沃拉普克语基础教程：第五课sell语言交流

Volapük Vifik: Lärnod Lulid"It's all (or mainly) in the past..."Just in the same way as part five follows the last part of our coursein Volapük, so does one hour, one day, one week, one month, one yearsucceed the previous one. As time passes, there is no doubt whatever thatour present is becoming less and less, while our past is gradually becomingand more, and still more.
logob = I see (now)
elogob = I've seen, or I saw (a moment ago/yesterday/last week/lastmonth/last year)
In Volapük, events are considered either to be still happening,or else to have already happened within a longer or shorter time span.In order to fully appreciate all this, ideally we get into our special'time capsule' and become 'part of the action.' In fact, the word 'tense'is how we describe the 'time factor' in words called VERBS (denoting status, being, becoming or action)
In the example given above, elogob (I've seen/I saw) impinges muchmore on the present. For this reason, it is used for chatting about every-dayhappenings: it is essentially the PAST connected with the PRESENT for us.
However, there is another kind of PAST which is more remote: if we say"I saw him last year", the same excitement seems to have beenlost somewhat; perhaps it's another way of saying "I used to see him",or even "I had seen him". In fact, it is the past becoming evermore and more remote, even becoming in our judgment historical. Look atthese two examples:
Adelo logob oli = To-day I see you (now);
Klu, elogob oli = so, I've seen you! (just finished)
Ädelo älogob oli = Yesterday I saw you (at that time);
Klu, ilogob oli = I'd seen you! (over and done with)
 Do you see now the first couple refer to the 'here and now' and the'immediate past', whereas the second couple concern the more distant past?
We therefore see that the PRESENT TENSE has no initial vowel to signalthe here and now; this is reserved in modern Volapük for words whichsignify the idea of time in themselves, such as del = day in the examples.As we know already, the PRESENT PERFECT is indicated by the initial vowelE- and now we learn that the vowel Ä- indicates the PAST DEFINITE aand the vowel I- takes us still further back into the past! Again, just to recap, if the ACTOR (I/we; you, he/she; one; it/they)is doing something to the VICTIM (animate/inanimate beings or things);this is termed ACTIVE, whereas if we prefer to say "you are seen (byme)", then it is no longer active, but PASSIVE! We are familiar withthe Passive in Volapük already - now just see how all the rest followson so regularly:
Palogol (fa ob) = you are seen (by me);
Pelogol (fa ob) = you've been seen (by me);
Pälogol (fa ob) = you were seen (by me);
Pilogol (fa ob) = you had been seen (by me)
Thus does the PRESENT merge into the IMMEDIATE PAST, then into the DEFINITEPAST, and finally into the COMPLETE PAST How time flies!