Questions
This page teaches how to ask a question and how to answer one.
You can ask for yes or no, or you can leave a blank for who / what (a fill-ask). After a yes / no question, you can answer with a short yes / no / sure word (polar stance). The same words answer a command or a request.
On this page
Ask (yel / yem)
A question asks for a reply instead of stating a fact. English marks it by moving words around (Azozon walks → Does Azozon walk?). Ageben marks it with the act word yel at the start of the turn, followed by the body (subject, verb, and so on). Every word keeps the form it would have in a statement. Only the usual order changes: the verb comes second, right after the subject.
Soft yem asks the same question more gently (wondering rather than pressing). End a written question with a period, like any sentence.
When every person and action in the clause is already named, the expected reply is yes or no. (cue: e ≈ choice: collapse to an answer.)
yel zazozon vowurol.y-question | z-Azozon | v-walk
"Does Azozon walk?"
yem zalazun vezuvel.y-soft-question | z-Alazun | v-sleep
"Is Alazun sleeping, I wonder?"
yel zazozon vayebel dogozel.y-question | z-Azozon | v-see | d-cat
"Does Azozon see a cat?"
With no body at all, the question asks about what was just said: Huh? / What? Soft yem. is gentler (Hm?).
yel.y-question
"Huh?"
A question whose subject is nobody (zal), or whose whole clause is nothing happened (xal), still asks for yes or no, not who.
yel zal vowurol.y-question | z-none | v-walk
"Does nobody walk?"
Fill-ask
Sometimes you do not want yes or no. You want the other person to name someone or something: who?, what?, do what?, what happened? That kind of question is a fill-ask.
Keep yel or yem at the start. In the slot you want filled, use a join word that ends in -r (zar, var, xar, …). That -r is the blank (unspecified-member -r). (cue: -r names this member; a ≈ add for who/what, u ≈ undo for who/what else.)
yel zar vowurol.y-question | z-wh | v-walk
"Who walks?"
Put the blank first in the body, and the other words in their statement order after it. The listener hears what you are asking before anything else, and the blank itself marks the turn as a question even if yel is missed.
yel dar zazozon vayebel.y-question | d-wh | z-Azozon | v-see
"What does Azozon see?"
A blank that completes another word comes first together with that word: like whom? is hewem blar, so yel hewem blar zazozon vowurol. asks Whom does Azozon walk like?
In the word-by-word line under an example, a fill-ask blank shows as wh, short for whichever question word fits the slot (who, what, where, and so on).
If the reply is just the fill, not a full sentence, write it as a citation: root + ending, no role letter. Leave no join -r in the answer; that -r was the blank. A full-sentence answer uses ordinary role letters.
azozon."Azozon."
| Ageben | Use | English | Cue |
|---|---|---|---|
a (zar · var · xar) | ask for who or what | Who/what? / What happened? | a ≈ add |
u (zur · vur · xur) | ask for who or what else | Who else? / What else? | u ≈ undo |
yel zur vezuvel.y-question | z-wh-else | v-sleep
"Who else sleeps?"
alazun."Alazun."
Compare with: pointing back at someone already named uses resume -r on a whole stem or a role pointer (pronouns). A fill-ask uses only join -r. The spelling tells them apart: a resume spells a whole stem, and a role pointer has w, a scope vowel, a part consonant, and a pointer vowel. A join word has no stem, only its role letter, its join vowel or vowels, and its ending.
Question tone (?)
The act word yel / yem already makes the sentence a question, so the tone mark ? is never required. It is still recommended, because it shows the raised voice in writing:
- Yes/no question: write a free-standing
?right after the/y/words, so it applies to the whole rest of the sentence. - Fill-ask: attach
?to the front of each fill-ask word (the join -r blank), so the raised voice falls on what you want filled.
yel ? zazozon vowurol.y-question | ? | z-Azozon | v-walk
"Does Azozon walk?" (with the raised voice)
yel ?zar vowurol.y-question | ?z-wh | v-walk
"Who walks?" (with the raised voice on who)
The sentence still ends in a period.
Fill-all
To ask who sees what?, put join -r in every slot you want filled, and put all the blanks first. Each of those -r words is a blank, and the answer is expected to fill all of them, in the order the question gave them.
yel zar dar vayebel.y-question | z-wh | d-wh | v-see
"Who sees what?"
azozon odozel.Azozon | dog
"Azozon, a dog."
To ask for several members of one slot (who all?), put -x after the blank. The answer lists them with a join.
yel zarx vowurol.y-question | z-wh-x | v-walk
"Who all walks?"
zazozon zalazun zam.[z-Azozon | z-Alazun | z-and.open]
"Azozon and Alazun, among others."
To ask only about people, put the kind before the blank: yel zeyel zarx vowurol. is Which people walk?
If only one slot is unknown, put join -r only there. Write the known thing as an ordinary word (-l / -m).
yel zar vayebel dodozel.y-question | z-wh | v-see | d-dog
"Who sees a dog?"
azozon."Azozon."
Polar stance (yes / no / sure)
After a yes / no question, you often answer with a short word that means yes, no, or I’ll take that. That answer is a polar stance. It can stand alone as a whole turn, or it can sit at the start of a turn before a sentence body.
Write y, then two vowels, then -l (firm) or -m (softer).
yaol means yes / true: the claim matches. Soft twin yaom: I think so / yeah.
yuol means no / false: the claim does not match. Soft twin yuom: I don’t think so / nah.
yael means sure / I’ll take that: you take up the offer. Soft twin yaem: okay / sure, I guess.
When a sentence body follows yes, write yaol then the body. You do not also write the statement word yal.
A turn holds one polar word. Do not stack two, and do not put one before an act word: an answer followed by a question is two turns.
| Ageben | Use | English | Cue |
|--------|-----|---------|-----| | yaol / soft yaom | the claim matches, or got it | yes / true · I think so | a ≈ add + o ≈ command (the claim lines up) | | yuol / soft yuom | mismatch | no / false · I don’t think so | u ≈ not + o ≈ command (the claim does not line up) | | yael / soft yaem | take up an offered option | sure / I’ll take that · okay | a ≈ add + e ≈ question (this option) |
yaol."Yes." / "True." / "Got it."
yaom.y-yes-soft
"I think so." / "Yeah."
yuol."No." / "False."
yuom.y-no-soft
"I don’t think so." / "Nah."
yael."Sure." / "I’ll take that."
yaem.y-sure-soft
"Okay." / "Sure, I guess."
To back up your own statement with yes, give yaol a turn of its own: finish the statement with a period, then write yaol.
zazozon vowurol. yaol.z-Azozon | v-walk . y-yes
"Azozon walks. Yes."
To ask the listener to confirm instead (…, right?), put the question word yel before it: yel yaol. A short question like this after a statement is a tag. Soft yem yaol. is …, isn't it?
zazozon vowurol. yel yaol.z-Azozon | v-walk . y-question | y-yes
"Azozon walks, right?"
Compare with: a command Don’t walk uses yul. yuol answers whether a claim is true.
Inside the clause, not X is the join zul / vul, not a polar word.
Embedded whether
English whether reports a yes/no question inside a statement (Azozon sees whether Alazun walks). Write the stand-in derl in the object slot, with the inner question right after it. The whole sentence is still a statement, so do not write yel at its start.
zazozon vayebel derl zalazun vowurol.z-Azozon | v-see | d-whether-clause | z-Alazun | v-walk
"Azozon sees whether Alazun walks."
Compare with: a direct question (Does Azozon walk?) puts yel at the start of the turn.
Practice
Short drills for Beginner. Try each item before opening Show answer.
Setting: a lost-and-found
New words:
| English | Ageben | Cue |
|---|---|---|
| umbrella | omobul | ☂️ |
| coat | ogobal | 🧥 |
| key | egewol | 🔑 |
| write | varuyol | ✍️ |
| lie | vulamul | 🤥 |
Review:
| English | Ageben |
|---|---|
| Azozon | azozon |
| Alazun | alazun |
| Ahelan | ahelan |
| find | vumewel |
| see | vayebel |
| eraser | erewul |
| book | anal |
English → Ageben
1. Does Azozon find the key? (with the raised voice)
Show answer
yel ? zazozon vumewel degewol.
y-question | ? | z-Azozon | v-find | d-key
Also correct: yel zazozon vumewel degewol.
2. Who sees the umbrella?
Show answer
yel ?zar domobul vayebel.
y-question | ?z-wh | d-umbrella | v-see
Also correct: yel ?zar vayebel domobul.
3. Is Alazun lying, I wonder?
Show answer
yem zalazun vulamul.
y-soft-question | z-Alazun | v-lie
4. Who finds what?
Show answer
yel zar dar vumewel.
y-question | z-wh | d-wh | v-find
Also correct: yel zar vumewel dar.
5. Ahelan writes, right?
Show answer
zahelan varuyol. yel yaol.
z-Ahelan | v-write . y-question | y-yes
6. No. / False. (the claim does not match)
Show answer
yuol.
y-no
Ageben → English
1. yem zahelan vayebel dogobal.
Show answer
y-soft-question | z-Ahelan | v-see | d-coat
Is Ahelan seeing the coat, I wonder?
2. yel zur derewul vumewel.
Show answer
y-question | z-wh-else | d-eraser | v-find
Who else finds an eraser?
3. yel zal vumewel danal.
Show answer
y-question | z-none | v-find | d-book
Does nobody find a book?
4. zazozon vayebel derl zalazun degewol vumewel.
Show answer
z-Azozon | v-see | d-whether-clause | z-Alazun | d-key | v-find
Azozon sees whether Alazun finds the key.
5. yaem.
Show answer
y-sure-soft
Okay. / Sure, I guess.
6. alazun.
Show answer
Alazun
Alazun. (a one-word answer)
Pick one
1. Who writes? yel ?zar varuyol. or yel ?zur varuyol.
Show answer
yel ?zar varuyol.
y-question | ?z-wh | v-write
zar asks who; zur asks who else.
2. No. (answering Does Alazun lie?) yuol. or yul.
Show answer
yuol.
y-no
yuol says the claim does not match; yul forbids, don't.
Fix it
1. Azozon finds the coat, right? yol zazozon vumewel dogobal. yael.
Show answer
zazozon dogobal vumewel. yel yaol.
z-Azozon | d-coat | v-find . y-question | y-yes
The statement stays a statement; the tag yel yaol. is its own short question after it.
See also
- Speech moves: turn; speech act
- dependents.md: continue
- dependents.md: that / whether after
darl/derl - joins.md: join fences; statement readings of -r / single-item / standalone
- pronouns.md: content resume -r (fill-ask is join -r)
- Fill-ask roles: fill-ask-roles.md