Lesson 4:
Nouns

The Article

The Definite Article

The definite article in Ido is la; this is approximately equivalent to the English "the".

Me lektis la libro.

I read the book.

Lack of an Article

The definite article is the only article in Ido, thus the indefinite articles, such as "a", "an", and "some", are not translated into Ido.

Me lektis libro.

I read a book.

The Inflections of Nouns

Introduction

The singular nominative form of every noun in Ido ends in -o.

La planto, la libro, la vivo

The plant, the book, life

Number

Nouns in Ido may be either singular or plural. In order to a make a singular noun plural, change the -o to -i.

La planto, la planti

The plant, the plants

Cases other than the Nominative

The accusative is the direct object of the verb, and it usually follows the verb. If it precedes the subject of the sentence, then add an -n in order to distinguish it from the nominative. An adjective or pronoun may take the -n if it acts as the accusative noun before the subject.

Me amas kati. Me kati amas. Katin me amas.

I love cats. I love cats. I love cats.

The possessive is a noun which indicates the owner of another noun. It corresponds to the English ending "-'s". It may be translated one of three ways: First, by di which means "of". Second, the English "at ...'s" is translated che .... Third, it may be translated by an adjectival noun which ends in -ala.

La imajo di la viro. Ni irez che la viro. La imajo virala.

The man's picture. Let's go to the man's. The picture of a man.