So, where are you from? You have to come from somewhere:
tu i veni e de ke? - Where are you from?
Translating word for word we would have “you come from what?”. You can be fancy about it and add “loke”:
tu i veni e de ke loke? - Where are you from? - You come from what place?
I was born in México so I would answer
mi i veni de Meksiko - I’m from México.
mi e de Meksiko - I’m from México.
Meksiko - México.
Notice that we have three forms. You can just state the country, city, place, location or you can add the whole thing:
mi i veni de ____ - I come from ____ - I’m from ____.
The difference between the first two forms is the verb “veni”, “to come”:
mi i veni de Meksiko - I come from México.
mi e de Meksiko - I am from México.
In this case the preposition “de” already means “from” so you can omit the verb and the particle that marks it (“i veni”) and just use the particle “e” that marks the prepositional phrase “de Meksiko”. Both are valid.
If you don’t know the Mini word for the place, you can just say it as the locals do
mi i veni de México - I’m from México.
Let’s see a conversation:
Mia: Leo, mi i savi ke tu i vole savi… - Leo, I know that you want to know…
Leo: ja, i dire - Yes, tell me.
Mia: bon. mi e de Europa - Ok. I’m from Europe.
Leo: bon? pero tu i veni de ke paisa? - Ok? But do you come from which country?
Mia: i supose - Guess.
Leo: i dire! - Tell me!
Mia: sori. mi i veni de Sbaria. an tu i veni e de ke loke? - Sorry. I’m from Sweden. And where do you come from?
Leo: mi e de… no, tu i no nese savi a da - I’m from… no, you don’t need to know that.
Mia: favo! i dire! - Please! Tell me!
Grammar
Prepositions
de - from, of, about, out of, made of.
A prepositional phrase follows the thing it describes. In the case of a verb being described, it can follow the direct object.
mi e de México - I’m from México.
Bob e de Amerika - Bob is from America.
Sami e de Aegiptos - Sami originates from Egypt.
Questions
Simple yes or no questions are formed by adding a “?” or some form of confirmation with either “no?”, “ja?”, “u ke?” at the end:
tu i manja a oranje? - Do you eat oranges?
For open questions one uses “ke” (what) and adds other words to make the other question words:
tu i manja e ke loke? - Where are you eating?
si-viro e ke loke, nun? - Where is he now?
Compact sentences
If the meaning is clear from context, one can drop the one letter particles:
mi i amo a tu - mi amo tu - I love you.
i go! - go! - Go!
mi i veni e de Meksiko - mi i veni de Meksiko - mi veni de Meksiko - I’m from México.
Foreign and non-mini words
Proper nouns and foreign words can be written and pronounced as they are in their original language:
mi i viva en Mallorca - I live in Mallorca.
Or you can choose to minify the word following this formula:
Prefer to use letters and ortography from Mini: America, Amerika.
If you can translate one or more words directly, do it: New York, Nu York.
If the word has a historic latin or romance-like, use that as base: Deutschland, Germania, Germania.
Then we can write:
mi i viva en Majorka.
Pronunciation is free in this case. You can say it like in its original language or follow Mini rules (stress in the second to last syllable).
Exercises
Translate the sentences:
si-viro e de Kanada.
si-feme e de Bask-lan.
i dire: tu i veni de Argentina?
Where do you come from?
Where do you all come from?
I want to know.
I live in China.
Is the following sentence correct? why? why not?: si-ale veni de Australia.