modal ? cu'e is a tense/modal question (meaning it takes the place of a fully-specified modal/tense). Specifically, it turns the entire bridi into a question, and requests that the listener provide a tense/modal as an answer. The tense/modal response fills the place where cu'e was in the original bridi and the resulting bridi is the answer offered to the question. To indicate that there is no value that could make that bridi true, use {fi'o me zi'o}. A more extreme rejection of the presuppositions or implicatures involved in a question is to reply with {na'i}.
do cu'e se bangu la .lojban.
When did you use Lojban?
.i doi .kapos. do cu'e tadni la .lojban.
Kapos, when have you previously/are you currently/will you study Lojban?
It is nigh impossible to translate this word into English without using at least three sentences.
A time tense, referring to current space/time absolutely. This tense is used to refer to the current time/space and ignores ki and any tenses used already. It is not grammatical to combine nau with any other cmavo in a tense, except by way of a logical or non-logical connection.
ni'o nau djedi li bi fa lo mi nu spofu bu'u lo kutytu'a
It is now eight days I have been broken down in the desert.
A time tense relation/direction. The meaning as a sumtcita is that the main bridi happens after the attached sumti. Defaults to a perspective of future-tense, and can be used with a meaning similar to future-tense in natural languages, or as "after".
.i xu ro cmene be lo gugde ba se vasru la jbovlaste
Will every country name be in Jbovlaste?
A time tense relation/direction. The meaning as a sumtcita is that the main bridi happens simultaneous to the attached sumti. Defaults to a perspective of present-tense, and can be used with a meaning similar to present-tense in natural languages, or as "concurrent with" or "at the same time as".
.i la .ko'an. ca tcidu fi le lojbo gerna
Kohan is reading about Lojban grammar.
.i pilno so'i denpa bu .i xu mi ca jimpe
It uses many full-stops. Do I understand?
before — A time tense relation/direction. The meaning as a sumtcita is that the main bridi happens before the attached sumti. Defaults to a perspective of past-tense, and can be used with a meaning similar to past-tense in natural languages, or as "before".
mi pu zi dunda lo ropno rupnu be li re no la .djef.leit. noi finti la purmo noi me la .nintendon.dys. selkei
I gave twenty euros to Jeff Lait, the creator of POWDER, which is a game for the Nintendo DS.
.i do pu cusku lu la cizra cu palci li'u
You said, 'The Strange One is evil'."
Set tense default. Establishes attached cmavo as time, space, and/or modal reference point for following bridi, until end of text or the tense is reset.
"tense default — tense/modal: set/use tense default; establishes new open scope space/time/modal reference base --"
A cmavo compound time tense relation/direction. Asks with what the main bridi is concurrent to, similar to English "when?".
do mo'u cilre fo le balcu'e ca ma
When will or did you graduate from Uni?