A Quick Ido Grammar Reference

This page aims to provide you with a complete Ido Grammar Reference which is quick and easy to use. It includes lists of verb endings and of the affixes which are so important in Ido.

There have been visitors to this page. Last updated 20-Jan-98.

Verb Endings

The verb endings in Ido are:

-ar present infinitive, -ir past infinitive, -or future infinitive

-as present tense, -is past tense, -os future tense

-us conditional present tense

-ez imperative

-ab- suffix used in conjunction with past, future and conditional endings to form perfect tenses (eg. had gone, will have gone, would have gone). In 1947 it was decided that -ab- may also be used with the present to form a perfect tense: me vidabas - I have seen.

-ant- present active participle: eg. seeing
-int- past active participle: eg. having seen
-ont- future active participle: eg. going to see
-at- present passive participle: eg. being seen
-it- past passive participle: eg. having been seen
-ot- future active participle: eg. going to be seen

The participles are most commonly found with the adjective ending -a, but also sometimes with -e (adverb) or -o/-i (noun).

Grammatical Endings

The endings indicating parts of speech are:

-o singular noun
-i plural noun
-a adjective
-e adverb

in addition to the verb endings above.

Direct Derivation

These are the four methods of direct derivation in Ido:

Verb to noun: By replacing the -ar of an infinitive with -o, we form the noun meaning the simple action or state implied by the verb: brosar - to brush, broso - a brushing. The continuous or frequent action is indicated by -ad-: brosado - brushing.

Adjective to noun: By replacing the -a of an adjective with -o, we form the person or thing having that property: bona - good, bono - good one, good man.

Noun to adjective: By replacing the -o of a noun with -a, we describe something as made of the substance indicated by the noun: oro - gold, ora - made of gold.

Adjective to adverb: By replacing the -a of an adjective with an -e, we describe something as happening in the manner indicated by the adjective: bela - beautiful, bele - beautifully.

Personal Pronouns

The following table gives the personal pronouns in Ido and their corresponding possessive adjectives.

me	I, me	mea	my, mine
vu (tu)	you (singular)	vua (tua)	your, yours (sing.)
il(u)	he, him	ilua	his
el(u)	she, her	elua	her, hers
ol(u)	it	olua	its
lu	he or she/him or her	lua	his or her(s)
ni	we, us	nia	our, ours
vi	you (plural)	via	your, yours (pl.)
(i/e/o)li	they, them	(i/e/o)lia	their, theirs
su	him/her/it/one(self), them(selves)	sua	his/her/its/their (own)
on(u)	one, "you", people	onua	one's, "your(s)", etc.

Note: ili, eli, oli etc. may be used to indicate male, female and neuter respectively, when the sense requires it.

Prefixes

These are placed before a word (often with a hyphen) in order to change its meaning.

arki- pre-eminence: arki-episkopo archbishop
bo- related by marriage: bo-patro father-in-law
centi- hundredth part, centi-: centi-litro centilitre
des- contrary: des-facila difficult
dis- separation: dis-sendar to distribute
equi- equality, equi-: equi-distanta equidistant
ex- former: ex-oficiro ex-officer
ge- both sexes together: ge-frati brother(s) and sister(s) (note: in 1929 genitori replaced ge-patri for "parents".)
hiper- over-, excessively, hyper-: hiper-agiva hyperactive
hipo- under, insufficiently, hypo-: hipo-pela hypodermic
ho- "in which one is living": ho-die today
mi- half: mi-horo a half-hour
mis- wrongly: mis-komprenar to misunderstand
ne- negation: ne-utila useless
par- completely: par-lektar to read through
para- warding off: para-suno parasol
poli- many (more than one), poly-: poli-silaba having more than one syllable, polysyllabic
pre- before: pre-dicar to predict
prim- primitive: prim-avi forefathers
retro- back: retro-venar to return, come back
ri- again: ri-dicar to say again
sen- without: sen-viva lifeless

Suffixes

These are placed at the end of a word, but before the grammatical ending, in order to change its meaning. Hyphens are not used.

-ach- pejorative, giving an unfavourable meaning: populacho populace
-ad- frequency, repetition: dansado dancing
-aj- material substance: manjajo food; act, process etc.: amikalajo act of friendship; that which: rezultajo something which results, a result
-al- relating to: nacionala national
-an- member of: senatano senator
-ar- collection: homaro mankind
-ari- receiver: legacario legatee
-atr- like: sponjatra spongy
-e- coloured: rozea rose-coloured
-ebl- possibility: videbla visible
-ed- quantity held by: manuedo handful
-eg- largeness: pluvego downpour
-em- inclined to: laborema industrious
-end- something to be done: solvenda which must be solved
-er- amateur: fotografero (amateur) photographer
-eri- establishment: distilierio distillery
-es- to be: amesar to be loved
-esk- to begin to: dormeskar to fall asleep
-estr- head, chief: urbestro mayor
-et- smallness: rivereto stream
-ey- place for: kavaleyo stable
-i- domain: komtio parish
-id- offspring: Izraelido Israelite
-ier- holder: sigariero cigar-holder
-if- to produce: florifar to bloom
-ig- to cause to be or do: beligar to beautify
-ik- sick: alkoholiko an alcoholic
-il- tool: brosilo a brush
-in- feminine: fratino sister
-ind- worthy of: aminda lovable
-ism- system, doctrine: socialismo socialism
-ist- professional, adherent: artisto artist
-iv- that can: instruktiva instructive
-ivor- indicates what something eats: karnivora meat-eating, carnivorous
-iz- to supply or cover with: armizar to arm
-oid- having the form of, -oid: cirkloida in the form of a circle
-oz- full of: poroza porous
-ul- masculine: katulo tom-cat
-um- all-purpose suffix with indeterminate meaning: foliumar to flick through, leaf through (a book etc.)
-ur- result of action: pikturo picture
-yun- young of: bovyuno calf
-uy- container: inkuyo inkpot

Numeral Suffixes

These are only used with numbers.

-esm- ordinals: unesma first
-im- fraction: duimo a half
-op- distributive: quarope four at a time
-opl- mutiplying: triopla triple

"Correlatives"

The following table gives the "correlatives" that exist in Ido. It should be read first along the top, then down the left, eg. what place=where=ube.

	WHAT	THAT	SOME	ANY	NO	EVERY
PERSON	qua/i	(i)ta/i	ulu/i	irgu/i	nulu/i	omnu/i
THING	quo/i	(i)to/i	ulo/i	irgo/i	nulo/i	omno/i
PLACE	ube	ibe	ulaloke	irgaloke	nulaloke	omnaloke
TIME	kande	lore	ulatempe	irgatempe	nulatempe	sempre
WAY	quale	tale	ule	irge	nule	omne
QUANTITY	quanto	tanto	ulaquanto	irgaquanto	nulaquanto	omnaquanto

Please note:

The to/ito forms etc. are intended to aid euphony, so that to is generally used after a vowel, and ito after a consonant. Similarly for co/ico.
For lore, ube etc. it is perfectly permissible to use the regularly formed tatempe, qualoke, but mostly the more natural and convenient forms are preferred.
Esperantists should note that the equivalents of their remaining "correlatives" may be formed more in accordance with national languages, eg. qua sorto de ... ? (or quala ?) = "what sort of ... ?".
It is permissible to drop the adjectival -a in words such as "nulatempe" where euphony permits.
A hyphen may be inserted between the adjectival prefix and the substantival suffix in words such as ultempe = ulatempe = ul-tempe = ula-tempe, in order to more clearly distinguish the two formative elements of the word.

Comparison

Adjectives and adverbs are compared in Ido by means of the words plu = more, maxim = most, min = less, minim = least.

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James Chandler 1997.