Alphabet and Pronunciation

The alphabet consists of 26 letters:

a, b, c, d, e, f, g, h, i, j, k, l, m, n, o, p, q, r, s, t, u, v, w, x, y, z

The majority of them are the same as in English, except:

c: sounds like "ts"	g: is always hard like the "g" in "girl" or "gate", never soft like the "g" in "gel"or "gist"	q: is always followed by a "u" and is pronounced "kw" — as in English
r: is pronounced like the "tt" in "letter" or the "dd" in “ladder”	j: is pronounced like the j in “soup du jour”, or the s in “measure”	NB: examples given are from American English

Each vowel has only one sound (they are pronounced as in Spanish or Italian):

a is always pronounced like the "o" in "hot"

e is always pronounced like the "a" in "late" (but shorter—it is not a diphthong)

i is always pronounced like the "e" in "meet"

o is always pronounced like the "oa" in "boat"

u is always pronounced like the "oo" in "boot"

Ido is a phonetic language: each letter has one sound, and each sound is represented by one letter.

Ido has no accent marks. All words, except infinitives, are pronounced with the emphasis on the next-to-last syllable (e.g. feNEstri). For infinitives, it is the last syllable which receives the emphasis (e.g. saVAR).

The article

There is no indefinite article in Ido. The definite article is "la" = the. It is invariable, as in English.

Fenestri = (Some) Windows	Fenestro = (A) Window
La fenestro = The window	La fenestri = The windows

Word endings

If the word ends in	it is	examples
o	a noun	kato = cat; komputoro = computer; domo = house
a	an adjective	bela = pretty; neta = clean; alta = tall
e	an adverb	perfekte = perfectly; rapide = quickly
ar	an infinitive	skribar = to write; esar = to be; ludar = to play

As in English, adjectives in Ido are invariable: they do not agree with the noun they modify in any way (neither in gender nor in number):

La bruna tablo = The brown table; La bruna tabli = The brown tables

Affixes and Word-formation:

The meaning of words is modified by means of prefixes and suffixes. Some examples:

des- indicates the opposite: deskonocar = not know; desfacila = difficult; desaparar = disappear

-ist- indicates profession: arto = art – artisto = artist; butiko = store or shop – butikisto = sales person, shopkeeper

-ar- indicates a group of: vorto = word – vortaro = dictionary; direktisto = director – direktistaro = the management

Like English, Ido is an agglutinative language, in that it permits the forming of new words by joining different word roots, with a resulting change in meaning:

chambro = room	dormo-chambro = bedroom
hundo = dog	chashundo = hunting dog (chasar = to hunt)

This greatly reduces the number of different words one must memorize in order to learn Ido.

Personal pronouns

Me =I, me	Elu = She, her	Ni = We, us	Ili = They, Them (masculine)
Tu = You;	Ilu = He, him	Vi = You (plural)	Eli = They, Them (femenine)
Vu= Usted	Olu = It		Oli = They, Them (things, animals)

For 3rd person singular, when it is deemed either undesirable or unnessary to specify the gender (male, female, neuter), one uses the pronoun Lu = She/Her, He/Him, or It

Similarly, there is a gender-neutral 3rd person plural pronoun as well: Li = They/Them (either masculine or feminine, as in English)

Verb conjugation:

Ending	Tense	Examples
as	present	me opinionas = I think (as in "In my opinion"); elu lektas = she reads, she's reading
is	past	ni skribis = we wrote; tu parolis = you talked
os	future	vu drinkos = you will drink; me pensos = I will think;

There are no irregular verbs in Ido.

The plural

It is easily formed by taking off the ending o and replacing it with the plural ending i

foresto = forest – foresti = forests; arboro = tree – arbori = trees

Numbers

0 = zero	4 = quar	8 = ok	12 = dek-e-du	40 = quaradek	1000 = mil
1 = un	5 = kin	9 = non	15 = dek-e-kin	100 = cent	1000000 = miliono
2 = du	6 = sis	10 = dek	20 = duadek	200 = duacent
3 = tri	7 = sep	11 = dek-e-un	30 = triadek	300 = triacent

Common phrases

Saluto! = Hello!; Quale tu standas? = How are you?; Danko! = Thank you!; Til rivido! = See you!

Ido on Internet