Nouns
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jan somebody, anybody, person, etc.
mi I, me
moku food
sina you
suli big, tall, long, important
suno sun, light
telo water, liquid
Verbs/Adjectives
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moku eat, drink
pona good, simple; to fix, to repair
Grammatical Words
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li separates some subjects (especially
third-person) from the verb; see notes below
# Sentences with mi or sina as the subject #
One of the first principles you'll need to learn about Toki
Pona is that it has no form of the verb to be. For example:
mi pona = I am good.
sina suli = You are big/important.
Simply state mi or sina, then complete the sentence with an
adjective or verb. Although the lack of to be may seem odd
and discomforting, it's actually simpler if you think about
it, and there are other languages that don't use to be. Just
practice until you get accustomed to the idea.
# Toki Pona Is Often Ambiguous #
While reading the vocabulary section at the top of the page,
you probably noticed that several words have multiple
meanings. suli, for example, can mean either long or tall...
or big... or important. You may be wondering how one
word mean so many different things, but truthfully, many
Toki Pona words have multiple meanings. With such a tiny
vocabulary, ambiguity is inevitable but not necessarily bad:
The vagueness forces you to focus on very basic, core
features instead of lots of tiny, often frivolous details.
Toki Pona's vocabulary is also ambiguous because it doesn't
let you specify whether a word is singular or plural. For
example, jan can mean either person or people. (Side note:
Japanese is the same way.) You'll eventually learn a way to
distinguish singular versus plural, but not in this lesson.
# The "Verb" #
Look over these examples:
mi moku = I eat. or I am food.
sina pona = You are good. or You fix.
These sentences illustrate Toki Pona's ambiguity yet again.
Because Toki Pona lacks "to be", the exact meaning is lost.
In this sentence, moku could be either a verb or a noun.
Likewise, pona could be either an adjective or a verb. In
these situations, the listener/reader must rely on context.
After all, how often do you hear someone say I am food? I
hope not very often! You can be fairly certain that mi moku
means I'm eating. For sentences like sina pona, there is a
way to help you clarify the intended meaning, but you'll
learn about that in the next lesson.
# No Verb Tenses #
Toki Pona's "verbs" have no tense.
mi pona = I am good. or I was good. or I will be good.
This is yet another example of the vagueness inherent in
Toki Pona. If absolutely necessary, there's a way to specify
when something happened, but you won't learn about that
until lesson 17.
# Sentences without mi or sina as the subject #
We've already looked at mi and sina sentences, which are the
simplest sentences possible in Toki Pona. For sentences that
don't use mi or sina as the subject, there is one small
difference you'll need to learn. Look at how li is used:
telo li pona = Water is good.
suno li suli = The sun is big.
moku li pona = Eating/food is good.
li is a grammatical word that separates the subject from
its "verb." Remember: Always use li if the subject isn't mi
or sina, and never use it if the subject is mi or sina.
Although li might seem cumbersome and worthless now, as you
continue to learn Toki Pona you'll see that some sentences
could be very confusing if li weren't there, so practice
using it until it becomes normal to you.
# Practice #
Try translating these sentences from English to Toki Pona.
(The answer key is at the bottom of the page.)
A) People are good. 1) telo li pona.
B) I'm eating. 2) mi moku.
C) You're tall. 3) telo li suli.
D) Water is simple. 4) jan li pona.
E) The lake is big. 5) sina suli.
Now try changing these sentences from Toki Pona into
English. (answer key below.)
F) suno li suli. 6) I am important. / I am fat.
G) mi suli. 7) The sun is big.
H) jan li moku. 8) Somebody is eating.
(Answers: A:4, B:2, C:5, D:1, E:3, F:7, G:6, H:8)
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Source: Public domain lessons by Bryant Knight, 2015
