What I will describe here is some of the grammar of Volapük, as described in the books on the language in my possession (Hand-Book of Volapük, by Charles E. Sprague, Dictionary of Volapük, by M. W. Wood, M.D., and Comprehensive Volapük Grammar, by Alfred A. Post). (All of these were published about 100 years ago, so they're kind of hard to come by.) Note also that these all describe the original version of Volapük, and don't include any modifications done later.
The consonants of Volapük are pretty much as in English, except for the following differences:
c is pronounced as j in jet g is pronounced as g in get j is pronounced as sh in she z is pronounced as ts in gets
The vowels in Volapük are pretty much as in German.
Words are accented on the final syllable, but some of the endings don't count for this, so they don't change the accentuation of the words. (These will be pointed out as they appear.)
There are four cases in Volapük : the Nominative (kimfal), Accusative (kimifal), Dative (kimefal), and Genitive (kimafal).
1 bal 2 tel 3 kil 4 pol 5 lul 6 mäl 7 vel 8 jöl 9 zül 10 bals 11 balsebal 12 balsetel 100 tum 200 teltum
Verb tenses are shown by prefixing vowels to the root, as follows:
imperfect ä- perfect e- pluperfect i- future o- future perfect u-
The passive voice prefixes a P to the prefixes:
passive imperfect pä- passive perfect pe- passive pluperfect pi- passive future po- passive future perfect pu-
Modes of verbs are shown by adding suffixes to the root:
subjunctive -la (this is one of the suffixes I referred to earlier that keeps a hyphen and doesn't change the accentuation) conditional öv imperative öd infinitive ön participial öl
Click here to see a completely conjugated verb.
First comes the subject, followed by any modifiers in order of importance.
Next comes the verb, followed by any qualifiers.
Next comes the object of the verb, followed by its modifiers.
The direct object comes before the indirect object, unless the latter is a single pronoun.
Adverbs of time come immediately after the verb.
A noun in the possessive case follows the governing noun.