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the wonderful world of to
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to and its many uses
This public article was written by [Deactivated User], and last updated on 22 Mar 2022, 16:11.

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the word to is a particle that is just about everywhere. it has a few uses, but none is more common than the copula. despite this, you don't see to in every sentence you might expect, that's right: copula dropping pog
you really only include the copula if there's something tied to it, for example...
ko lipisi. - I (am) happy.
1SFirst person singular (person)
speaker, signer, etc.; I
happy
ko to o lipisi. - I was happy.
1SFirst person singular (person)
speaker, signer, etc.; I
COPCopula
used to link the subject of a sentence with a predicate
-PTPast tense (tense)
action occurred before moment of speech
happy
ko to lamańa lipisi. - I'm always happy.
1SFirst person singular (person)
speaker, signer, etc.; I
COPCopula
used to link the subject of a sentence with a predicate
always happy

the second use is to signify passive voice. unlike in english, though, this is only possible if there's no specification of the subject: "The person saw me" and "I was seen by the person" would be indistinguishable, and both would be written as
jani ko lata o. - The person saw me.
person 1SFirst person singular (person)
speaker, signer, etc.; I
see-PTPast tense (tense)
action occurred before moment of speech


replacinf the subject with to turns it passive:
to ko lata o. - I am seen.
PASSPassive voice (valency)
be verb-ed
1SFirst person singular (person)
speaker, signer, etc.; I
see-PTPast tense (tense)
action occurred before moment of speech


the third and fourth uses are simple enough! to can be used as an intransitive verb meaning "to exist":
ko to. - I exist.
1SFirst person singular (person)
speaker, signer, etc.; I
exist

the final use is similar, but irregular: word order is thrown out the window to indicate that "there is" something: the only instance where the verb comes before the subject outside of poetry, where the position of the verb and subject are switched, but not adverbs or auxiliary verbs:
to jani. - There's a person.
exist person
to jani o. - There was a person.
exist person PTPast tense (tense)
action occurred before moment of speech


thank you for coming to my to talk
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