Words to Know

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

It may seem difficult to learn a new language and its writing system at the same time, but don't worry: Each symbol represents the idea of the word, which makes learning the word and its meaning much easier! To help, I also describe how to remember and draw each symbol.

Topics

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!

[subject] [predicate]

For this kind of sentence, two subjects are possible:

• mi - First person pronoun. I, me, my, mine, we, our, myself, ourselves
• sina - Second person pronoun. You, yours, yourself, y'all, y'all's

So the Toki Pona sentence always looks like this:

[mi/sina] [predicate]

The English interpretation looks like this for mi:

I am [description]

I [action]

We are [description]

We [action]

You'll notice these refer to just you as "I", or to a group of you as "we." In Toki Pona, words are broad in meaning- number doesn't change that. Keep an eye out for words being broad in the future!

Then, here are the English interpretations for sina:

You are [description]

You [action]

Y'all are [description]

Y'all [action]

For all of these examples, the predicate is either an action or a description- that is, what the subject is doing, or what the subject is! Here are more examples:

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! We also 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 any parent, guardian, or ancestor, regardless of gender.

Other languages put this information into the words or grammar. In Toki Pona, that information is only in context: Who said this, and when? The words don't change- just the context does!

Keep this in mind, and 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 matches the word!

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

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 figure out what these statements mean in English, then check your answer under the spoiler! The first answer is the one that best fits the given context, and the rest are other ways that sentence could be understood, but in different 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:

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 can you say now?

By now, you can make sentences with mi and sina, so you can talk about yourself and whoever you're speaking to! This may not seem like a lot, but you're only one word short of understanding this conversation:

Granted, this conversation is a bit awkward because I have so few words to use- and there's a bit of grammar we don't know yet. Still, you probably could follow that conversation anyway!

What did you learn?

In Toki Pona, a sentence could be understood many different ways, depending on when it's said! And there are two reasons for that:

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.

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!

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.

Bu 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!"