Editing Bislama (section)

==Grammar==
Two frequent words in Bislama are "long" and "blong", which take the place of many prepositions in English or French.

==="Long"===
*''Long'' as 'next to', 'by', 'beside' etc.
*;Stoa long haos: The store next to the house.
*''long'' as 'at' or 'to'
*;Mi bin stap long ples ia bifo: I have been to this place before.
*;Mi stap long stoa: I am at the store.
*''long'' as 'in'
*;Jea long haos: The chair in the house.

''Long'' holds many other related meanings, and is sometimes used in improvisation.

==="Blong"===
Originally from the English word "belong", ''blong'' takes the place of 'of' or the genitive case in other languages. Just like ''of'' in English, it is one of the most widely used and versatile words in the language, and can indicate possession, country of origin, defining characteristics, intention, and others.

;Buk blong mi: The book that belongs to me, my book
;Man blong Amerika: Man from America, American.
;Hemi woman blong saiens: She is a woman of science, She is a scientist.
;Man blong dring: Man of drinking i.e. a drinker

===Verbs===
Verbs in Bislama usually consist of a stem word (borrowed from English, French or indigenous languages); most [[transitive verb]]s add to this a transitive suffix.

The form of that suffix is /-em/, /-im/, or /-um/, depending on [[vowel harmony]]. If the last vowel of the verb's stem is either -u- or -i-, then that vowel will normally be copied into the transitive suffix – however, there are rare exceptions. For all other stem vowels, the transitive suffix has its default form /-em/:<ref>https://www.livelingua.com/course/peace-corps/Bislama_Handbook, p. 71</ref>

{| class="wikitable"
|+ Morphology of transitive verb endings
! English !! colspan="2" | Bislama
|-
! etymon !! stem !! verb
|-
| ''dig'' || ''dig-'' || ''dig'''i'''m''
|-
| ''clean'' || ''klin-'' || ''klin'''i'''m''
|-
| ''kiss'' || ''kis-'' || ''kis'''i'''m''
|-
| ''put'' || ''put-'' || ''put'''u'''m''
|-
| ''pull'' || ''pul-'' || ''pul'''u'''m''
|-
| ''cook'' || ''kuk-'' || ''kuk'''u'''m''
|-
| ''want'' || ''wand-'' || ''wand'''e'''m''
|-
| ''hear'' || ''har-'' || ''har'''e'''m'' 'hear, feel'
|-
| ''tell'' || ''tal-'' || ''tal'''e'''m'' 'tell, say'
|-
| ''sell'' || ''sal-'' || ''sal'''e'''m''
|-
| ''shut'' || ''sat-'' || ''sar'''e'''m''
|-
| ''catch'' || ''kas-'' || ''kas'''e'''m'' 'get, reach'
|-
| ''carry'' || ''kar-'' || ''kar'''e'''m'' 'carry, bring'
|-
| ''ready'' || ''rere'' 'ready' || ''rer'''e'''m'' 'prepare'
|-
| ''take'' || ''tek-'' || ''tek'''e'''m''
|-
| ''find'' || ''faen-'' || ''faen'''e'''m''
|-
| ''call'' || ''kol-'' || ''kol'''e'''m''
|-
| ''hold'' || ''hol-'' || ''hol'''e'''m''
|-
| ''follow'' || ''fol-'' || ''fol'''e'''m''
|-
| ''show'' || ''so-'' || ''so'''e'''m''
|-
| ''look out'' || ''lukaot-'' || ''lukaot'''e'''m'' 'search'
|-
| ''pay'' || ''pe-'' || ''p'''e'''m'' 'buy'
|}

Exceptions exist, such as ''luk'''i'''m'' ("look").

Examples of transitive verbs which exceptionally ''don't'' take this suffix include: ''kakae'' 'eat, bite'; ''trink'' 'drink'; ''save'' 'know'; ''se'' 'say'.

Verbs do not conjugate. The [[tense, aspect and mood]] of a sentence are indicated with markers such as ''stap'', ''bin'' and ''bae'' that are placed in the sentence.

;Mi '''stap''' kakae taro: I'm eating taro
;Mi '''bin''' kakae taro: I have eaten taro
;'''Bae''' mi kakae taro: I will eat taro

===Nouns===
The plural is formed by putting ''ol'' before the word. For example, ''bia'' 'beer'; ''ol bia'' = "beers". ''Ol'' comes from the English "all". When used with numbers, the singular form is used. 2 bia, 3 bia, etc.

===Pronouns===
[[File:Trilingual warning signs in Vanuatu.jpg|thumb|Pronouns on warning signs in Vanuatu]]
The [[personal pronoun]]s of Bislama closely resemble those of [[Tok Pisin]]. They feature four grammatical numbers (singular, dual, trial and plural) and also encode the [[clusivity]] distinction: 1st person non-singular pronouns (equivalent of English ''we'') are described as ''inclusive'' if they include the addressee (i.e. {you + I}, {you + I + others}), but ''exclusive'' otherwise (i.e. {I + other people}). Bislama pronouns do not [[Grammatical case|decline]].

{| class="wikitable"
|+ personal pronouns of Bislama
|-
! colspan="2" | 
! singular
! dual
! trial
! plural
|-
! rowspan="2" | 1st person
! <small>inclusive</small>
| -
| yumitu
| yumitri
| yumi
|-
! <small>exclusive</small>
| mi
| mitufala
| mitrifala
| mifala
|-
! colspan="2" | 2nd person
| yu
| yutufala
| yutrifala
| yufala
|-
! colspan="2" | 3rd person
| hem<br />em
| tufala<br />tugeta
| trifala<br />trigeta
| ol<br />olgeta
|}

The third person singular ''hem'', also written ''em'' lacks gender distinction, so it can mean either he, she or it. The [[predicate (grammar)|predicate]] marker '''i''' – a particle which is placed before the [[verbal phrase]] of a sentence – is sometimes merged with the third person pronoun, giving the words '''hemi''' and '''emi''', respectively, in singular, and '''oli''' in plural.<ref>https://www.livelingua.com/course/peace-corps/Bislama_Handbook, p. 11-13, 49 and 57</ref>

===Tense/aspect/mood markers===
*'''stap''' + V : ([[Progressive aspect|progressive]]) ongoing or habitual action
*;hem i stap kukum kumala: or:
:;hemi stap kukum kumala: he/she is cooking sweet potatoes
*'''bin''' + V : [[past tense]] (with implication that the state is no longer true)
*;hem i bin sik long fiva: she was sick with fever [but is no longer sick]
*V + '''finis''' : ([[Perfective aspect|perfective]]) "already" (when placed at the end of a phrase; elsewhere it means "finish")
*;hem i kakae finis: she has already eaten
*'''bae''' + V (occasionally '''bambae'''): ([[irrealis]]) future or hypothetical actions (though, like in English, generally not used in [[conditional sentences]])
*;bae mi go long Santo: I will go to Santo
*;{{Transliteration|bi|italic=no|sipos plen i no bin fulap, bae mi go long Santo}}: If the plane hadn't been full, I would have gone to Santo
*'''no''' + V : negative, "not"
*;hem i no wantem yam: he doesn't want yam
*'''nomo''' + V: "no longer" (when placed after the predicate; elsewhere it means "only")
*;hem i nomo kakae yam: he no longer eats yam
*;hem i kakae yam nomo: he only eats yam
*'''neva''' + V : never
*;hem i neva kakae yam: he's never eaten yam
*'''jes''' + V : (<"just") an action that has recently occurred
*;{{Transliteration|bi|italic=no|mifala i jes wekap}}: we just woke up
*In a future context, ''jes'' entails a delay, rendered in English as "eventually":
*;bae mi pem: I will buy it / Let me buy it
*;bae mi jes pem, be noyet: I will buy it (eventually), but not yet
*V + '''gogo''' : continued action
*;hem i kukum kumala gogo: he keeps on cooking sweet potatoes
*'''mas''' + V : "must", be obliged to
*;hem i mas kakae: he must eat
*'''traem''' + V : "try to"; also sometimes used for politeness in requests
*;hem i stap traem katem: he's trying to cut it
*;traem soem long mi: could you show it me? (request)
*'''wantem''' + V : "want to"
*;hem i wantem go long Santo: she wants to go to Santo
*'''save''' + V : be able to, or be in the habit of doing
*;mi save rid: I can read
*;mi no save dring suga: I don't take sugar in drinks
*;fish ia i save kilim man: this fish can kill a person

Some of these markers also have lexical meanings. For example, ''save'' can mean "be able to" but it is also a verb "know".

=== Subordination ===
*'''sapos''' + Clause : if
;{{Transliteration|bi|italic=no|sapos yumitu faenem pig, bae yumitu kilim i ded}}: if we find a pig, we'll kill it