Vocabulary: Adjectives & Adverbs

III. Adjective rules

Adjectives are attached to the nouns/pronouns they modify. (Don't ask me about noun-phrases just yet...)

All adjectives conveniently end in -fai. Note that -fai is NOT a particle marker in the sense that I've defined a "particle marker" so far; rather, it's just a unique characteristic of adjectives that they all end with this sound.

-fai CAN be used *like* a particle marker, however, to turn nouns (or pronouns, or even verbs and adverbs) into adjectives. Adding that ending is quite like adding -ish or -ful or -ly to a noun in English to transform it into an adjective.

IV. Adverb rules

Adverbs attach to the verb being modified. They also have a unqiue ending, -kyþ. Adjectives etc. can be made into adverbs by adding -kyþ like a particle marker, following the same rules outline above for adjectives.

It's important to note here, though, that many "common" adjectives are NOT made into adverbs in this fashion. Words like quickly, slowly, etc. have their own distinct forms (see the example vocabulary below). However, this system exists to allow the language to expand, stretch, and grow. Put in nerd terms, this simple feature (adding a non-particle-marker as an ending) enhances the productivity of the language.

Here are some basic practice words:
Adjectives:
quick/fast --> aurfai
slow --> luiffai
good --> vleufai
bad --> fedoufai
straight --> wisufai
crooked -->juiðofai
careful/cautious --> tyreifai

Adverbs:
quickly --> aurukyþ*
slowly --> lofkyþ*
good/well --> vloukyþ*
badly/poorly --> fedokyþ*
straightly --> wisufaikyþ
crookedly --> juðofaikyþ
carefully/cautiously --> tyreifaikyþ

* Denotes "irregular" adverbs; that is, adverbs not formed by adding -kyþ to existing adjectives; that is, adverbs with their own unique and distinct forms.

As always, some sample sentences to play with:

Mehrila zhehanach-aurukyþ gebtiashter Joneði.
Mehri-la zhe-hanach-aurukyþ gebti-ashter John-eði.
"Mary-she RECENT.PAST.cook-quickly vegetable.OBJ.PL John.INDIR."
Mary quickly cooked vegetables for John.

Kenan shraenirier treþekt-tyreifaikyþ eddeashter-juiðofai.
Kenan shra-en-irier tre-þekt-tyreifai-kyþ edde-ashter-juiðofai.
"ThePL Dog.SUB-PL.LOC-DIST DIST.FUTURE.eat-careful.ADVB cat.OBJ.PL-crooked."
Those dogs there will carefully eat crooked cats. (Or, Those there dogs will eat crooked cats with caution.)

Note in the above sentence that the so-called "distant future" tense of the verb can also be used when making "generalizations" about a subject's behavior. Also, remember there is no neuter pronoun in Draddrikan, so the subject shra simple goes without. However, there is a definite article in Draddrikan, so this sentence clearly identifies some particular dogs who will eat cats—dogs that are further marked by a locative particle roughly corresponding to English "there"—which dogs would be determined by context.