You and I

Words to Know

Each lesson has new words to learn, including the symbol each word is written with.

It may seem hard to learn a new language and its writing system together, but don't worry: Each symbol represents something about the word, so learning the word, symbol, and meaning all at once is much easier! To help, I also describe how to remember and draw each symbol.

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You and I

The most basic Toki Pona sentence has two parts: a subject and a predicate. The subject does something, and the predicate is what they do! To start, we'll only have one word in each, so here's an example:

mi toki

This kind of sentence can start with mi (mi) to mean "I", or sina (sina) to mean "you". Every sentence in this lesson will be one of these, so they'll always look like this:

[mi/sina] [predicate]

If a sentence starts with mi, you could read it in any of these ways:

I am [description]

I [action]

We are [description]

We [action]

You'll notice that mi can be translated as "I" or "we"- it can be singular or plural, even though the word didn't change. In Toki Pona, words can refer to any number of people or things!

Then, if a sentence started with sina, you could read it in any of these ways:

You are [description]

You [action]

Y'all are [description]

Y'all [action]

In all of these examples, the predicate is either an action or a description- either what the subject is doing, or what the subject is! Keep that in mind, and try to translate this sentence:

mi is the subject, and refers to the speaker. jan is the predicate, and is either an action or description of the speaker. Check your understanding under the spoiler by clicking it!

sina is the subject, and refers to the listener. moku is the predicate, and is either an action or description of the listener. Again, check your understanding under the spoiler!

Words and Context

We saw that mi can be used like "I" or like "we," and we'll see it work like "my" and "myself" and "our" in future lessons! The same goes for sina, which is used for "you" or "y'all", and will mean "yours" or "yourself" in future lessons.

Each word can take on so many different meanings because Toki Pona words mean different things in different contexts! And plurality isn't the only thing that can change. In the previous section, we saw that the predicate can be an action or a description- putting it another way, Toki Pona doesn't tell you the difference between "being red" and "redding," the act of being red! Here's the bigger picture:

• Words don't mark number! jan may talk about one person, fourteen people, everyone in a city, a hypothetical person, and more.
• Words don't mark time! moku may talk about eating right now, going out to eat next week, drinking months ago, and anything else.
• Words don't mark gender! mama can be any parent, guardian, or ancestor, regardless of gender.

Other languages put this information into the way words are said, or into the grammar of the sentence. In Toki Pona, you'd either say that information with words, or leave it to context: Who said this, and when? The words don't change- but the context does!

To practice this idea, try to think of as many ways to translate these sentences as you can. Remember: you can change number, time, gender, and even the specific action or description- as long as it fits into the meaning of the word!

Tip: You can translate these sentences in dozens of ways, especially with appropriate context- you'll probably think of something that isn't listed!

Your First Question

No language is complete without questions, and Toki Pona is no different! There are three ways to ask questions in Toki Pona, but we'll focus on the simplest for this lesson: Yes or no questions!

To ask a yes or no question, you double the first word of the predicate, then put ala (ala) in between. Here's an example:

The subject, sina, is exactly the same as before. But now, there's more going on in the predicate that turns it into a question! We'll see longer sentences in the future, but it's always that first word, doubled and with ala between, which makes a statement into a question.

To answer a yes or no question, you can say an entire sentence back, or just repeat the true part of the predicate- in the above example, you'd say pona for yes, or ala for no. But critically, there is no dedicated word that means "yes," and ala means a lot more than just "no!"

Hello and Goodbye

In Toki Pona, there are no specific words for "hello" or "goodbye."

Instead, "hello" is part of the word toki. It covers every kind of greeting!

That's it! If you're starting a conversation with somebody, hit 'em with a toki!

But saying "goodbye" is a bit different. To say goodbye, you describe how you're leaving: by moving!

This is the most common way to say goodbye in Toki Pona, but it isn't the only one. I'll point out more in future lessons!

Exercises

Try to translate these sentences to English, then check your understanding under the spoiler! The first answer fits the given context, but the rest are valid for other contexts.

All Toki Pona to English exercises include some situation as context, because language lives in context! Toki Pona is no exception. Knowing when a sentence is said helps you understand why it was said, and thus what it means.

I and we

You're about to go up to the podium on stage and give a speech. Before stepping on stage, you say to an attendent:

You're sitting at a table in a restaurant enjoying dinner, but receive a phone call from a friend. They ask what you're doing, and you say:

A sharply-dressed fellow has gotten home from a routine doctor's appointment. His partner asks how he's feeling, and he says:

You're talking to somebody on voice chat. Of course, on voice chat, nobody knows that you're a bear. But you need to cover your tracks, so to convince the other people you're talking to, you say:

A small child is reaching up to the top of the counter, stretching their best to reach a pack of cookies sitting there. The kid can't quite reach, so they sit down next to the counter and huff:

A couple come home to visit one partner's parents, with big news about their family now being bigger! Excitedly, they say:

It's close to bed time. You walk down the hall toward your room, pausing at your parents' door to say:

You and y'all

Your friend tells you a great joke. You don't laugh, but you still found it funny, so you tell them:

You walk past your roommate's door, seeing it barely cracked open. Wondering what they're up to, you open the door and find they are eating your snacks! You exclaim:

A customer in a convenience store has been demanding and unreasonable with the clerk for several minutes, to the discomfort of every other customer in the store. Finally, a customer finds their courage and stands up to the person, saying:

A tall woman in a business suit is waiting at a bus station. A parent and child are standing beside her, and the child looks up at the woman and says:

Questions

You and a friend are having a conversation while walking through the park, when suddenly your foot snags a crack in the sidewalk and you trip! You tumble to the ground, and your friend rushes to check on you. You have the following conversation:

You and a friend are wandering around inside a haunted house- you've heard scary rumors about this place for ages, and wanted to see it for yourself! But as you approach the basement, you hear a faint voice you don't recognize. Your friend, who's gone pale in the face, turns to you and asks:

You've been staring at a page of a textbook for several minutes, re-reading each paragraph as you try to understand. As you reach the bottom of the page again, you mumble to yourself:

It's the middle of the night. You and some friends went on a camping trip together, and you've woken up well before sunrise. You're a little bit spooked by the silence, so you poke a friend's sleeping bag to see if they're awake. You whisper to them:

Hello, Goodbye

A group of students are sitting in their seats, waiting for their early morning class to start. Everyone is poking at phones, doodling in textbooks, or soundly asleep. The teacher walks in and says to everyone:

Several friends have been playing a board game for hours. When the game ends, they sit around joking together, until one realizes it's time for them to go home. They say:

English

Try to figure out how you'd say these English sentences in Toki Pona! This time, no context is given- this means the answer will be much more simple and literal, but also easier to figure out!

Summary

What did you learn?

In Toki Pona, a word can be understood in many different ways, depending on when it's said and where it is in the sentence! And there are two reasons for that:

1. Toki Pona words are broad in meaning

In Toki Pona, words don't tell you about number, time, or gender. They also don't care if they're being used as a verb or adjective, or anything else. Because of that, each word can have a huge number of possible meanings- a huge number of things they can refer to!

Instead of changing the words to tell you about time or number, Toki Pona lets you figure things out from context- or spell it out literally, as we'll learn later!

2. Actions and descriptions are the same thing

In Toki Pona, there is no grammatical difference between "doing" and "being." The predicate does both! To describe it in English, you could say that if a person walks, they are also a walking person.

But this is better understood in Toki Pona: You might assume that mi tawa means "I'm walking" or maybe "I'm leaving." But it could just as easily mean "I am being shaken!"

What can you say now?

By now, you can say hello or goodbye, read and make sentences with mi and sina, and ask a variety of useful questions. This may not seem like a lot, but you already have all the pieces you need to follow along with some conversations, and even join them!

Test yourself!

Here's a short conversation, entirely in toki pona! It covers everything you've learned in this lesson. You've seen all the words here, and you've seen nearly all the grammar here too- so you're more than ready to figure out what's being said. Give it a shot, and good luck!

If you don't get it yet, don't worry! Language learning takes time, even in Toki Pona. Come back later and try again!

What comes next?

Now that you can talk about yourself and whoever you're talking to, it's time to introduce li so we can talk about everyone and everything else! In the next lesson, we'll have lots of examples of this new verb marker, and cover a new form of questions too.