This is a followup to lesson 9 of the official Fynotek course.
I know I’ve said that we were done with particles three times now. I know that I have lied all three times. But I promise that today will be the last particle-related lesson we have. It’s about sta, ni, and how to modify them.
It may seem weird to modify a particle—after all, they don’t have any content meaning—but you’ve already seen a modifier on a particle! If you remember from lesson 9, stañy is how you say “no” to a question, and is a combination of sta and ñy. There are a few other words that can be used this way, as well!
Besides ñy, sta can also be modified by yla (small) and ula (big) to change the intensity of your answer. So, staula is similar to saying “absolutely!”, and stayla is similar to saying “kind of” or “I guess” in response to a question.
You can, of course, negate these: stañyula can be translated as “absolutely not!” and stañyyla as “not really”. These are, of course, not the only translations—what matters most when modifying sta is the intensity or enthusiasm of your response.
While ni cannot be modified by ñy, it can be modified by ula and yla to show the importance of the command being given—niula indicates that it is very important, and niyla that it is not very important.
Example: ampa niula! - “Go!” (urgent)
That’s it for modifying particles! We, for real this time, shouldn’t be having any more particle lessons :)