GLOTOIDA

Tense & Aspect

Glotoid verbs do not differentiate absolute tense. Their forms stay the same whether the action happens in the past, present, or future. We can infer tense by specifying the actual time.

Me'ai
1SG-∈
dromos.
run
'I ran / (will) run.'

Me'ai
1SG-∈
dromose
run-ᴄᴏɴs
hestera.
yesterday
'I ran yesterday.'

Me'ai
1SG-∈
dromose
run-ᴄᴏɴs
krasta.
tomorrow
'I will run tomorrow.'

Chronology

We can also talk about a sequence of events using ante, sin, and poste.

ante : before
sin : during, when, while
poste : after

Me'ai
1SG-∈
fagos'
eat
ante
before
biblio
book-ɢᴇɴ
leksos'
read
'I eat (breakfast) before reading a book.'

Me'ai
1SG-∈
himo
clothes-ɢᴇɴ
katarogenos'
clean-ᴄᴀᴜ
poste
after
biblio
book-ɢᴇɴ
leksos'
read
'I do laundry after reading a book.'

Me'ai
1SG-∈
himo
clothes-ɢᴇɴ
katarogenos'
clean-ᴄᴀᴜ
sin
during
musiko
music-ɢᴇɴ
akustos'
listen
'I do laundry while listening to some music.'

We can also use ante, sin, and poste to mark prospective (thing yet to come), progressive (things currently on-going), and perfect aspects (things already finished).

Me'ai
1SG-∈
ante
before
biblio
book-ɢᴇɴ
leksos'
read
sin 7.30.
at 7.30
'I hadn't read a book yet at 7.30.'

Me'ai
1SG-∈
sin
during
biblio
book-ɢᴇɴ
leksos'
read
sin 8.30.
at 8.30
'I was reading a book at 8.30.'

Me'ai
1SG-∈
poste
after
biblio
book-ɢᴇɴ
leksos'
read
sin 9.30.
at 9.30
'I have finished reading a book at 9.30.'

We can further specify proximity with kuasi (almost), inception with eise (become, into), and recentness with neo (new), but these are rarely used.

kuasi : just about to start
eise : starts to
neo : just started
post'eise : has started
kuasi poste : just about to finish
eise poste : finishes
neo poste : just finished

Conditionals and Hypothetical Scenarios

Conditional statements in the form of "if A, then B" can be expressed with amfo sin 'whenever, anytime when' or sekua sin 'next time when'.

Me'ai
1SG-∈
magiros'
cook
sekua sin
next time when
tu'ai
2sg-∈
fago-
eat
telosa.
want
'I will cook if you want to eat (next time, I promise).'
Me'ai
1SG-∈
non
NEG
nautos'
drive
amfo sin
whenever
me'ai
1sg-∈
ebriosa.
intoxicated
'I don't drive if I'm drunk (ever)'

Hypothetical unreal statements in the form of "if A had happened, then B would've happened (but A didn't actually happen)" can be expressed with kuasi 'almost' and kuasi eise 'almost become' at the verb of the hypothetical condition and hypothetical outcome.

Me'ai
1SG-∈
kuasi eise
almost become
fagos'
eat
sin
when
bromat'ai
food-∈
kuasi
almost
ontosa.
exist
'I would've eaten if there was food (but there was no food).'