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Other times

Until now your sentences have lived in right now. Today, two small time-words that move a whole sentence into the future or the past — plus a special one just for telling stories.

1 · Say this

fu mi omei (foo · mee · OH-may) I'll come. / I'm going to come.

mi omei is I come (Lesson 33). Put fu — future, later — at the very front, and the whole thing shifts forward: I'll come. You've met fu before in fu sola (tomorrow, Lesson 27); here it does the same job for an entire sentence.

2 · A closer look: forward, back, and once-upon-a-time

The past works the same way, with pa at the front:

Amatu Means
mi ama tu I love you (now)
fu mi ama tu I will love you
pa mi ama tu I loved you

There's also nu — the remembered past, the one for stories and memories: nu mi … opens a tale the way "once, I…" does in English. Picture a nara (a person, Lesson 16) leaning back to begin: nu mi vanu domu — once, I went home.

pa mi ori tu — I saw you. · fu mi vanu domu — I'll go home.

Present needs no word at all — bare is now. You only mark time when it isn't the present.

🧭 Why it's built this way Amatu doesn't change the verb to change the time — omei is omei whether it happened yesterday or will tomorrow. One little flag at the front carries the whole load: fu ahead, pa behind, nu for the storyteller's past. Nothing to conjugate, ever.

⚠️ Watch out The time-word sits at the front, before everything: fu mi omei, not mi fu omei. And keep the vowels clean — fu is "foo," pa is "pah," nu is "noo."

3 · Your turn

Out loud:

  1. I'll come → fu mi omei
  2. I loved you → pa mi ama tu
  3. I'll go home → fu mi vanu domu
  4. I saw you → pa mi ori tu
  5. Once, I was happy (a memory) → nu mi oli

4 · Tonight's phrase

fu mi omei — I'll come — fu ahead, pa behind, present left bare.

30-second check

Cover the page. (1) Say I'll come. (2) Say I loved you. (3) Tell yourself where the time-word goes — the very front. Three for three? Your sentences can now travel in time, not just sit in the present — which roughly triples what you can talk about.

⬅️ Back: Lesson 67 — The door · ➡️ Next: Lesson 69 — Recap