THE DESIGN OF INTERGLOSSA

U domi; su pre gene gravito; habe mega palaeo
The house that fell down was very old
Un anthropi; su pre dicte re; non habe bio
The man who said so is dead

The relative pronoun su cannot be the object of the verb, nor can it follow a preposition-equivalent. When the relative pronoun is not the subject, no equivalent takes its place. We proceed precisely as in conversational English:

Un anthropi; mi pre vise; non habe bio
The man I saw is dead
Un anthropi; na pre dicte de; non habe bio
The man we were talking about is dead

A general formula for all types of sentence or clause is as follows:

(1) Vocative cluster (if present) followed by a colon, e.g.:
Na parenta in urani: = Our father (which art) in heaven
Pan proletari de geo: = Workers of the world
(2) Interrogative particle or imperative particle or link-word (if present).
(3) Subject cluster.
(4) Verboid cluster.
(5) Direct and Indirect Object clusters with accompanying qualifying clusters.

The rule of precedence with reference to the Direct and Indirect or Instrumental Object clusters is that the shorter of the two (with due regard to accompanying qualifying clusters) comes first, e.g.:

Fe pre dicte a mi mega longo historo
She told (to) me a very long story
Mi date credito de bibli pan amico-pe de mi
I am lending the book to all (of) my friends

The formula given above takes no stock of the internal pattern of the clusters specified, or of qualifying expressions. The rule for phrases which qualify a substantive, whether themselves substantive clusters beginning with a preposition or clusters equivalent to a participial phrase, is the same as in Anglo-American. Unlike single words which do so, each follows the substantive it qualifies, e.g.:

U palaeo gyna in horta
The old woman in the garden
U gyna, mega tem apo auto anthropi
A woman, separated a long while from her husband

A substantive cluster may be made up of the following elements in the order stated, only (2) being an obligatory constituent common to all clusters: