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Emoji Language Beginner Lessons

This lesson is part of a series that teaches the basics of the Emoji Language.


Lesson Two: Where do you live?

Talking about places and asking your first question.

Text

Ann: 🙂

Bob: 🙂

Ann: 🏡 👆 📍🇵🇰🇺🇸🇷🇺🇮🇸🇨🇭🏙️

Ann: 🏡 👇 ❔📍

Bob: 🏡 👆 📍🇺🇸🇲🇽🇨🇭🇹🇷🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿🇷🇺🇩🇰🇺🇸🇲🇽🏙️

Interlinear Translation

Ann:
🙂
be.happy[PRS]
Nice to meet you.
Bob:
🙂
be.happy[PRS]
Nice to meet you.
Ann:
🏡
dwell[PRS]
👆
1SG[NOM]
📍🇵🇰🇺🇸🇷🇺🇮🇸🇨🇭🏙️
at-"PARIS"-city
I live in Paris.
Ann:
🏡
dwell[PRS]
👇
2SG[NOM]
❔📍
what-place
Where do you live?
Bob:
🏡
dwell[PRS]
👆
1SG[NOM]
📍🇺🇸🇲🇽🇨🇭🇹🇷🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿🇷🇺🇩🇰🇺🇸🇲🇽🏙️
at-"AMSTERDAM"-city
I live in Amsterdam.

New Vocabulary

🙂 v. to be happy about sth.
🏡 v. to live, to dwell
👇 pp. you, your (singular)
📍 pref. at (prefix, also: place, location)
🏙️ n. city, town
pref. interrogative prefix (used to form various types of questions)

Explanation

In this dialogue, flag spelling is used to refer to proper names of cities. Flag spelling can be used to refer to anything that has a name, and to reduce ambiguity, a noun is appended that describes what type of entity is being named: In this case a city (🏙️).

In places where English usually has prepositions, Emoji Language typically uses prefixes that are put directly in front of nouns (without spacing). In this case the locative prefix 📍 ("at") indicates that the location of the described action (🏡 – living) is about to follow.

The interrogative prefix () can be used to form questions. Forming questions is easy, because the word order stays the same as in normal sentences. In this case, we're asking for a location, literally "what place". (Sections 5.3 and 5.4 of the grammar describe more ways how the interrogative prefix can be used.)

Exercise

  1. Ask your partner where they live and respond to each other. Use flag spelling as in the example sentence above.

View the solutions to the exercises or continue with the ⏩ next lesson.


Copyright © 2021 by Thomas Heller [ˈtoːmas ˈhɛlɐ]