Mini: How to ask about words you don’t know

These two questions are always useful when learning a new language:

Let’s take a look at the literal translation:

The first question is composed as follows:

tu: You. Subject.
dire: Say. This is the verb, we know that because it is marked by the particle “i”.
a …: Here you put whatever word or phrase you want to translate to Mini.
e ke: How. This is how we make the different questions (what, where, who, etcetera).
en mini: In Mini. This is a prepositional phrase. Usually it is marked by the particle “e”, but in this case we have chosen to omit it. You can even change it to the name of another language like “en Espaniol”.

You can shorten it to “tu i dire a … e ke?”. Let’s see how the second question is composed:

Some quick examples:

“sera” i sinifi a ke? - What does “sera” mean?
tu i dire a “where is the bathroom?” e ke en mini? - How do you say “where is the bathroom?” in Mini?

Grammar

They are:

A prepositional phrase follows the thing it describes. In the case of a verb being described, it can follow the direct object.

Simple yes or no questions are formed by adding a “?” or some form of confirmation with either “no?”, “ja?”, “u ke?” at the end:

For open questions one uses “ke” (what) and adds other words to make the other question words:

If the meaning is clear from context, one can drop the one letter particles:

Published: 251023