Part 2
Sequence: pheo and phoe
The two sequence relators are easy to swap and expensive to swap. Each one names the event it introduces, not the event it points toward. pheo introduces the earlier event, so the main clause happens after it:
pheo melu to kamo lo mia to haolu.
POST friend PST arrive PL 1SG PST speak.
phoe introduces the later reference event, so the main clause happens before it:
phoe lo mia to haolu mia to thilonu.
ANT PL 1SG PST speak 1SG PST prepare.
Hold the two sentences side by side and the discipline appears: in both, the speaking and the arriving keep their own tense marks, because each clause carries the tense appropriate to its own event. The relator supplies the relation; it is not a tense particle, and it borrows nothing from the main clause.
01Counted time
The same two words stand over a counted duration instead of a clause, and the pairing with tense is exact. phoe with a past verb reaches back:
melu phoe wi philo to kamo.
friend ANT two day PST arrive.
pheo with a future verb reaches forward:
melu pheo wi philo so kamo.
friend POST two day FUT arrive.
The past and future marks belong to kamo; the counted phrase supplies only the distance from now. It stands where adjuncts stand, before the object position, circumstances first.
Practicewhich event does the relator hold
For each item, decide whether the frame takes pheo or phoe, then build the sentence.
- First the guests come; then we cook. Frame the guests' coming.
- First I prepare; then the guests come. Frame the guests' coming.
- Say that the rain fell two days ago.
Answers: 1 pheo lo phemi shua lo mia pharelo. The coming is the earlier event, so pheo introduces it and the cooking follows. 2 phoe lo phemi shua mia thilonu. The same event is now the later reference point, so phoe introduces it and the preparing happens before it. The frame names the event it holds, not the order you happen to mention things in English. 3 pheralu phoe wi philo to lepa. phoe over the counted phrase reaches back, and past to belongs to the falling.