How can I read this?

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Paul Frommer's
Language Workbook

[Swoka Swizaw]

I am utterly confused about how I should be reading a sentence that begins with fula, furia, and fwa. (I understand futa, so that's fine. I remember that I also know lam fwa.)

Can anyone help?

[Plumps]

You simply reverse the word order in your head … I struggle with this myself and I think most people do whichever goes against their ‘normal’ way of ordering information in a sentence in their language.

Take a sentence like
     
     lam oer fwa frrnen txopu si
     It seems to me (that) the children are afraid.

This could also be

     fwa frrnen txopu si lam oer
or
     frrnen txopu si a fì’u lam oer

If you understood futa (as a form of fì’u-t a) then this above form should pose no problem for you. The same goes for fula (from fì’u-l a) and furia (from fì’u-ri a). With fula the key is that everything in the following sentence is seen as a super noun that takes up the agent of that sentence.

Take
     
     peyä kemìl sleyku oeti nitram
     His action makes me happy

Now, if you want to describe what that action is you have to use fula because the agentive -(ì)l can only be attached to nouns

     fula po käteng oehu sleyku oeti nitram
     (the fact) that he spends time with me makes me happy

Actually, you say … “the thing (that his-spending-time-with-me-thing) makes me happy”.

And this again could be

     po käteng oehu a fì’ul sleyku oeti nitram
or
     oeti sleyku nitram fula po käteng oehu

and so forth.

Now try this:

Furia po oeru srung soli, irayo seiyi nìtxan

I hope that helps

[Swoka Swizaw]

Furia po oeru srung soli, irayo seiyi nìtxan

[I am very thankful that he helped me.]?

[Plumps]

Exactly

Literally, “for the he-helped-me-thing, thanks a lot”

Now, I really hope that helped in understanding these fì’u forms

[Blue Elf]

Nothing to add
Basicaly, all "fì'u" based word can be translated as "that" - they just differ by position/function in the clause.

 lam oer fwa frrnen txopu si => It seems to me (that) the children are afraid. FWA+subordinate clause works as subject of intransitive verb

 fula po käteng oehu sleyku oeti nitram => that he spends time with me makes me happy. FULA+subordinate clause works as subject of transitive verb

 Oel tse'a futa nga lu alaksi => I see that you are prepared. FUTA+subordinate clause works as object of transitive verb

And FURIA of course creates topical. Maybe this helps too

[Swoka Swizaw]

Nothing to add
Basicaly, all "fì'u" based word can be translated as "that" - they just differ by position/function in the clause.

 lam oer fwa frrnen txopu si => It seems to me (that) the children are afraid. FWA+subordinate clause works as subject of intransitive verb

 fula po käteng oehu sleyku oeti nitram => that he spends time with me makes me happy. FULA+subordinate clause works as subject of transitive verb

 Oel tse'a futa nga lu alaksi => I see that you are prepared. FUTA+subordinate clause works as object of transitive verb

And FURIA of course creates topical. Maybe this helps too

Srung si oer kem ngeyä. As is the case, we have to translate the meaning of the words and not the words, themselves. Knowing how the words should be translated to spoken English is extremely helpful.

[Kameyu a Kepekmì]

I am utterly confused about how I should be reading a sentence that begins with fula, furia, and fwa. (I understand futa, so that's fine. I remember that I also know lam fwa.)

Can anyone help?

The grammar of the Na'vi allows to read a phrase. Even the order of words changes, the phrase keeps its sense. If the noun cases did not exist, change the order of words would change the sense of the phrase. Read this:

Sunu oel ngati.
Ngati sunu oel.
Oel ngati sunu.

Do these phrases say the same thing? Yes. Were you able to read these phrases ? Yes. Why did you understand these phrases ? Because you read the words and check if there are accusatives, datives, etc. With that, you'll be able to place the words in order and understand the phrase.

Do that for the phrases begnning with fula, furia, and fwa.

[Tirea Aean]

Actually, it's

sunu oeru nga
nga sunu oeru
oeru nga sunu

and yes, they are all the same.

[Blue Elf]

Sunu oel ngati.
Ngati sunu oel.
Oel ngati sunu.

As TA already said. But be carefull with case endings. Agentive (ergative) and patientive (accusative) cases are used only with transitive verbs (marked vtr/vtrm) in the dictionary
Intransitive verbs (vin/vim) use no case ending for subject (subjective or nominative case). Object (if present) takes dative (-r/-ru/-ur)
And sunu is intransitive

[Kameyu a Kepekmì]

The problem is I did not learn yet intransitive and transitive verbs. But, thank you for say that. I learn my grammar and Na'vi in same time.

[Blue Elf]

The problem is I did not learn yet intransitive and transitive verbs. But, thank you for say that. I learn my grammar and Na'vi in same time.

Check it in the dictionary - I use it often as I'm not always about transitivity too But it is basic part of Na'vi language

[`Eylan Ayfalulukanä]

Verb transitivity, and its effect on noun cases, adpositional phrases and subordination/attribution are perhaps the most important things to learn in Na'vi grammar. Time spent learning these concepts well is time not wasted!