons do very little review and there are tests every three lessons.