he, i, je, ke, le, me, ne, o, pe, qe, re, se, te, u, ve, we, xe, ye, ze. Pronunciation The c has the same pronunciation as the digraph ch; both are pronounced as in English words like chalk or chimney, and in borrowed Italian words like ciao or bocconcini, never with the 'k' sound in care or the 's' sound in certain. The g always has the “hard” pronunciation of get or good, never the “soft” pronunciation of gem or giant. The s is always unvoiced, never pronounced with the 'z' sound in rose or the 'zh' sound in leisure. Other letters, including the vowels, are pronounced as in Esperanto. Words with the letters q (not pronounced 'kjoo' but as in English 'qu') and x (pronounced 'ks' without an initial vowel) may optionally be spelled with kw and ks, respectively. Each letter is always spoken in the same way, except that final h is silent in a few borrowed words like pashah, muftih, kadih, papah, mamah. Spelling All words are written with initial small letters (minuscules), except for proper nouns and the first word of a sentence. Stress Words ending in a vowel have a stress accent on the second-last syllable. Words ending in a consonant have a stress accent on the last syllable. The plural -s or -os does not affect the stress accent. In the combinations uo, au and eu, the vowels are to be pronounced separately, not as diphthongs. Nevertheless, the stress accent does not fall on the u in these vowel combinations. Grammar The articles are invariable: lo (the): lo frato, lo soro, lo arbro → l'arbro un (a/an): un arbro Adjectives end in a and are invariable: un bona soro, un bona frato, lo bona fratos (no s added to lo, nor to bona) Adverbs end in e and are invariable: bon → bone Singular nouns end in o, which can be dropped, as long as the pronunciations remain very easy. Plural nouns end in os. arbro, frat(o), sor(o), arbros There is also the pronoun ziel for mixed-sex group. Mi vidar te = I see you Tu vidar me = You see me Verbs: Present: ar → mi vidar (I see) Past: ir → mi vidir (I saw/have seen) Future: or → mi vidor (I will see) Conditional: ur → mi vidur (I would see) Imperative/infinitive: iu or u (the latter for polysyllabic verbs)