Editing Loglan (section)

=== Predicate modifiers ===
Any predicate can be used as an adjective or adverb by placing the predicate before the expression that it modifies. The predicate "sadji" means "X is wiser than Y about Z". So "Le sadji matma pa vedma" means "The wise mother sold", and "Le matma vedma pa sadji" means "The motherly seller was wise". Predicates can be used adverbially to modify the main predicate in the sentence in the same way. So "Le matma pa sadji vedma" means "The mother wisely sold". The structure word "go" can be used to invert the normal word order, so that the modifier follows the expression being modified. Thus "le matma go sadji" (the mother who is wise) means the same as "le sadji matma" (the wise mother).

A string of more than two predicates is [[left-associative]]. This grouping can be changed by using the structure word "ge", which groups what follows into a single unit. Thus Loglan can distinguish between the many possible meanings of the ambiguous English phrase "the pretty little girls' school", as in these examples:
* "le bilti cmalo nirli ckela" = the ((pretty little) girls') school<br/>the school for girls who are beautifully small;
* "le bilti cmalo ge nirli ckela" = the (pretty little) (girls' school)<br/>the school that is beautifully small for a girls' school;
* "le bilti ge cmalo nirli ckela" = the pretty ((little girls') school)<br/>the school that is beautiful for a small-girls' school;
* "le bilti ge cmalo ge nirli ckela" = the pretty (little (girls' school))<br/>the school that is beautiful for a small type of girls'-school.

Predicates can be modified to indicate the time at which something occurred (English [[Grammatical tense|tense]]) with the optional structure words "na" (present), "pa" (past) and "fa" (future). Thus "Le matma na vedma" means "The mother is (now) selling", while "Le matma fa vedma" means "The mother will sell". Marking the verb for tense is optional, so the word "ga" can be used when the time is not being specified. So "Le matma ga vedma" means "The mother sells (at some unspecified time in the past, present or future)".