It’s fair to say that if you use Ceqli words and Mandarin grammar, you won’t go too far wrong. In normal Ceqli, terseness is the rule. Think in terms of "newspaper headline" English or "Tonto" English. Ceqli can operate very much like a pidgin, though it has the capacity for much greater precision.
zi sta kwa?
“You are-located-at what?”
Here we can dispense with a word for “where.” The Ceqli kwa is sufficient, when paired with the verb sta. You can, of course, be redundant and say,
zi sta kwajay?“You are-located-at what-place?”
But if you’re going to say jay, you can then leave out the verb:
zi kwajay?
“You what-place?”
All this is in the spirit of terseness, and words are left out if what remains is unambiguous.
THE MANDARIN CONNECTION
Ceqli has the ability to behave like Mandarin, or like English, or a little bit of both. Looking at some more complicated sentences....
go stu cer kay kan hon.
I sit in a chair and read a book.
This is very much like the English way. We can say something similar thus:
go stu cer kan hon.
I sit in a chair, read a book.
This is more like Mandarin, and, generally speaking, you can regard the second verb as the main one, translating it as:
I read a book, sitting in a chair.
To emphasize the "stu," you reverse the order:
go kan hon stu cer.
But, if you fear ambiguity in either case, you can insert a "sa", which makes the first verb phrase modify the second:
go stu cer sa kan hon.
Just how is it that you're reading? You're reading sitting in a chair. Likewise:
go kan hon sa stu cer.
In what way are you sitting? You're sitting reading a book.
Similarly:
go zu tomo ja parizo.
I use car go Paris. (I go to Paris by car.)
A possible exchange:
go padey ja xikagozo.
I yesterday go Chicago.
zu kwa?
Use what? (how, by what means)
zu tomo.
Use car. (by car)
Other possibilities:
zu flayxin, zu pau, zu duvilvi, zu tawma.
by plane, on foot, by bicycle, by magic.
Or, Esperanto-like, the "zu" can be appended to those roots as a suffix, creating an ad-hoc instrumental case:
flayxinzu, pauzu, duvilvizu, tawmazu.