Below is a col­lec­tion of phras­es use­ful for start­ing or car­ry­ing on con­ver­sa­tions in Livo­ni­an.  The­se exam­ples (with the excep­tion of “hap­py birth­day”) are tak­en from the Lat­vian-Livo­ni­an-Eng­lish Phrase Book by Val­da Šuvcāne. The spelling used in the­se exam­ples, which devi­ates in small ways, was changed by me to match that used by Viit­so and Ernštre­its in the 2012 Livo­ni­an-Esto­ni­an-Lat­vian dic­tio­nary. Though record­ed sam­ples are not pro­vid­ed at this time, the Livo­ni­an writ­ing sys­tem makes it easy for non-speak­ers to make a rea­son­able attempt at pro­nounc­ing the­se phras­es. To learn more about the sound of each let­ter, please refer to the Livo­ni­an Sounds sec­tion on this site. Also remem­ber that in Livo­ni­an, as in oth­er Finnic lan­guages, pri­ma­ry stress is almost always on the first syl­la­ble of the word.

An excel­lent source for learn­ing more about every­day Livo­ni­an is the Līvõ kēļ page on face­book. That project is not asso­ci­at­ed with this site, but I high­ly rec­om­mend lik­ing Līvõ kēļ so that you can learn a new Livo­ni­an word each day along with phras­es and sug­ges­tions for expand­ing use of Livo­ni­an in every­day life.