"anu seme" vs "(verb) ala (verb)"

Language learning: How to speak Toki Pona, translation problems, advice, memory aids, tools and methods to learn Toki Pona and other languages faster
Lingva lernado: Kiel paroli Tokiponon, tradukproblemoj, konsiloj, memoraj helpiloj, iloj kaj metodoj por pli rapide lerni Tokiponon kaj aliajn lingvojn
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jan Oma
Posts: 7
Joined: Mon Feb 09, 2015 1:21 pm

"anu seme" vs "(verb) ala (verb)"

Post by jan Oma »

I'm not understanding the difference between the two ways of posing yes/no questions. Do they come with different implications? Like, is "anu seme" impolite? I'm just not understanding what purpose the verb doubling method serves. Is there really no difference?
janKipo
Posts: 3064
Joined: Fri Oct 09, 2009 2:20 pm

Re: "anu seme" vs "(verb) ala (verb)"

Post by janKipo »

Not officially, so far as I can find. The 'anu seme' seems a it more open- ended, allowing other replies than just yes and no, but I don't see that used. 'a up seme' doesn't appear to be impolite in tp, whatever the corresponding English is. The X ala X forms seems to be just a desire to stick a bit of Chinese in.
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