I'm trying to translate 'A long time ago, the roof of the building had fallen in, and a large tree had grown in the sacristry'. At the moment, I have this:
Tenpo pini suli la lawa pi tomo li pakala. Kasi suli li kama tan tomo pi ilo sewi.
Which is fine, but it doesn't suggest that the tree is also old. Saying:
Tenpo pini suli la lawa pi tomo li pakala en kasi suli li kama tan tomo pi ilo sewi.
of course isn't allowed, but gives a more precise idea of meaning. And saying:
Tenpo pini suli la lawa pi tomo li pakala. Tenpo pini suli la kasi suli li kama tan tomo pi ilo sewi.
Is ridiculous and clunky.
Any suggestions?
I'm also wondering about this:
Sina wile moku kepeken jan Alfred anu lukin e sitelen tawa kepeken mi?
Should be 'Do you want to eat with Alfred, or watch a movie with me?'. I'm not sure if my use of 'anu' is correct here - I haven't seen it used to link whole predicates before, only noun phrases.
Also something about chaining 'la' phrases:
Ken la Tenpo suli kama la mi kama suli tan tomo pi kama wawa la sina moku kepeken mi?
Looking at the rules, each use of la on its own is valid, but I haven't seen anything about chaining them together.
(Sentence should be 'Maybe, in a while, if I go to the gym, you will want to eat with me?')
Any help would be much appreciated!
Thanks all!