LFN has an analytic grammar and resembles the grammars of languages such as the Haitian Creole, Papiamento, and Afrikaans. On the other hand, it uses a vocabulary drawn from several modern romance languages – Portuguese, Spanish, Catalan, French, and Italian.
Complete grammars are available on the official website in several languages: LFN, German, English, Spanish, Esperanto, French, Italian, Polish, Russian, Finnish.
Word order
LFN has a fairly strict word order. The general word order is:
subject noun phrase — verb phrase (— object noun phrase) Joan core — "John runs" Maria oia Joan — "Maria hears John"
A noun phrase has this order:
(determiners —) (quantifiers —) noun (— adjectives) La tre omes grande... — "The three large men..." La multe femes peti... — "The many small women..."
A verb phrase has this order:
(tense/mood —) verb (— adverb) ...ia come rapida — "...ate quickly..." ...va come lente — "...will eat slowly..."
A prepositional phrase generally follows what it modifies, and has this order:
preposition — noun phrase ...en la cosina — "...in the kitchen" ...pos medianote — "...after midnight"
Nouns
The roles of nouns in a sentence are indicated through prepositions and word order. There are no cases.
Nouns are commonly preceded by determiners. Plural nouns are formed by appending -s to nouns ending in vowels or -es to nouns ending in consonants. This does not alter the stress: casa > casas — house > houses fem > femes — woman > women
Mass nouns include liquids, powders, and substances, such as acua (water), arena (sand), and lenio (wood). They do not normally require determiners or the plural. However, one may add these to indicate specific examples or different types: la acua — the water (e.g. in the cup) lenios — woods (e.g. various kinds)
Gender is typically not indicated. If necessary, nouns may be followed by mas (male) or fema (female): un cavalo mas / un cavalo fema — a stallion / a mare
A few terms for family members and traditional roles do show distinctions of gender. For example: madre / padre — mother / father fio / fia — son / daughter prinse / prinsesa — prince / princess
A noun can be made into an abstract noun by adding -ia (-ity, -ness, -ship, -hood). In this way madre (mother) becomes madria (motherhood).
Apposition — the use of one noun to modify another — is mostly limited to names and titles: san Josef — Saint Joseph mea sore Maria — my sister Mary
Determiners
Determiners in LFN precede the noun they modify. There are two articles: la (the) and un (a), used as in English: la om, un fem, e enfantes — the man, a woman, and children
Other words function similarly: {| style="width: 90%" |- | style="width: 45%" | tota — all ambos — both esta — this, these acel — that, those cada — every, each cualce — whatever, whichever alga — some, several, a few no — no, zero || multe — many, much poca — few, little plu — more min — less, fewer otra — other mesma — same tal — such
In addition, numbers and possessive determiners (see below) are also used.
There is a default order of determiners, but variations are acceptable as long as the meaning is clear: tota, ambos la, esta, acel alga, cada, cualce mea, tua... un, du, tre... multe, poca, plu, min otra, mesma, tal bon, mal
Pronouns
Personal pronouns are invariant: {| style="width: 90%" |- | style="width: 45%" | me — I, me tu — you (singular) el — she, her, he, him lo — it on – one || nos — we, us vos — you (plural) los — they, them
El is used for people and higher animals. Its use can be extended metaphorically to lower animals, robots, the moon, hurricanes, etc. Lo is used for things, simple animals, plants, ideas, etc. The exact dividing line is left to the speaker.
There is an indefinite pronoun on, which is used like German "man" or French "on": On debe segue la regulas — "One must follow the rules."
There are no gender distinctions between "he" and "she". If gender is significant, one can use words like la fem, la om, la fia, la fio, la fema, la mas (the woman, the man, the daughter, the son, the female, the male), etc, or gender-irrelevant terms such as la plu grande, la carnor, or la otra (the bigger one, the butcher, the other one).
Unlike in the Romance languages, there is no polite/impolite contrast for the second person: tu is always used for the singular, vos always for the plural.
The reflexive pronouns are also me, nos, tu, and vos. For the third person, singular and plural, LFN uses se: Me ia lava me — "I washed myself." El ama se — "He loves himself," "She loves herself."
The possessive determiners are mea, nosa, tua, and vosa. Sua is used for all third persons: Tua gato es ala — "Your cat is over there." Tu es sempre en mea mente — "You are always in my mind."
For the possessive pronouns, LFN uses the possessive determiners, preceded by la: La mea es plu grande ca la tua — "Mine is bigger than yours."
Other pronouns include the following: {| style="width: 90%" |- | style="width: 45%" | ci — who cadun — everyone, everybody algun — someone, somebody cualcun — anyone, anybody nun — no one, nobody esta — this one estas — these ones acel — that one aceles — those ones multe — much, many | cual — what cada cosa — everything alga cosa — something cualce cosa — anything, whatever no cosa — nothing esta — this (thing) estas — these (things) acel — that (thing) aceles — those (things) poca — little, few
Verbs
There are no conjugations of verbs in LFN. The basic form remains the same regardless of person, number, tense, mood, aspect, etc.
The present tense is represented by the verb by itself: La om come — "The man eats", "The man is eating."
The present tense is also used to indicate habitual actions and states, facts of nature, mathematics, or logic, and as a "historical" tense, such as when relating a story that has been clearly established as occurring in the past: La sol leva en la este — "The sun rises in the east." Me labora a la universia — "I work at the university."
The past tense is indicated by the particle ia: Maria ia come — "Maria ate," "Maria has eaten."
The future tense is indicated by the particle va: Joan va come pronto — "John will eat soon."
The particle ta indicates the irrealis mood and can be used where other languages might use a conditional or subjunctive mood. Its use is optional: Me ia duta ce el ta vole vade — "I doubted that he would want to go." Me ta es felis si la sol ta brilia — "I would be happy if the sun were shining."
One combination ― ia ta ― is used to express "would have": Me ia ta es un bon re ― "I would have been a good king."
Certain adverbs and verbal constructions add precision to the tenses: Me come aora ― "I am eating now." Me ia come ja ― "I ate already", "I have eaten", "I had eaten." Me va come a pos ― "I will eat afterwards." Me ia fini leje la libro ― "I (have) finished reading the book." Doman, me va comensa leje un otra ― "Tomorrow, I will begin to read another."
Negation is indicated by putting no before the tense particle or (in the present tense) the verb. Double negatives should be avoided: El no ia pensa ce algun ia es asi ― "He didn't think anyone was here."
Commands are indicated by dropping the subject pronoun. Hortative sentences include the subject, but are preceded by ta ce ("would that..."): Boli la acua! ― "Boil the water!" Ta ce nos dansa! ― "Let's dance!" "Shall we dance?" Ta ce tu pasa la sal, per favore? — "Pass the salt, please."
Lo and on are used as dummy pronouns before verbs that refer to weather or other general situations: Lo va pluve ― "It's going to rain." Lo es tro calda en esta sala ― "It is too hot in this room." (Or Esta sala es tro calda) Lo pare ce tu es coreta ― "It seems that you are correct." On no ave pexes en esta lago ― "There aren't fish in this lake." (Or Esta lago no ave pexes)
A verb that is fundamentally intransitive may be used as a transitive causal verb by moving the original subject to the object position, and adding a new subject: La acua ia boli ― "The water boiled" > Me ia boli la acua ― "I boiled the water." La porte ia abri ― "The door opened" > Me ia abri la porte ― "I opened the door."
The infinitive is identical to the basic form of the verb. It acts like an abstract noun, but accepts an object or an adverb. It can appear as a subject or an object of the verb, and it has no determiner: Leje xines es difisil ― "Reading Chinese is difficult." Nos ia nesesa come rapida. ― "We needed to eat quickly." Los gusta dansa. ― "They like to dance," "They like dancing."
In LFN, verbs often come in pairs. The first verb is like the modal verb in English. However, the idea goes beyond modals to include "attitudinal" verbs such as finje (pretend) and pare (seem). The second verb is simply the infinitive, as in English: Me va atenta vola doman. ― "I will try to fly tomorrow." On debe brosi la dentes a cada dia. ― "One should (ought to) brush one's teeth every day."
A verb can be used as a noun, known as a verbal noun, without change by adding la or other determiner. It represents a particular occurrence of the verb: La samba es un dansa. ― "The samba is a dance." Do es la dansa? ― "Where is the dance?" Mea pronunsia de xines es riable ― "My pronunciation of chinese is laughable."
Verbs can be made into adjectives: The active participle is formed by adding -nte to the verb. For example, come becomes comente, meaning "eating". This should never be used as a gerund, as it often is in English (e.g. "I love eating” is ‘’me ama come’’).
The active participle as an adjective can take an object. Joan es la om comente spageti. ― "John is the man eating spaghetti." Alternatively: Joan es la om ci come spageti ― "John is the man who eats spaghetti."
One can emphasize the idea that the subject is in the midst of an activity or process (the progressive aspect) using the active participle. Or one can use expressions such as en la media de: Nos ia es comente cuando la tempesta ia comensa ― "We were eating when the storm began." Nos ia es en la media de come cuando la tempesta ia comensa ― "We were in the middle of eating when the storm began."
The passive participle is formed by adding -da to the verb. For example, come becomes comeda, meaning "eaten". This should not be confused with the past tense (me ia ama la pan is "I loved the bread").
The passive participle can be used to express the passive voice. Or one can usa a generic subject pronoun instead: Si tu no asconde la torta, lo va es comeda ― "If you don't hide the cake, it will be eaten." Si tu no asconde la torta, algun va come lo ― "If you don't hide the cake, someone will eat it."
Subject complements are introduced by es or verbs such as pare (seem) and deveni (become): La fem ia es bela. — "The woman was beautiful." Me va deveni un psicolojiste — "I will become a psychologist."
Object complements are introduced by the preposition a: Me ia pinta la casa a roja. — "I painted the house red." Los ia eleje el a presidente. — "They elected him president."
Adjectives
Adjectives follow the noun they modify, with two exceptions: bon (good) and mal (bad) may come before the noun, due to their frequent use.
Unlike the natural Romance languages, adjectives in LFN do not have gender or plural forms, i.e. they don't "agree" with the nouns they describe.
The comparative is made with plu (more) or min (less). "The most" is la plu and "the least" is la min: Jan es plu bon ca Jo, ma Jil es la plu bon. ― "Jan is better than Jo, but Jill is the best."
Equivalence is indicated with tan... como: Marco es tan grande como Mona. ― "Mark is as big as Mona."
Like verbs, adjectives can be used as nouns. For example, bela means "beautiful", but un bela means "a beautiful one" or "a beauty." This works with participles, too: la studiante and la studiada mean "the student" and "the studied," respectively, from the verb studia, "study."