lipu pi sona wiki

THIS SITE IS OUTDATED
This page was made by two_squared (jan Tu Leko) in carrd.co. (find out more info about him on squared.straw.page. If I ever get a place to publish Toki Pawole stuff to the internet, then all this info will probably move somewhere else.Toki Pawole is my conlang and tokiponido, made for international communication. lipu pi sona wiki is an online source for how to read and construct Toki Pawole sentences quickly for yourself. Learn more about Toki Pawole here.toki! lipu sisanti ni e ilo pona u sona e kanun pi toki pawole. toki pawole e toki epiku ajela a!It’s ok if you didn’t understand half of that. I was just speaking Toki Pawole, the language of infinity. lipu sona wiki is here to teach you the simple grammar of Toki Pawole quickly, in 20 simple steps.Beginner
0. speak it
1. li & e
2. modifiers
3. modifiers 2
4. questions
5. contextIntermediate
6. body parts & sensory
7. tokipawolization
8. vocab
9. preverbs
10. prepositions
11. compound sentences
🔏 12. situations and activitiesAdvanced
🔒 13. te & u
🔒 14. vocab 2
🔒 15. writing
🔒 16. numbers
🔒 17. recap
🔒 18. translationExtra!
🔒 19. writing & input systems
🔒 20. texts

Step 0: speak itToki Pawole is very different from English. In English words that are spelled similarly may be pronounced differently like, “through,” “thorough,” and “throughout,” but in Toki Pawole, words like isala, jala and kala are all pronounced similarly, because they are spelled the same.This is because in Toki Pawole, every letter can only be pronounced one way. There are strict rules for how letters can be put together, and for how they can be stressed and written. Let’s start with writing.
Toki Pawole has 14 letters.Consonants:
j, k, l, m, n, p, s, t, wVowels:
a, e, i, o, uTo write Toki Pawole using the latin alphabet, (which is also what this course is written in), you use these 14 letters. Each letter corresponds to 1 sound, and it is written left to right like English.To end sentences, you use a period, or an exclamation point. If the sentence is a question, you end it with a question mark. There are specific situations that determine whether a sentence is a question or not, which we go over in step 4.toki! mi e jan tu leko! mi li sota ita mi li wilen moku.We’re on the right track. You might notice that toki, mi and mi aren’t capitalized at the beginning of the sentence. This is because only proper names are capitalized. Pronunciation also doesn’t change when words are capitalized.toki! mi e jan Tu Leko! mi li sota ita mi li wilen moku.Commas can go after repeated sections using en, li (and its forms) or e. The commas go before each of these particles, so this would be correct:mi, en si, en on e pona, li tawa, li tawa ki poki moku, li sota, li weka.And this would be wrong:mi en, si en, on e pona li, tawa li, tawa ki poki moku li, sota li, weka.Commas also go before/after clauses, which we go over in step 5. Unlike repeated sections, there is no “correct way” to put the commas. This is correct (pay attention to ita):toki! mi e jan Tu Leko! mi li sota, ita mi li wilen moku.And this is also correct:toki! mi e jan Tu Leko! mi li sota ita, mi li wilen moku.Colons are a special one. They’re only used in the specific niche situation of ni clauses, which almost never happen. If you’re introducing a relative clause with ni, you use this.mi li pali e ni: si li pilin nasa.Finally, pi and i can be replaced with opening and closing brackets “[“ “]”, and pin and ini can be replaced with opening and closing quotation marks, but I don't recommend either of these.Oh yeah and newlines signify paragraph breaks. Now that we’re done with writing, let’s move on to pronounciation.In Toki Pawole, letters are only pronounced one way, like in the IPA. If you’re not familiar with the IPA, then good… this section is for you. If you are familiar with the IPA, then you can skip to stress patterns.Consonants:
j, k, l, m, n, p, s, t, wVowels:
a, e, i, o, up, t, k, w, s, m and n are pronounced similarly to how they are in English. The tricy one is j. j is pronounced “y” like Nordic languages and German. The vowels are pronounced much differently. When I am talking about these vowels, the first example is General American English and the second example is British English received pronunciation. If you don’t speakeither of these dialects, look up the pronounciation on Wikipedia.a - claw / father
e - play / dress
i - ski / fleece
o - road / orange
u - glue / gooseIf there are some sounds you can’t pronounce, you can tweak the pronunciation to fit to the language you are used to. For example, Russian doesn’t have the /w/ sound, so it is perfectly understandable if Russian speakers pronounce /w/ like /v/.Now onto syllables. Toki Pawole has a restrictive syllable structure, which means the way you put sounds together has a specific method. Toki Pawole syllables are made like (C)V(N), with an optional starting consonant, a mandatory* vowel, and an optional ending nasal (the letter n).Syllables that don’t have a starting consonant have to go at the beginning of the word. Syllables that have an ending nasal can’t go before syllables that have a starting m or n. Syllables can’t have wu or ji. All of these would be too hard to pronounce.Examples of words that break these rules would be:taan - Breaks the “syllables that don’t have a starting consonant have to go at the beginning of the word” rule.lemnon - Breaks the “syllables that have an ending nasal can’t go before syllables that have a starting m or n” rule.wunjitu - Breaks the “syllables can’t have wu or ji” rule.*The only exception to the mandatory vowel rule is the word n.Stress goes on the first syllable of every word. Stress is the difference between “object” as in “Hand me that object.” or “object” as in “Your honor I object.” Syllables with stress sound bigger, more open and more pronounced.(If you’re used to tonal languages, a rising tone is applied on the first syllable of every word.)Stress is important in Toki Pawole. These two sentences sound similar without stress, but are different because of stress.on e suli.
/ˈon.ˈeˈsuli/
They are big.one suli
/ˈoneˈsuli/
Big weakness.Another difference between the two is Sandhi. Sandhi are changes that happen between word borders. It varies between hypothetical Toki Pawole dialects, but in my dialect (the only one), glottal stops happen between words. A glottal stop is the “-” in “uh-oh.” It makes it so there’s a break between on and e, instead of just running them together.Another form of Sandhi is the nasal ending syllables. If a syllable ends with n, like tan, if the next word starts with a p, like pona or w, like wawa, you are allowed to pronounce the n like m.tan pona
/ˈtamˈpona/
From good.tan wawa
/ˈtamˈwawa/
From power.The same applies to “n j” (you are allowed to palatalize n) and “n k” (you can pronounce the n like ng).See if you can pronounce these sentences and words correctly:pona.sina e ike.mi li tawa ki soko.jan pi moku li lanwano tan si e moku.waleja.toki! mi e jan Tu Leko! mi li sota ita, mi li wilen moku.About the formatting of this site:
Toki Pawole text is put in italics. English words and translations are not formatted. Examples of English words are put in “quotes.” Pronunciations are put in /slæʃes/ (slashes). Important new concepts are colored, or they could be highlighted. Headings are bolded. For content words, their gloss is put in ALL CAPS. Particles are usually lowercase with a period. or have some symbol →. Pronouns are surrounded by {braces}, unless they’re being used as modifiers, and [brackets] signify modifier groupings. (parenths) are used to show the forms or action of a word.→ Next step
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Step 1: li & eNow that we’re done with that silly pronunciation stuff, (that speakers of toki pona probably already know), I bet you’re wondering how you actually make sentences.A statement is the type of sentence we’ll learn about how to make in this step. A statement conveys info as its primary goal. This entire step so far is entirely statements. Statements in Toki Pawole end in periods and exclamation points.The first way to create a statement is with e. e in Toki Pawole is something called a copula. Copulae are commonly found in central to west european languages, and English has them too. Copulae connect the subject and the predicate, like the words “is,” “was,” “were” and “are” do in English. The subject is what the sentence is talking about, and the predicate is what the subject is doing.To clarify, here’s the example sentence “I am eating a sandwich.” In this sentence, “I” is the subject, because it’s what the sentence is talking about, “am” is the copula, because it connects the subject and the predicate, and “eating a sandwich” is the predicate, because it is what the subject is doing.Time for some vocab. You already know e, but what about mi (me), si (you), on (third person singular pronoun, he she), toki (communication, speak, say, talk), pona (good), ike (bad), moku (food), pali (do, make, create), ijo (thing, object, something) and sota (eat, wrap).You can look up their exact definitions on tana intawo, but the words in the parentheses should give you a rough translation on what they mean. sona wiki is more focused on the grammar and not the vocab.Now that you know all this… what do you think mi e pona means?mi e pona.
{1^SG} is. GOOD
I am good.The subject here is colored red, and the predicate is colored blue. Yeah see? Simple so far, for the most part. These type of sentences are called “e sentences” and e followed by a predicate is called an “e phrase.”si e mi.
{2^SG} is. {1^SG}
You are me.pona e pona. ike e ike.
GOOD is. GOOD. BAD is. BAD
Good is good. Bad is bad.mi e pali.
{1^SG} is. MAKE
I am creating.****
Wait, that has an asterisk. Why does that have an asterisk?There only so far you can get with e. The difference between e and “is” is that verbs can come after “is,” “He is eating.” but verbs can’t come after e, only nouns and adjectives can do that. mi e pali doesn’t mean “I am creating,” it means “I am creation” or “I have attributes of creation.”To say something “is DOING” something else, you use the word li. li means something closer to “does” in English. It is used to introduce verbs.mi li pali.
{1^SG} does. MAKE
I am creating.mi li sota.
{1^SG} does. EAT
I am eating.In Toki Pawole, words don’t decline. That is they don’t change pronunciation based on the things around it. Like how in “I am eating,” “You are eating,” and “He is eating,” “am,” “are,” and “is” all mean the same thing here, they’re just declined to match with the subject. Toki Pawole doesn’t do that. Every word always stays the same when it means the same.Toki Pawole also doesn’t have the words “the” and “a,” unlike English. You just don’t need them.Oh yeah and about on. You might not understand what “third person singular pronoun” means. You know first person shooters, in which you’re acting as the person in the game? If I were playing the game, the person in the game would be me. In third person shooters there’s a little camera behind the person in the game, as if the person in the game is a different person. Third person refers to not you, not me, but them. A person that isn’t the person speaking, or the one being addressed. They are a third person. Singular just means you’re speaking to one singular person. on works like the singular “they.”li has forms. eki is for things that happen in the future:mi eki sota.
{1^SG} is. EAT(future)
I will eat.And eta is for things that happened in the past.mi eta sota.
{1^SG} is. EAT(past)
I have eaten.li could take place at any time (but it usually means the present.) These sentences that use li, eki or eta are called “li sentences” and li followed by a predicate is called an “li phrase.”You can use li and e together to make more complicated sentences, too. The object is what the subject is affecting. In “I am eating a sandwich,” “a sandwich” is the object, because it is what the subject is affecting. You can do this in Toki Pawole too.mi li sota e moku.
{1^SG} is. EAT obj. FOOD
I am eating food.By putting li with e, you create a transitive sentence. This means that the verb turns transitive. Transitive verbs are verbs that affect objects. “Exist” is always intransitive (which means it can’t affect objects), “chase” is usually transitive (You usually chase things, not just say “I chase.”) and “walk” can be both transitive and intransitive. (“I walk.” vs “I walk my dog.”)mi li pali e ijo.
{1^SG} does. MAKE^t obj. THING
I am making something.on li toki e si.
{3^SG} does. SPEAK^t obj. {2^SG}
They are causing you to speak.on li pona e ijo.
{3^SG} does. GOOD^t obj. {2^SG}
They are fixing the thing.pona in the verb section means something like “fix,” and ike in the verb section means something like “worsen.” Adjectives and nouns after li turn into verbs, and verbs after e turn into nouns.This should be it for this step. See if you can decipher the meaning of these sentences without clicking the spoilers. If you can’t, click on the center gloss. If you still can’t, click on the answer, and see if you can learn a thing or two.on eta pali.
{3^SG} does. MAKE(past)
They were creating.ijo e ike. moku e pona.
THING is. BAD^t FOOD is. GOOD
The thing is bad. The food is good.moki li ike e si.
FOOD does. BAD^t obj. {2^SG}
Food is worsening you.Particles learned: e, li, eki, eta.
Content Words learned: mi, si, on, toki, pona, ike, moku, pali, ijo, sota.→ Next step
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Step 2: modifiersModifiers are words, and their main goal is to apply attributes or qualities to another word, called the head word. In the sentence “I saw the red ball,” “red” would be a modifier, because it is applying an attribute or quality to “ball,” which is the head word. In “I quickly ran to the door,” “quickly” is also modifying “ran.”Unlike English, Toki Pawole has modifiers primarily come after the head word. Instead of “red ball,” you would say “ball red.” One of the ways you can apply modifiers is by using pronouns. mi, si and on can come after things to show ownership, for example. This is called possessiveness.ijo mi
[[THING] 1^{SG POSS}]
My thingijo si
[[THING] 2^{SG POSS}]
Your thingijo on
[[THING] 3^{SG POSS}]
Their thingWith that, we can introduce some vocab!kalama means (sound), along with soweli (animal, but specifically mammals that are hairy and walk on 4 legs), ilo (tool), mute (many), wolin (love), tawa (move, walk, fly, go), lansan (slow), wiki (fast), jan (person), suli (big), lili (small), pawole (infinite)Woah, that’s a lot. Again, you can look up their exact definitions on tana intawo, but the words in the parentheses should give you a rough translation on what they mean.Anyway, not just pronouns can be used as modifiers. You can use any content word as a modifier. A content word is a word with meaning, unlike particles which are just there to structure the sentences. (Head words are in bright orange, modifiers are in darker orange.)tawa wiki
[[MOVE] FAST]
Move fast.
Run.
Fly fast.
Dash.
Move early.All of those are possible translations of tawa wiki. In Toki Pawole, words are vague. They can mean multiple things, and it depends on context. However, 2 word modifier phrases like thse tend to be lexicalized. Lexicalization is when 2 or more words get a fixed meaning attached to them, and they can’t mean anything else. An example of lexicalization is “high school.” It can only refer to a school that comprises of grades 9-12, and not a school that is high up. If you say “high school” then people will think you’re talking about the first example, not the second one.toki pona tends to avoid lexicalizations, but Toki Pawole says, “whatever makes communication easier.” In my opinion, tawa wiki means run, and if you’re talking to me, just know that’s how I’ll interpret it.Now back to modifiers. What do you think this sentence means WITHOUT looking at the spoiler. If you can’t, click on the center gloss. If you still can’t, click on the answer, and see if you can learn a thing or two. Here, to help i’ll color it corresponding to parts of speech.soweli on li pali e ilo pona.
[[ANIMAL] 3^{SG POSS}] pred, CREATE^t obj. [[TOOL] GOOD]
Their animal creates a good tool.Time to introduce another particle! Well almost. jo is a particle and a content word. As a particle, it means “owned by.”kalama jo soweli mi
SOUND owned. [[ANIMAL] 1^{SG POSS}]
Sound, that is owned by my animal.As a verb, it means “own, have, or contain.”jan li jo e ilo si.
PERSON pred. OWN obj. [[TOOL] 2^SG]
The person has your tool.Here’s a new pronoun, ni. ni means “this,” or “that.”soweli ni
[[ANIMAL] THIS]
This animallansan ni
[[SLOW] THIS]
That slownessIt can also work as a regular pronoun.ni li sota e moku si.
THIS pred. EAT obj. [[FOOD] 2^{SG POSS}]
This is eating your food.That’s it for this step. See if you can decipher the meaning of these sentences without clicking the spoilers.soweli wiki
[[ANIMAL] FAST]
Fast animaljan pawole
[PERSON] INFINITE]
Infinite peoplemi li wolin e jan lili!
{1^SG} pred. LOVE obj. [[PERSON] SMALL]
I love small people!Particles learned: jo
Content Words learned: kalama, soweli, ilo, mute, wolin, tawa, lansan, wiki, jan, suli, lili, pawole, jo².→ Next step
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Step 3: modifiers 2As you learned, modifiers can come after head words. Multiple modifiers can also come after the same head word, and they kind of nest. Nesting means that whatever modifier comes after has an effect on everything before it. This is called the i rule.waso mute ito
[[[BIRD] MANY] COLOR]
Colorful many birds.“Colorful many birds” must not sound right, if you’re reading this in English. In Toki Pawole, there aren’t really rules for how modifiers like this should be ordered, but in English, “many” would usually come before “colorful.” That means that translation is technically wrong.By the way, ito means (color), waso means (bird but mostly anything with a backbone that can fly, it also can mean “to fly”), seli means (hot), anwanu means (cold), lanwano means (grab), pana (give out, send), lapen (sleep), kapesan (new), majuna (old), nasa (weird), satalan (normal), lipu (book, page, paper, flat sheet) and tomo (house).This is how you parse a modifier phrase. Parsing is getting information from something one chunk at a time.1. In the sentence, waso mute ito, the head is waso.
2. Then you ask, what attributes does waso have? Well, the next word is ito, so the bird is colorful.
3. Then you ask what attributes does waso ito “the colorful bird” have? Well, the next word is mute, so the “colorful bird”, is really “many colorful birds.”Repeat steps 2 to 3, until you’ve gone through all of the words. Try using the steps on this:waso kapesan mi li pana e moku anwanu pona satalan.
[[[BIRD] NEW ] 1^{SG POSS.}] pred. GIVE obj. [[[[FOOD] COLD] GOOD] NORMAL]
My new bird is giving out normal good cold food.But here’s a tricky one. How would you translate: “A tool that gives out weirdly.” As in “A tool, that gives out, and the giving out it does is weird.”We can try putting words together, but this won’t work.ilo pana nasa
[[[TOOL] GIVE] WEIRD]
Weird giving tool.No, this isn’t the same. A weird giving tool could be a wacky catapult, but the catapult could give things in a completely normal way. Let’s try flipping the order of the adjectives and see if that works.ilo nasa pana
[[[TOOL] WEIRD] GIVE]
Weird tool that gives.That changed the meaning, but that still could be different. A weird tool that gives could be a generous polka dotted hammer, but it could give things in a completely normal way.The way we fix this problem is with pi. If you’ve been paying attention to the gloss, you’d see how the words nest, using the brackets. pi changes those natural closing brackets into opening brackets.ilo pi pana nasa
TOOL ‘[[GIVE] WEIRD]
Tool that gives in a weird way.What’s going on here is that pi is regrouping pana nasa into one thing, “of weird giving,” that one thing is only modifying ilo. If you look in the gloss, you can see it looks different, too. The closest thing pi can be approximated to in English is “of,” but they’re not completely the same. pi is a particle, like jo. jo as a particle functions similar to pi.Here’s another problem. What if you want to talk about a “big, cold, old house,” and not a “bigly coldy old house.” What if you don’t want the modifiers to nest? Well this is where i comes in. With i you can close brackets of modifier phrases, instead of having them nest.tomo pi suli i pi anwanu i pi majuna
[[HOUSE] ‘[BIG’]’[COLD’]’[OLD]]
A house that is big, cold and old.What’s happening here is we’re separating the phrases so they all apply to the head word, tomo. And to save room, when i and pi are together, they create Toki Pawole’s only contraction, ipi, which closes and opens 2 brackets.tomo pi suli ipi anwanu ipi majuna
[[HOUSE] ‘[BIG’]’[COLD’]’[OLD]]
A house that is big, cold and old.You might have noticed that there's some brackets that appear in the gloss, but we don’t say them. These brackets are natural and implied. You can say implied brackets if you want, but why would you want that? It's just a waste of time, and if you only say some implied brackets but not others, listeners can get confused.pi pi tomo ipi suli ipi anwanu ipi majuna i i
[[HOUSE] ‘[BIG’]’[COLD’]’[OLD]]
A house that is big, cold and old.Finally, i and ipi can work together with pi-like particles, like jo.ijo jo soweli ipi mi
THING owned. [ANIMAL][1^SG]
Thing owned by an animal and owned by me.moku jo jan i jo soweli
FOOD owned. [PERSON] owned. [ANIMAL]
Food owned by a person and owned by an animal.Well, that should be it for this step. See if you can decipher the meaning of these sentences without clicking the spoilers.ito pi tomo ni li pona!
COLOR [[HOUSE] THIS] pred. GOOD
The color of this house is good!soweli pi kalama suli li tawa waso
ANIMAL [[SOUND] BIG] pred. [[MOVE] BIRD]
The loud animal flew.tomo ni li jo e soweli nasa mute
[[HOUSE] THIS] pred. HAVE obj. [[[ANIMAL] STRANGE] MANY]
This house has many strange animals.Particles learned: pi, i, ipi
Content Words learned: ito, waso, seli, anwanu, lanwano, pana, lapen, kapesan, majuna, nasa, satalan, lipu, tomo.→ Next step
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Step 4: questionsWe’ll start off this step with some good things to know when you’re talking to someone else.toki! is a general friendly greeting that means “communication!” or “communication is happening.” It can be a great way to start a conversation.pona can just mean “good!” as in “I like that,” or “I agree with that.”ike can mean “bad,” as in “I don’t like that,” or “I don’t agree with that.”Toki Pawole doesn’t have a way to indicate politeness, so everything is polite by default unless strongly implied otherwise. ike is similar to “no thank you.”To talk about questions themselves, there’s the new word suninku, which means “question,” or “request.” And also sawapu, which means “response.” The way I personally remember them is I remember “ku” for the “qu” in “question,” and “pu” for the “po” in “response.”suninku mi.
[[QUESTION] 1^{SG POSS.}]
My question.sawapu mi.
[[RESPONSE] 1^{SG POSS.}]
My response.Alright, let’s get to the meat of the step, questions. A question, is a sentence that asks for missing inormation. The first way to ask questions is by replacing something with seme. You know how in English, you ask questions by replacing words with “who,” “what,” “when,” “where,” “why,” and “how?”“He ate the sandwich.””Who ate the sandwich?””He ate what?”You can do the same thing in Toki Pawole, replace any word with the particle seme to learn about the status of that word. Let’s use the example:mi li lanwano e ijo si.
{1^SG} pred. STEAL obj. [[THING] 2^SG]
I steal your thing.You could do any of these options, notice how the meaning changes when we move it around the sentence:mi li seme e ijo si?
{1^SG} pred. ques. obj. [[THING] 2^SG]
What did I do to your thing?seme li lanwano e ijo si?
ques. pred. STEAL obj. [[THING] 2^SG]
Who stole your thing?mi li lanwano e seme?
{1^SG} pred. STEAL obj. ques.
What did I steal?mi li lanwano e ijo seme?
{1^SG} pred. STEAL obj. [[THING] ques.]
Which thing did I steal?mi li lanwano seme e ijo si?
{1^SG} pred. [[STEAL] ques.] obj. [[THING] 2^SG]
How did I steal your thing?Or if you’re feeling really existential:mi e seme?
{1^SG} is. ques.
What am I?Or you could flip the sentence over. It means the same thing either way:seme e mi?
ques. is. {1^SG}
I am what?You can only put seme in a sentence if it is a question, in other contexts it doesn’t really work.You can also say seme? to just mean “What did you say?”If you’re too lazy or it just feels unnecessary to determine which part of the sentence is the question, you can just use anu seme. anu is a particle that means “or.” It can take the place of most sentence building particles, like li, e, eta, (or en which we cover in a later step, another step we also cover anu better in.) anu seme at the end of questions literally means “or what?”mi li lanwano e ijo si anu seme?
Did I steal your thing or what?anu doesn’t mean exactly the same thing as English “or” though. anu has the connotation that only one thing or the other can happen… not both, not neither. It is closer to exclusive or.The third and last way to make a question is to use the word no. no means “not,” “isn’t” or “0.” If you duplicate a word around no, it forms a yes or no question. If someone answers yes, then that means that they said that the situation that would have happened without no is true.mi li lanwano no lanwano e ijo si?
Did I steal your thing or not steal your thing?mi no mi li lanwano e ijo si?
Did I steal your thing or was it not me?To say something is correct, you use lon. lon means “true,” “real” or “existing.” To say something is incorrect, you use powe. powe means “false,” “fake” or “trick.”Jan A: mi li lanwano no lanwano e ijo si?Jan E: lon.In this exchange, jan E is saying that jan A did steal jan E’s thing.
lon, powe, no and anu all have meaning outside of being just question words. We go over anu more in depth here.no can mean “0” or “not.” We go over numbers here, but when you use no as a modifier, then it usually means “not.”mi e nasa no.
{1^SG} is. [[WEIRD] NOT]
I am not weird.lon and powe can mean “true” or “false,” “real” or “fake,” “existing” or “nonexistent.”ni e moku powe!
THIS is. [[FOOD] FAKE]
This is fake food!powe, moki mi e lon!
false. [[FOOD] 1^{SG POSS.}] is. REAL
No, my food is real!That last exchange seemed a little heated. It would help them get their message across if they used some interjections. An interjection is a word that doesn’t have any meaning besides social uses. Like in English “hello,” “thank you,” and “please,” are all social cues, and don’t have any meaning besides “I am being polite” and the like.Toki Pawole has interjections too. a is a general interjection that could mean anything you want it to mean, as long as it’s emphatic, with the right context and the right tone. It can also turn words into interjections when you put it after them.a! soweli suli!
emot. [[ANIMAL] BIG]
Ah! A big animal!lipu mi a!
[[BOOK] 1^{SG POSS.}] emot.
My book!a can also be reduplicated to show laughing.a a a
laugh. laugh. laugh.
Ha ha ha!n can be used for humming, or saying hmm as a hesitation marker. In informal speech, a and n can be dragged out to show length.nnn… ni e ike.
hesit. THIS is. BAD
Hmmm… this is bad.kin can mean “too,” “also” or “indeed.”mi li sota mute kin!
{1^SG} pred. [[EAT] MANY] also.
I eat a lot too!Finally to order someone to do something, you use o. One of o’s uses is when it goes after a subject and shows you are wishing someone does something.si o sota pona!
{2^SG} opt. [[EAT] GOOD]
Bon appetit! (Literally “eat good.”)This type of sentence is called an optative sentence and it’s one of the uses of o. Instead of saying si o, you can just say o to skip time, because who you’re talking to can be inferred from context.o pana e ijo mi!
imp. GIVE obj. [[THING] 1^{SG POSS.}]
Give my thing!soweli o sota wiki!
ANIMAL imp. [[EAT] FAST]
Animals, eat fast!This type of sentence is an imperative, in which you’re telling, commanding or demanding someone to do something.jan nasa o!
{2^SG} voc.
Hey strange person!This is the last use of o, called a vocative. This is for when you want to get someone’s attention.Well, that should be it for this step. Let’s try something different… see if you can decipher the meaning of this conversation without clicking the spoilers.jan A: toki!
Hello!jan B: toki a!
Hey there!jan A: si li sota e seme?
What are you eating?jan B: mi li sota e moku pona!
I’m eating good food!jan A: pona! mi li wolin e moku.
Nice! I love food.jan B: mi li olin e moku, kin! nnn… jan seme li jo e ilo ni?
I love food too. Hmm… whose tool is that?jan A: ni li ilo nasa mi.
This is my weird tool.jan B: ilo ni li lanwano no lanwano?
Does this tool grab?jan A: lon.
Yes.jan B: a! ilo ni li lanwano e moku mi!
Ah! The tool is grabbing my food!Particles learned: seme, anu, no, lon, powe, a, n, kin, o
Content Words learned: suninku, sawapu, no², lon², powe²→ Next step
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Step 5: contextContext is very important to Toki Pawole, because its small vocabulary can only say so many things. It’s the context of situations around it that help listeners understand what speakers actually mean.There is a way of adding context into your sentences though. Well really there are 4 ways, tan, taso, ita and la.Let’s start with la. la, like the others, connects context and a sentence. The context is usualy shorter (but at many times can be longer) and context serves to modify the sentence.mi li tawa la, mi li wilen e tawa.
{1^SG} pred. MOVE → {1^SG} pred. WANT obj. MOVE
When I’m moving, I want movement. (wilen means want).
I’m moving, therefore I want movement.It has similar meaning to “so,” or “therefore.” In my opinion I put commas after la, but you can put them before or remove them entirely. It doesn’t matter.Now let’s move onto ita. ita has a similar position as la, except context comes after. ita usually has an “if”or “since” connotation.mi li wilen e tawa, ita mi li tawa.
{1^SG} pred. WANT obj. MOVE ← {1^SG} pred. MOVE.
If I want movement, I move.
Since I want movement, I move.ita could also be more useful if you can’t think of context before the main phrase, because it could be convenient in that situation to put it after. (Also I prefer to put the comma before ita.)These two ccould also mean “opinion.” when put with a pronoun. Think about it in the sense “in the context of me,” or “in the context of you.”mi la, moku e pona.
{1^SG} opin. → FOOD is. GOOD
In the context of me, food is good.moku e pona, ita mi.
FOOD is. GOOD ← opin. {1^SG}
In the context of me, food is good.Both of these generally mean “in my opinion, food is good.” la and ita can also be used with the word ken to mean maybe. ken acts similarly to the English word “can.” ken la is similar to “maybe.”ken la si li pona.
ABLE → {2^SG} pred. GOOD^t
Maybe you do good.Now let’s move on to tan. tan means something closer to “because.” like English, the reason comes afterwards.mi li sota, tan mi eta wilen moku.
{1^SG} pred. EAT ← reas. {1^SG} pred. [[WANT] FOOD]
I eat because I was hungry. (wilen moku means hunger.)The “reason part” of the sentence is the context here. tan has many other uses, but we’ll cover them in a later step.The last thing you need to know about is taso. taso works like the word “but,” but it can also be used to show edge cases.mi la, kalama ni e pona, taso jan mute li wilen no e kalama ni.
{1^SG} opin. → [[NOISE] THIS] pred. GOOD, but. → [[PERSON] MANY] pred. [[WANT] DON’T] obj. [[NOISE] THIS]
In my opinion, these sounds are good, but many people don’t want these sounds.ni e jan taso jan li toki no.
THIS is. PERSON but. → PERSON pred. [[SPEAK] NOT]
This is a person, but the person doesn’t talk.taso also has other uses, but we’ll cover them later.The last part of this step is introducing the new pronouns. mina is when you’re talking about we (exclusive we, as in me and another group), like mi but for more people. sina is what you use to talk about the group you’re talking to, like si but for more people. ona is what you say when you’re talking about an unrelated group of people, like on but for more people.mina
1^PL
Me and some amount of other people.
“We just won the lottery!” (but not you).sina
2^PL
Plural you, you guys
“You guys have to shut up.”ona
3^PL
plural they, them, that group
“The book club members, they’re so stuck up!”Notice how these are similar to the pronouns, just with na added to the end. na is an actual word that means “a few” or “a couple.” It’s a number that you can easily gauge in your head.Some other new words are pasila (easy), jatila (difficult), wilen (want), isipin (think), imeni, (song) eto, (system), lakima (sad, cry) and liso (funny or happy), pilin (feel, emote), lukin (eye, look).Check further definitions on tana intawo.Try to see if you can translate these sentences into English. To help, I will un-spoiler the glosses.mi eki pilin pona ita mi li lakima.
{1^SG} pred. [[FEEL] GOOD] (future) ← {1^SG} pred. CRY
I will feel good later if I cry.mi li wilen no e lakima.
{1^SG} pred. [[WANT] DON’T] obj. CRY
I don’t want crying.Particles learned: la, ita, tan, tasoContent Words learned: ken, wilen, mina, sina, ona, pasila, jatila, isipin, imeni, ito, lakima, liso, pilin, lukin→ Next step
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Step 6: body parts & sensoryThe best way to feel things in Toki Pawole is to be sort of specific. Just like how there’s no one word for animal, theres no one word for sensing something or feeling something outright.Let’s start with sight. Images, sculptures and pictures are sitelen, usually very literal visual representations that are meant to show the world as is.mi li pali e sitelen
{1^SG} pred. MAKE obj. IMAGE
I’m making a sculpture.
I’m taking a picture.
I’m crafting a hyperrealistic image.More abstract drawings are lapisa, which can also refer to symbols, scribbles or writing.mi li lapisa e nimi.
{1^SG} pred. DRAW obj. WORD
I’m writing words.(The way to talk about words and names is nimi, which just means “word” or “name,” or “to name.”)jan li nimi e mina.
PERSON pred. NAME obj. {1^PL}
The person names us.The way to say “look,” or “see” is lukin.mi li lukin e sina.
{1^SG} pred. LOOK obj. {2^PL}
I see you guys.
I’m looking at you guys.There’s a little puzzle with lukin though: how would you say “You look good,” in Toki Pawole? When you put pona after lukin you run into a problem.si li lukin pona.
{2^SG} pred. [[LOOK] GOOD]
You are seeing things in a good way.By putting pona after lukin you are modifying how they use their eyes (how they look) and not how they are visually (how they look). Well, the way to say “You look good,” as in commenting on their appearence is to say:si li pona lukin.
{2^SG} pred. [[GOOD] LOOK]
You are good in a visual way.
You look good.lukin can also refer to your eyes.mi li lukin e lukin si.
{1^SG} pred. LOOK AT obj. [[EYE] 2^{SG POSS}]
I stare into your eyes.Alright let’s move on to sounds. You probably remember that sounds are kalama, but to say “to hear” or “to listen” in Toki Pawole is ekute. ekute doesn’t really have the connotation of “obey” like English “listen” does.mi li ekute e ilo suli.
{1^SG} pred. HEAR obj. [[THING] BIG]
I’m listening to the big tool.ekute can also refer to your ears.ekute si e suli nasa.
[[EAR] 2^SG] pred. [[BIG] WEIRD]
Your ears are big in a weird way.nena means nose, and also refers to the act of smelling. konsi nena means smells.mi li nena e konsi nena.
{1^SG} pred. SMELL obj. [[AIR] NOSE]
I smell smells.luka refers to the hand and palm, but also petting and feeling things.mi li luka e pawo si.
{1^SG} pred. HAND^t obj. [[DOG] 2^SG]
I pet your dog.si eta luka no luka e ilo ni?
{1^SG} pred. HAND^t(past) ques. [[HAND^t(past)] NOT] obj. [[TOOL] THIS]
Did you touch or not touch this tool?You can say kalite supa for textures. kalite is like ijo and pali, and it refers to “general qualities,” like how ijo refers to “general things” and pali refers to “general actions” sometimes.uta refers to the mouth, but there isn’t really a direct word for taste. uta as a verb means kiss, not taste.mi eta uta e luka on.
{1^SG} pred. KISS(past) obj. [[HAND] 3^SG]
I kissed his hand.sota by itself would mostly be understood to mean “to taste,” and kalite uta could mean “tastes.”That’s all 5 of the major senses I was taught in school, now let’s move on to other body parts.ewin refers to nails, claws hooves and talons.jun refers to hair.on li tawa tan jan eki pona e jun on.
{3^SG} pred. MOVE reas. → PERSON pred. GOOD^t(past) obj. [[HAIR] 3^SG]
They’re moving because someone will improve their hair.koli refers to tails, but it can also mean queues and lines, and also to follow or obey.lawa means your head or your brain.noka means your foot.paso refers to appendages, such as an arm, a leg, or even a tentacle.sanke means blood, but it can refer to other bodily fluids like spit or sap.tesan means tooth or fang, but it can also broadly refer to bone, tusks, antlers or the act of biting.titi refers to the chest, nipple or breast.wa means egg of any species, and can also refer to other cells needed to start a pregnancy.These aren’t really body parts but they are important vocabulary: tiju means long and kasika means short.Content Words learned: sitelen, lapisa, nimi, lukin, ekute, nena, luka, uta, ewin, jun, koli, lawa, noka, paso, sanke, tesan, titi, wa, tiju, kasika.→ Next step
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Step 7: tokipawolizationLast step I told you the word for names in general, nimi. Well, what about specific names, like Lee or Smith or Muhammed. After all, every natural language has names. Not to worry, this is a guide on how to create your name and names for other things in Toki Pawole.Let’s start with a situation: Steve from Australia and Dominique from France both want to say their name and country in Toki Pawole. The way to do this is to approximate sounds from their names to Toki Pawole. Let’s start with Dominique.Dominique starts with a /d/ sound, which is very similar to the /t/ sound Toki Pawole has, so we replace it. “Tomini” is perfectly fine in Toki Pawole, so we’re on the right track. The problem is the q.If you remember step 0 on how to make Toki Pawole syllables, you’ll remember that Toki Pawole doesn’t have the letters b, c, d, f, g, h, q, r, v, x, y and z. They cannot stay in your Toki Pawole name. “que” in “Dominique” makes a /k/ sound, so we replace all of those letters with k.Dominique
TominikBut here’s a problem. You can’t have a “k” at the end of a syllable, so there’s 2 things we can do here.Drop the k:
TominiOr add a vowel to keep the k:
TominikuIn my opinon, I would add the vowel, but how you tokipawolize your name is up to you and you only. (If Dominique does add a vowel, I would reccomend u because of how Dominique is spelled.)Oh, it’s Steve’s turn. “Steve” is special because the e before the v doesn’t make an /e/ sound, it makes a /i/ sound. The letters in the slashes are from the IPA, an alphabet of weird symbols like ŋ and æ and ʃ that are supposed to map onto every sound from every language in the world. In the case of Steve, his name using the IPA would be /sti:v/. The IPA can help with tokipawolization, because every letter in Toki Pawole is pronounced like the corresponding letter in the IPA.We can start with the IPA spelling of Steve, and slowly replace letters with Toki Pawole ones. Good thing s, t and i are already in Toki Pawole, and we can ignore that colon (that shouldn’t even be a colon). The problem is v, which isn’t in Toki Pawole. I like to approximate v as w.Steve
StiwWe run into another problem. Toki Pawole syllables can’t start with multiple consonants, and they can’t end with consonants other than w. There are 3 paths we can take.Add random vowels to keep the consonant sounds:
SitiweRemove consonants to keep the syllable length:
Si
TiDo a combination of both:
SiweI would reccomend a combination of both, but remember, it is YOUR Toki Pawole name, you can pick the small changes. Here’s a step by step:#1. Translate your name into the IPA.
Nguyen → Ŋujen
Ramadan → Ramadan#2. Replace sounds with Toki Pawole allowed sounds that are close. Prioritize sound, “fff” sounds closer to “sss” than “puh.” Also use place. “rrr” (English r) is pronounced in a similar place of the mouth as “lll” is, so approximate “rrr” as that.
Ŋujen → Nujen ✅#3. Make the name fit into Toki Pawole’s phonotactics, but also make it sound recognizable. This part is the hardest one.#4. Don’t make it sound like a Toki Pawole word. Misali is a great tokipawolization of “Mitch Halley” but misali also means “example” in Toki Pawole. Best to change it to Mitali.There are some rules to using names too. Most of the time, names need a noun to come before them, and they act like a modifier. You don’t need to put a noun before if there’s enough context to omit it.jan Tominiku li lanwano e luka mi.
[[PERSON] Dominique] pred. GRAB obj. [[HAND] 1^SG]
Dominique is holding my hand.jan is for people, ma is for locations. ma is a word that means “dirt,” “earth,” but can also mean “land,” “country,” “nation,” but can ALSO mean “point in space.” You can name pretty much anything.ma Kanata
[[LAND] Canada]
Canada.soweli Panse
[[ANIMAL] Prancer]
Prancer.tomo tiju Elisape
[[[BUILDING] LONG] Elizabeth]
The Elizabeth Tower.You don’t always need a noun before the name if there’s enough context.
Names can also be made of words, jan Tu Leko is TwoSquared, despite tu and leko being words we’ll go over later. This is because TwoSquared is LITERALLY tu leko, while Mitch Halley is not literally “example.”Names are the only thing in Toki Pawole that are capitalized. For country names, we pick the name that the country calls themself.Japan isn’t ma Sapan, it’s ma Nijon.Germani isn’t ma Semani, it’s ma Tosi.And names can have spaces in them.jan nasa pi moku mute ipi Lona Mitona.
[[[[PERSON] WEIRD]][[FOOD] MANY]][Ronald McDonald]
The person of lots of food named Ronald McDonald.Systems of measurement can also have names, untepu means “measurement”, and eto means “system.”unte Mita
The meter.eto unte Isa
SI system, Système International.→ Next step
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Step 8: vocabThis entire step is dedicated to learning about the vocab of Toki Pawole, explained in groups of relation. Again, if you want to know more about the definitions, go to tana intawo.COLORS.loje,  weta  and sini are red, green and blue respectively. Toki Pawole has more of a “paint mixing” approach, so loje + weta isn’t yellow, but rather brown. jelo  can be used to refer to yellows,
alani refers to oranges,
unu refers to purples,
laso refers to lighter blues, cyans, and sky blues,
 walo  refers to whites,
kapesi refers to browns and grays,
pimeja refers to black, but also shade and shadow.The way you refer to light and shining is weti.They can be used to refer to the colors themselves as nouns, or as modifiers to refer to that color as a description.waso kapesi
[[BIRD] BROWN]
Brown birdBy stringing them together, you can add the colors (based on paint mixing based rules, not light mixing). Remember that the first color is the main one, so it takes priority. loje jelo is more red than jelo loje.sini loje e unu.
[[BLUE] RED] is PURPLE
Blue-red is purple.CONSISTENCIES.Consistency is the quality of thickness or viscosity in an object. This chart approximately arranges the various consistencies in a grid. Further definitions are underneath.

ko refers to any semisolid, so anything between solid and liquid, that couldn’t be described better with other words.- kowon for example, means fluffy things. ko could also mean fluffy things, but it’s more descriptive to say kowon for wool.- taki means anything that sticks stuff to anything else like glue or magnets, but as a modifier and consistency it just means “sticky.”- lepo means dust, or collective grains of relatively small size. This can rage from specks of dust to sand. It can also refer to bacteria and viruses.- nalama is anything springy or gummy, like springs or gummy bears.- mojato means wet, anything wet (that isn’t a liquid itself) can be described as mojato.konsi refers to air, and other gases, but not smoke or steam.- That’s taken by pume, which means smoke or steam.lo usually means water, but it can mean any liquid. The viscosity can matter though, it’s up to you to decide whether honey is lo or ko.katipa means anything thick, fat or heavy.piliti is anything tight, or pressed.lona can refer to anything solid, firm and stable. A chair’s consistency could be described as lona.MATERIALSMaterials are different things things can be made out of.lona has a second definition too, it refers to anything made of minerals, whether that be gems, stone, rocks, boulders, pebbles or even lava.kiwen refers to anything made of metal. Gold, coins, pipes, sheets, aluminum foil and the like.len is anything made of fabric or wearable materials, thin wearable materials. It usually means clothes.tapa is anything made of rubber or latex.Finally, tiwata is anything made of glass, or other easily shatter-able material, like porcelain. It can be used to refer to windows by itself.soweli ni li jo e kowon.
[[ANIMAL] THIS] pred. HAS obj. FLUFFY
This animal has fluff.ANIMALSI know an animal that is known for being fluffy. Sheep! The way you would say sheep in Toki Pawole would be soweli, because they are mammals with 4 legs underneath them of which they use to locomote. But how would you say an animal like… crocodile in Toki Pawole. The only animal words we know are soweli and waso.There are other animal words too. If you don’t want to keep referring to your dog or cat with the same word you use for bear, just use pawo or nija.pawo mina li moku mute a!
[[DOG] {1^{PL POSS.}} pred. [[EAT] MANY] (int)
Our dog eats a lot!Okay, back to the crocodiles. Lizards and scorpions (maybe spiders too) would probably be described as aketi. Most aketi are small, so crocodiles could be described as aketi suli.The reason why I say “maybe spiders,” is because personally spiders would fit into pipi. pipi are bugs, but more specifically small animals with no backbone, with more than 4 legs. This would mean scorpions are technically pipi too.misa are small soweli. They refer to mice foremost, but they can also refer to rats, rabbits and squirrels.kita are animals with hooves, usually excluding farm animals like cows, sheep and pigs.jan refer to people, but not specifically humans. Humans as a species would be keke which include primates and monkeys.kala refer to fish, but anything that swims habitually is kala. That would mean octopus are kala.lowo are Procyonidae, like raccoons, olingoes, coatls and kinkajous.Finally, mu refers to animal noises and onomatopoeias. A noise coming from a thing that has been approximated to a word is mu.lowo ni no lowo ni li mu?
Is that raccoon making the animal noise?DIRECTIONSDirections themselves are hard to express in Toki Pawole. Some examples would be:nasin lukin - Way of looking. nasin means way or means.nasin linjanote means north and sute means south. This is always in reference to the speaker, so ma Namipija (Namibia) could be note to someone living in ma Setapika (South Africa).The same thing applies to asuma and olente, which mean east and west.The same same thing applies to soto and teje, which mean left and right.SOCIALPeople are very social creatures, and this category lists multiple social interactions. There’s already wolin which shows a loving emotional connection to something, but for more fraternal or subordinate respect, you use atali. For shame, you can use apeja. atali and apeja can be used as nouns, emotions and adjectives.ona eki pilin apeja.
{3^PL} pred. [[FEEL] SHAME] (fut.)
They will feel ashamed.jan Tesa li atali e mi.
[[PERSON] Tessa] pred. HONOR obj. {1^SG}
Tessa honors me.soweli apeja li tawa.
[[ANIMAL] SHAME] pred. MOVE
The shamed animal moves.epiku means epic, and is used as an interjection like a, but it can also be used as a content word.epiku! wilen mi e lon!
“EPIC” [[WANT] 1^SG] is. TRUE
Epic! My wishes are true!o pana e pilin epiku!
imp. GIVE obj. [[FEEL] EPIC]
Give out epic feelings!malamon means hate. It is the opposite of wolin.mina li malamon e sina!
{1^PL} pred. HATE obj. {2^PL}
We hate you guys!monsuta means monsters, but it can also refer to the feeling of being scared, and scaring other people.nata refers to connections, usually social ones.unpa refers to the act of sexual intercourse.peman means agreements, treaties, deals and truces.utala refers to fights, battles or arguments. In these fights and battles, wisesa means to win, and sipaja means to lose.kela refers to games, contests and tests. Like utala, but more musi, or at least with less kuton, which means pain.ona eki utala. jan Siman e wisesa. jan Teli e sipaja. ona li peman.
They have fought. Simon is the winner, Terry is the loser, so they agree.NORMAL EVERYDAY THINGSIn this category, there are normal things people do or see or interact with every day.notuwan means to set down or place down, but it can also mean to fall due to gravity.mi li notuwan.
I fall.mi li notuwan e ijo.
I set the thing down.eto refers to systems. generally things that have many things feed into other things, like an assembly line or a pyramid scheme.si li pali e eto powe anu seme??
You’re making a pyramid scheme?kali refers to cars, and minsu refers to electricity and energy. kali minsu is electric car.kali mi li tawa wiki a!
My car is moving fast!sisanti refers to modern electronic technology. Phones, tablets, PCs and consoles are all sisanti.FAMILYmama refers to parents, creators or caretakers.mi e mama pi ilo mute.
I’m the creator of many tools.sinko means children or products.mi li wolin e sinko mi.
I love my child.pata means brother or cousin.FOODkili means fruit & vegetables.pan refers to anything with wheat, so that could be bread, cake or cereal.lete means milk, and anything made with primarily milk, so cheese or yogurt or anything else could count.lisi is anything made with rice.soko refers to to mushrooms and fungi.FLAVORjanwa means meat, but also anything that tastes like meat.kikolo refers to things that taste bitter, like extra strong coffee.wawasa means sour.namako means spicy, but it could be other types of spicy, like mint, or nose spicy, like wasabi.nun refers to salt and salty things.suwi means sweet, but it can also mean cute.SHAPESsupa refers to horizontal surfaces like floors, beds, tables, counters and roofs, the ground and chairs.poti refers to bumps and protrusions, like hills or mountains.lupa means holes, orifices or entraces.jojosin refers to cylinders, like pencils, pillars and stakes.palisa means sticks and planks, things made of wood.linja is anything long and flexible.lipu usually means books but it refers to paper, and anything that is flat.kiki means anything spiky.poki refers to anything that contains something, like bags, boxes and cups.lentu means anything smooth.leko refers to solid shapes made with blocky, close-to-right angles. Usually rectangular prisms but octahedrons and icosahedrons could count.sike means flat round disc shapes, like circles.pute means spheres.selo refers to outer coverings like skin and boundaries.tijelo means body, but it can also refer to the general shape or figure of something.natu refers to anything linking.tolu refers to tubes, tunnels and straws.misita refers to anything mixed, both physically and metaphorically.Content Words learned: loje, weta, sini, jelo, alani, unu, laso, walo, kapesi, pimeja, weti, ko, kowon, taki, lepo, nalama, mojato, konsi, lo, katipa, piliti, lona, kiwen, len, tapa, tiwata, pawo, nija, aketi, pipi, misa, kita, keke, kala, lowo, mu, note, sute, asuma, olente, soto, teje, atali, apeja, epiku, malamon, monsuta, nata, peman, wisesa, utala, kela, kuton, notuwan, eto, kali, sisanti, mama, sinko, pata, kili, pan, lete, lisi, soko, janwa, kikolo, wawasa, namako, nun, suwi, supa, poti, lupa, jojosin, palisa, linja, lipu, kiki, poki, lentu, leko, sike, pute, selo, tijelo, natu, tolu, misita.→ Next step
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Step 9: preverbsA preverb is a verb that’s kind of “tacked onto” another verb. It is one of the only types of modifiers that goes before the head word.Take the sentence, “I try to eat my burger.” The “try to” is a sort of preverb that details the state of the action “eat my burger.”The way this would be translated is:mi li kokan sota e pan janwa mi.
{1^SG} pred. TRY: EAT obj. [[[BREAD] MEAT] 1^{SG POSS.}]
I try to eat my burger.kokan means try to, and it is exclusively used as a preverb. Here’s a reminder that complex things like burgers can be translated multiple different ways, but the best way to do it is to keep it short, but long enough that they can understand what you mean with enough context.There’s also alasa. Unlike kokan, alasa can be used as a verb by itself, but it cannot be a preverb. alasa means hunt, chase, look for or forage.mi eki alasa e soweli ita mi eki wilen moku.
{1^SG} pred. HUNT(future) obj. ANIMAL ← {1^SG} pred. [[WANT] FOOD]
I will chase/hunt/look for animals if I get hungry.Next is sona, an actual preverb. By itself sona means knowledge or know, but as a preverb it means “know how to.”mi li sona alasa e kili. mi li sona e kili ike la mi li sota no e kili ike.
1. {1^SG} pred. KNOW: LOOK FOR obj. FRUIT
2. {1^SG} pred. KNOW obj. [[FRUIT] BAD] → {1^SG} pred. [[EAT] NOT] obj. [[FRUIT] BAD]
I know how to forage for fruit. I know the bad fruit, so I won’t eat the bad fruit.mi li pana e sona.
{1^SG} pred. GIVE obj. KNOWLEDGE
I give knowedge.
I teach.anku is another preverb that means “supposed to.” By itself, anku can also just mean destiny or fate.sa la sina li anku tawa!
Now you guys are supposed to leave!pesoni means something similar as a preverb. Normally pesoni means “need,” or “require,” but as a preverb it means “must,” as in “I am required to.” wilen also works as a preverb, meaning “want to.”mi li pesoni tawa.
{1^SG} pred. NEED: MOVE
I must go.{1^SG} pred. WANT: MOVE
mi li wilen weka.
I wanna leave.Oh yeah and ken. ken is probably the most common preverb, and it means “allowed to,” or “able to.”mi li ken toki pi wiki mute a!
{1^SG} pred. ALLOWED: [[SPEAK]‘[[FAST] MANY]] emot.
I am allowed to talk really really fast!niseta means “outlawed,” or “banned.” As a preverb it means cannot or not allowed to.mi li niseta toki pi wiki mute. mi li pilin lakima.
1. {1^SG} pred. NOT ALLOWED: [[SPEAK]‘[[FAST] MANY]]
2. {1^SG} pred. [[FEEL] SAD]
I’m not allowed to talk really fast. I feel sad.There’s open and pini, and they mean “open” or “start” and “close” or “end,” respectively. As preverbs they mean “start to” and “finish.”mi li open wolin e on.
I started to love them.mi li pini wolin e on! a!
I’m done with loving them!There’s also onta, which means “to repeat” and refers to repeating actions like blinking or waving. It can also mean repeat or again as a preverb.mi li onta utala e sina.
{1^SG} pred. REPEAT: FIGHT obj. {2^SG}
I fight you guys again.Finally, there’s awen. Normally awen is the opposite of tawa, and it means unchanged or unmoving. You can use awen as a preverb to mean “continue.”mi li awen malamon e ni.
I continue to hate this.You can add as many preverbs as you want before a verb. It might not make sense, though.mi li anku onta awen open wilen kokan pesoni ken tawa.
I’m supposed to continute to start to want to try to need to be allowed to move again.Try to see if you can follow this very silly conversation. Check your translations against the website’s spoilered translations.jan Samalu: jan Susi o!
Hey Susie!jan Susi: toki, jan Sama!
Hello Jamal.jan Sama: si li pali e seme?
What are you making/causing/doing?jan Susi: mi li kokan notuwan e moku mi.
I’m trying to put down my food.jan Sama: mi la si li ken no notuwan e moku si.
From my point of view you can not put down your food.jan Susi: mi li sona… moku mi e wawasa. mi la, wawasa e pona.
I know… My food is sour. In my opinion, sour is good.jan Sama: mi la, si li pesoni awen sota e moku. moku li weka ita si li sota e on.
What I think is, you need to continue to eat the food. The food dissapears if you eat it.jan Susi: aaaa!
Ohhhh!Content Words learned: kokan, alasa, sona, pana, anku, pesoni, ken, niseta, open, pini, onta, awen.→ Next step
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Step 10: prepositionsA preposition is a word that describes the relationship between two other words.  In the English sentence: “My stuff is next to the boulder,” “next to” would be the preposition here, because it’s describing the spacial relationship— the close distance— between the boulder and the rock.The 4 main ways to create prepositions is with in, tan, ki and se.To start, we have to define 7 words: utoli, “up side, top,” anpa, “down side, bottom,” sinpin, “front, wall, face,” monsi, “back face, back, butt,” insa, “inside, inside face, contents,” nesi, “outside, outer face,* and poka, “side face, next to.”The simplest prepositions are made with in. in means at, or on, or in.mi li alasa in poki mi e lipu mi.
{1^SG} pred. SEARCH at. [[CONTAINER] 1^{SG POSS}] obj. [[BOOK] 1^{SG POSS}]
I look in my bag for my book.Coupling in with the 7 words from earlier creates more specific spacial prepositions, such as above or below. You can also use in supa to mean “on top of,” but not in utoli, because that means above.on e in monsi kaje.
{3^SG} is. at. [[BACK] TREE]
She is behind that tree.mi e in supa ma ale!
{1^SG} is. at. [[[TOP] LAND] ALL]
I’m on top of the world!mi e in nesi tomo pali.
{1^SG} is. at. [[[OUTSIDE] HOUSE] WORK]
I am outside of the work building.Another distinction is in anpa and in noka. in noka means “at the foot of,” like how a doorstop would be at the foot of a door. in anpa means “below,” like how if you jump over it, a rock is below you.in can be used with sa to mean “here” or “now.” in can also work for time, as in “at the time of” or “in the time of.” The way to say “time” is tenpo. tenpo refers to points in time, or the concept of time itself.in ma sa.
In this area.in tenpo sa.
At this time.sa la, mi li sota.
Now I’m eating.
Here I’m eating.in sa la, mi li sota.
Now I’m eating.
Here I’m eating.in tenpo sa la, mi li sona.
Now I’m eating.These examples are multiple different and all correct ways to say “here” and “now.”intawo refers to spaces, zones and rooms, so periods of space. ka refers to durations, so periods of time.ka lili.
[[MOMENT] SMALL]
A short time.intawo musi!
[[AREA] FUN]
Fun zone!(musi means fun, art, silly or recreational).That’s pretty much it for in. The best way to introduce ki and tan is with kama and weka. kama and weka are opposites that mean to “come” and to “leave.” kama also has the meaning of “become.”mi eta weka e lipu ike.
{1^SG} pred. LEAVE(past) obj. [[BOOK] BAD]
I threw away that bad book.on li kama pona.
{3^SG} pred. [[COME] GOOD]
She’s getting better.ki and tan work the same way. ki means the same thing as in, except with an additional meaning of to, towards.mi li pilin lakima ki si.
{1^SG} pred. SAD to. {2^SG}
I’m sad towards you.
I’m dissapointed in you.on li tawa ki si.
{3^SG} pred. MOVE to. {2^SG}
He’s moving to you.tan is used the same way, except it means the opposite, coming from.mi li kama tan ma Mewika.
{1^SG} pred. COME from. [[PLACE] America]
I come from the USA.mi li weka tan intawo ni ita mi li pilin lakima.
{1^SG} pred. LEAVE from. [[AREA] THIS] ← {1^SG} pred. [[FEEL] SAD]
I leave from this area if I feel sad.Keep in mind tan is also used as a content word that means “origin,” and also also used as a context marker, that means “because.” Be careful when using it.jan ale li weka tan tenpo tan tan tenpo li tawa pi pini no.
[[PERSON] ALL] pred. LEAVE from. [[TIME] ORIGIN] → reas. TIME pred. [MOVE [[END] NONE]]
Everyone is moving away from the time of origin, because time moves (with no end / without stopping).ale means all (of a group).See if you can decipher these without looking at the spoilers.jan Emili: toki jan Ali!
Hello Ali!jan Ali: toki! mi li pilin pona tan mi li open toki ki si.
Hello! I am feeling good because I am starting to talk towards you.jan Emili: mi li pilin pona kin!
I feel good too!jan Ali: si li pilin pona tan seme?
Why are you feeling good?jan Emili: mama mi li pana ki mi e nalama soweli suwi!
My parent gave to me sweet animal gummies!
My parent gave me gummy bears.jan Ali: nalama suwi? mi la, nalama suwi li ike. mi la, moku lo namako li epiku!
Gummies? In my opinion, gummies are bad. In my opinion, spicy soup is epic!jan Emili: mi la, nalama suwi li pona alen se moku lo.
In my opinion, gummies are good ???? ?? soup.Those question marks are words we haven’t learned yet. se is the next preposition to learn about. se is a preposition that compares things to each other.nalama suwi e pona alen se moku lo.
[[GUMMY] SWEET] pred. GOOD MORE than. [[FOOD] LIQUID]se is used as a particle and means “like,” “as,” or “than.”se works well with sama. sama means “same.”ona li sota sama se soweli.
{3^SG} pred. EAT SAME as. ANIMAL
They eat like animals.There are a lot of words that are used to compare. We use pona _____ se, which means we are comparing them by how good they are.ajela means highest. Usually the thing that comes after se in this context are groups, because if you’re only the best of 2, then it is better to just use alen.nalama suwi e pona ajela se kulupu ni.
Gummies are the best compared to this group.alen means higher.nalama suwi e pona alen se moku lo.
Gummies are better than soup.meso means in the middle, and can be used as a spacial preposition too. It usually applies to a group of more than one.nalama suwi e pona meso se kulupu ni.
Gummies are in the middle of goodness when compared to this group.paku means less than. As a content word it can also mean “to trap” or “to snare,” and refers to traps and jails.nalama suwi e pona paku se moku lo.
Gummies are worse than soup.meno means least, or lowest. The same applies from ajela, if it is the lowest out of 2, then it is better to just use alen.nalama suwi e pona meno se kulupu ni.
Gummies are the worst compared to this group.ajela, alen, paku, and meno can also be used to describe relations about things other than goodness.ijo laso e insa alen se ni.
The blue object is farther in than this.There are prepositions that don’t use in, tan, ki or se. kepeken is an example. It’s close to the English preposition “via,” and can usually only be used in verbs.mi li pali kepeken jojosin e lipu.
{1^SG} pred. MAKE via. CYLINDER obj. BOOK
I made (using a pencil) my book.
I made a book via pencil.
I wrote a book.kepeken also can be used as a verb by itself, or a noun that means “use.”mi li kepeken e ilo.
I use the tool.si li jo e kepeken no.
You don’t have a use.There’s uten which means “without.”si li ken tawa ki tomo ni uten sinpin kowon.
{2^SG} pred. can. MOVE towards. [[HOUSE] THIS] without. [[FACE] FLUFF]
You can come in this house without the beard.There’s pisile and epelen and they mean “before” and “after.” They can only be used in verbs.keke li moku pisile lapen.
The monkeys eat before sleeping.kansa is a modifier that means together. It can be used in a verb:kulupu Siwensan li moku kansa.
The Stevenson family eats together.
(As in they complete the action as one group).Or with in.kulupu Siwensan li moku in kansa.
The Stevenson family eats together.
(As in they are in proximity when they eat).The distinction is usually arbitrary, and it gets even more muddled when applied to nouns. The same thing applies to the word ulun, which means “far apart.”ilo ni li weti ulun.
These tools shine apart.
(As in they complete the action separately).ilo ni li weti in ulun.
These tools shine apart.
(As in they are separated when they complete the action).That’s pretty much all I have for prepositions, and this step was a lot longer than others. We introduced a lot of grammar. See if you can decipher the meaning of these interactions, and this time, remember to pay attention to the people speaking. (Oh yeah and suwa means “choice.”)jan A: suninku moku si li seme?
What is your request of food?
What will be your order?jan E: mi eki sota e lisi taki in poka lo namako.
I will eat sticky rice next to the spicy sauce.jan A: a, suwa pona.
Oh, good choice.— jan A li tawa ki supa kapesan. —
Person A moves towards a new table.jan A: sina o, suninku moku si li seme?
Hey you group, what will be your order?jan I: ona li ken no ken suninku e moku pi jan kapesan?
Can they or can they not request the food for young people?
Can they order off the kids menu?jan A: lon.
Yes.jan I: ona li suninku e kili ma nun in kansa lete ko pi lepo.
They request the salty fruit of the ground with goopy bacteria milk.
They order the french fries with yogurt.jan A: ni li ale anu seme?
Is this everything?jan I: powe, mi li suninku e lo kikolo minsu. mi li pesoni weka ki tomo pali epelen sota.
No, I will request the energy bitter water. I have to leave to my building of work after eating.
No, I’ll order the coffee, I have to leave for work after eating.jan A: a, in tenpo sa la mi li sona.
Oh, now I know.Particles learned: in, ki, seContent Words learned: utoli, anpa, sinpin, monsi, insa, nesi, poke, kaje, tenpo, intawo, kakasi, musi, kama, weka, sama, ajela, alen, meso, paku, meno, kepeken, uten, pisile, epelen, kansa, ulun, suwa→ Next step
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Step 11: compound sentencesLet’s start off with some vocab. wetu means star, suno means sun, mun means moon, nupesa means cloud or sky, kaje means tree, inpali means flower, kasi means plant, jesen means wild, random or undomesticated, aja means life, moli means dead, death or to kill, and umi refers to bodies of water like seas, rivers and oceans.And how about some abstract concepts? isipin is to think or to think about, tana refers to concepts and myths, konta means to understand, inkatan means to remember, latijo refers to boring news and information, unlike sona which is more about knowledge and wisdom, and tijan refers to attention and focus.Here’s some wild cards: mani means “money,” ami means friend (but it can also mean “nice,” or “amiable,”) kalite means “quality,” and sawan means to trade, swap, barter or buy.Learn more about the vocab at tana intawo.A compound sentence in Toki Pawole is a sentence with multiple verbs, subjects or objects. The easiest way to create a compound sentence is to repeat the sentence particles.ona li kama li weka.
[3^PL} pred. COME pred. LEAVE
They come and go.What repeating li does makes it so that one object is performing multiple actions, so you don’t have to repeat the same sentence for a new action.mi li lanwano e mani e ijo lili.
{1^SG} pred. STEAL obj. MONEY obj. [[THING] LITTLE]
I steal money and little things.What repeating e does here is make it so the same action is done for multiple things.soweli e lakima e apeja.
The animal is sad and is ashamed.What repeating e here does is it shows that the animal "is" multiple things.lakima, liso, apeja and atali are emotions on their own, along with olin and malamon, so they can be used without the word pilin before them. But they are all also verbs, so mi li pilin lakima. “I feel sad,” and mi li lakima. “I cry,” are different things when put in the verb spot. (Oh yeah, olin and malamon can also mean “loving,” and “angry” by themselves.)It doesn't have to stop at one thing though, you can repeat multiple e's and multiple li's. Usually when you duplicate them, there's the idea that later parts are subservient to earlier parts, usually meaning they happened after.mi li tawa ki tomo kaje li open e lupa li notuwan in supa e mi.
I walk to my treehouse, open the door and sit myself down on a chair.en can go between subjects to show that multiple things are completing the action.mi en si li tawa ki tomo kaje.
Me and you move towards the treehouse.Repeating can also highlight differences. A funny thing is, while I was on the toki pona Discord, I posted an image that wasn’t relevant to the conversation and someone very politely told me:“sitelen ni li pona li suwi li wile ala lon tenpo ni.”This would be translated into Toki Pawole and English as:ni e pona e suwi e wile no in tenpo sa.
This is good, is cute, is not wanted at this time.I genuinely couldn’t stop laughing. That last highlighted phrase emphasized the difference of the image, because of the tonal difference throughout the sentence.Remember thaat since e has 2 meanings, you can’t use e to mean “is” after you’ve used li.kita li moku e liso.
The giraffe eats and is amused.
The giraffe eats the amusement.New VocabIn the last step (step 10), the very last example sentence said this:jan A: in tenpo sa la mi li sona.
Now, I know.An easier way to say this is mi li konta. It means “I understand.” In that last sentence, we have to stress the fact that before we didn’t know and now we did, but we don’t have to do that with konta because it already holds that connotation.mi li konta e ni.
I know this.mi li kokan konta e ni.
I am trying to know this.If ijo are the most general things, and pali are the most general actions, then kalite is the most general quality. By itself, it means “kind, class or category.”ijo kalite e ijo li pali e ijo.
Things with qualities are things and do things to other things.
Things with qualities are things and make other things.
Things with qualities are things and cause other things.tana refers to things that specifically don’t exist, are imaginative or social constructs.apeja li tana taso.
Shame is just a concept.inkatan relates to thoughts of things that happened before, like memories.mi li inkatan e sina!
I remember you guys!aja means alive, and can be coupled with isipin to translate the famous quote by Descartes:mi e aja.
I am alive.mi li aja.
I live.mi li isipin la mi li aja.
I think therefore I live.
I think, therefore I am.moli is also a special type of verb because it means “to be __” but also “to __ other things.”mi li moli.
I die.
I kill.The best way to remove this is by using mi e moli, which always means “I am dead,” and by using mi li moli e __, which always means “I kill __.”A similar thing happens with monsuta. With emotions like monsuta it is better to say mi e monsuta.mi e monsuta.
I am scared.
I am a monster.There’s really no simple way to be more clear in this case, but mi li pilin monsuta always means “I feel scared,” and never means “I feel scary,” just for this reason.tijan refers to attention and it isn’t really a transitive verb, but it can be used with directional words like ki to mean “pay attention to that location.”o tijan ki mi.
Pay attention to me.tana means concept, but it can also mean dream too.Using niUntil you learn more complicated particles, you can use ni to refer to situations or sentences you want to interact with.mi li e ni: on li lanwano li sota e pan tan poki pan.
I know this: They stole and ate the bread from the breadbox.
I know they stole and ate the bread from the breadbox.You can use this for any transitive verb that can interact with a situation.mi li kokan pali e ni: on li sawapu.
I try to cause this: they respond.
I’m trying to make them respond.mi li isipin e ni: kala li lanwano liso e len si.
I’m thinking of this: a fish humorously stealing your clothes.
I’m thinking of a fish humorously stealing your clothes.mi li pini e ni: sina li lakima.
I’m stopping this: you cry.
I’m stopping your crying.Try to see if you can follow these sentences without looking at the spoilers:jan A: jan sawan o, tijan ki mi! mi li toki kepeken ilo pi kalama suli tan mi li pesoni toki e ni: tomo sawan ni li pini.
Shoppers, pay attention to me! I am speaking using a speaker because I have to say this: this store is closing.
Attention, shoppers. I’m speaking through a speaker because I have to say that the store is closing.jan A: o open pini e ni: sina li sawan.
Start to finish your shopping.— jan B li pini tawa ki supa tawa esun li notuwan in supa e mani on. —
Person B stops moving towards the moving shopping table, and puts their money on the table.
Person B stops moving towards the conveyor belt and puts their money on it.→ Next step
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