02
Zaka sentences
Verb last, particles after each part, and two forms for writing a sum.
Zaka follows Burmese word order: first the things the sentence talks about, then the
verb. English puts it as "show 42"; Zaka puts it as "42 show": ၄၂ ကို ပြသပါ။
The verb comes last and decides what the sentence means. A small word called a particle follows each part and tells the role of that part.
စံကား
Expected output
၇
၁၂
၅
မှန်
Read the first line one word at a time:
| Zaka | Reads as | Role |
|---|---|---|
၃ | 3 | a number |
နှင့် | "and", "with" | marks the first of two things |
၄ | 4 | a number |
၏ | "of" | marks the last of the things |
ပေါင်းလဒ် | "sum" | the verb: adds the two numbers |
ကို | (object) | marks what the next verb acts on |
ပြသပါ | "please show" | the verb: print |
။ | full stop | ends the statement |
Two kinds of verbs
- A verb that makes a value forms an expression.
ပေါင်းလဒ်(sum) andကြီး(is greater) are such verbs. An expression is something with a value, like၃ + ၄. - A verb that gives a command forms a statement.
ပြသပါ(show) is one. A statement does something and ends with။.
An expression can sit inside a statement. In ၃ နှင့် ၄ ၏ ပေါင်းလဒ် ကို ပြသပါ။, the sum is
worked out first. Then its value, ၇, takes the particle ကို and is shown.
Words or signs
Most operations can also be written with the signs from school maths. Both forms give the same result, and the two can be mixed:
စံကား
Expected output
၇
၇
၇