Editing Loglan (section)

=== Free variables ===
A set of structure words called ''free variables'' are used like English pronouns, but are designed to avoid the ambiguity of pronouns in such sentences as "Adam told Greg that he needed to leave." The free variable "da" refers to the most recently mentioned noun, "de" refers to the one mentioned prior to that, "di" to the one prior to that, and so on. Compare the sentences
* "La Adam pa vedma le negda la Greg i '''da''' gacpi" = Adam sold the egg to Greg; '''he''' (Greg) was happy.
* "La Adam pa vedma le negda la Greg i '''di''' gacpi" = Adam sold the egg to Greg; '''he''' (Adam) was happy.
Free variables apply equally to people of any gender and inanimate objects; there is no distinction similar to that between English "he", "she" and "it". This explains why "di" rather than "de" was used in the second example. "La Adam pa vedma le negda la Greg i '''de''' gacpi" would mean "Adam sold the egg to Greg; '''it''' (the egg) was happy."