Part 9
Common errors
The phrase has few rules, so its errors are few, repeated, and easy to name. These seven cover nearly everything a learner writes wrong in a noun phrase.
Error 1two quantity markers
Wrong: *wi lo melu intended as "the two friends."
One phrase, one quantity claim. The numeral carries it: wi melu. The same repair serves every pairing: sheloi lo melu becomes sheloi melu, theula lo melu becomes theula melu. English layers its quantity words; Phi elects one.
Error 2a classifier on a quantifier
Wrong: *sheloi himo melu intended as "many people who are friends."
Classifiers ride on counts, and a quantifier judges instead of counting. sheloi melu says many friends complete. When the human category itself needs saying, count: ta shao himo melu, or give the category its own sentence.
Error 3the classifier inside the number
Wrong: *ta himo shao melu intended as "exactly three friends, classified."
The number expression finishes before the classifier begins: ta shao himo melu. However many words the count takes, it is one block, and the classifier waits at its end.
Error 4the scrambled possessor
Wrong: *serao mia shelu intended as "my old book."
The possessor leads the phrase: mia serao shelu. The canonical order is not a style preference; each position means something, and a possessor placed mid-phrase reads as a different structure, not an elegant emphasis. Emphasis belongs to the focus particle or a clause of its own.
Error 5the approximate count read as exact
Wrong for the claim: shao kerou reported after a careful tally of three.
Bare shao claims a scale, roughly a three-group. The tally licenses the exact form: ta shao kerou. Both phrases are honest; each belongs to a different state of knowledge, and swapping them misreports what you know.
Error 6ha worn as "the"
Wrong for the meaning: ha shelu for every definite book, near or far, present or absent.
ha points at what is near or current; it is not an article with a Phi accent. The book across the room takes ra shelu; the book identified by ownership takes mia shelu; the book already under discussion is usually just shelu, context doing what context does. Point when pointing is true, and let the bare noun carry the rest.
Error 7themo for everything physical
Wrong for the category: *wi themo luphore intended as "two rivers."
themo covers detached and crafted objects: stones, baskets, books, tools. A river, a cloud, or the rain is physical without being that kind of thing, and the counting pamphlet's nature-now drills settle each case. When the category is unclear or beside the point, the best classifier is none: wi luphore counts the rivers perfectly.