nasin toki pona—a good way to speak

by jan Juli (kili pan Juli / cile pa n-Ile)

In this document I aim to provide a comprehensive grammar of toki pona. Since toki pona is a very personal language, this document reflects my own opinions and style decisions. That said, nothing about this nasin toki is unusual. If you follow this grammar, you will be well understood by most (if not all) toki pona speakers.

💚 toki pona was created by Sonja Lang. My thanks and love, jan Sonja o!
💚 I also want to thank the community, especially everyone who took the time to read this and give feedback!
💚 jan Ke Tami o. kulupu poki o. tonsi Asi o. jan Seli o. jan Lilin o. sina pona a tan toki sona sina

introduction

The document is roughly divided into three parts.

First, this short introductory chapter will cover some nomenclature and conventions that’ll be used throughout the document.

Second, the basics chapter will give an overview over grammatical constructions and how they are arranged in a sentence, while giving a few example usages for easier digestion.

Third, the in-depth chapter will cover all pu words one-by-one. It will start with all the words that have special grammatical functions and then cover the pure content words, going over examples, explorations of the semantic possibilities, and interactions with different grammatical structures. (The content-word part will remain a work-in-progress for some time.)

how to read this grammar

Throughout this document, I will use
- single capital letters (e.g. X) to represent any valid toki pona content word or phrase
- <prep> to refer to any of the prepositions
- <preverb> to refer to any of the preverbs
Code-blocks contain valid toki pona (when replacing the above-mentioned abbreviations with real words). Brackets mark the bracketed part as optional, e.g. toki [ni] li pona
All translations are only suggestions. Since toki pona is highly context-sensitive, there is never only a single valid interpretation of a given sentence.

general principles

When using toki pona, it can help to keep in mind these general principles.

implied politeness

There is no need for formalities like “please” and “thank you” in toki pona. Generally, politeness is assumed per default. That doesn’t mean you can’t tell someone what you are thankful for, though. Instead of using empty formulaic ways to thank people, tell them why and how you are thankful, or that they are good!

no sentence-level recursion

In many natural languages we can embed whole sentences into other sentences. This is what I call sentence-level recursion here. For example, we do this in English when building relative clauses. In the sentence “I see people who walk to the house.”, the relative clause is “who walk to the house”, which is basically a complete sentence on its own. In toki pona, we cannot embed sentences in other sentences like that. Instead, these things are split up into multiple sentences:
mi lukin e jan ni: ona li tawa tomo - “I look at the person who is going to the house.”

no single word for “and”

To say “and”, instead repeat the appropriate particle (cf. the section on how to say “and”).

no tense-marking

In toki pona, we do not mark the predicate for tense. All sentences that don’t have explicit mentions of the time in other parts (like the indirect object or the context-phrase) can be interpreted as past, present, or future (or any other tense).

word types

This section lists the types of words in toki pona. Some people might analyze certain things differently. Importantly, when these word types are mentioned in this document, the corresponding words listed here are what is referred to.

particles

Particles are usually small words that only or primarily have grammatical functions. For usage details, see the respective sections on the particles in the in-depth part.

pure particles

en, li, e, la, pi, o, anu

Pure particles are words that have no semantic meaning on their own. They are purely grammatical words that exist to mark parts of speech, context, and modifier-order.

emoticle

a

The word a does not fit well into the other categories and thus gets its own place here as the emoticle (a portmanteu of emotion and particle). It is used to add emotional emphasis to words, phrases, or whole sentences.

pseudo-particles

nanpa, kin, ala, taso

The pseudo-particles are words that have particle-like properties, but can also be used like content words. They are therefore listed as their own category. As with the particles, check their respective sections in the in-depth part for more details.

content words

Literally every other word in toki pona is a content word with semantic meaning attached. Every content word can work like all of what is called “adjective”, “adverb”, “verb”, “noun” in English. Some of these are part of special groupings that give them additional grammatical functions. All the words that aren’t mentioned explicitly here are pure content words.

pronouns

mi, sina, ona, ni

The pronouns, like all content words in toki pona, are both singular and plural (quite like the English “you”).

prepositions

lon, tawa, tan, sama, kepeken

Prepositions are used to further describe the manner of the predicate. They indicate information about where, whither, whence, how, or whereby the predicate is performed. They can also occur without a preceding predicate and turn into a predicate themselves, describing the actions of the subject instead.

preverbs

wile, sona, awen, kama, ken, lukin

The preverbs are special words that can change the meaning of the predicate in ways normal modifiers cannot. Unlike all other modification in toki pona, they occur before the predicate they are applied to.

question word

seme

The question word seme behaves like a content word from a grammatical point of view. Importantly, that means that unlike in various natural languages, it cannot be used as a relative pronoun.

loan words

All capitalized words are names of things. Grammatically, they are similar to content words, but usually do not occur as a head.

basics

sentence structure

A basic toki pona sentence looks like this:

X li Y [e Z]¹

(more complex sentence structures are of course possible, if really necessary (e.g. here))

Example:
soweli li moku e kili - “An animal eats fruit.”

the subject

In the example above, X is the main character of our sentence, the subject
- It can be a person, a thing, an idea, anything really
- The important part is that our sentence describes what X is or is doing

the predicate

In the example above, Y is this thing they are or are doing, the predicate
- It can be an action; like working, playing, talking
- … a description; like blue, good, tall
- … or a thing; like house, animal, food

the direct object

In the example above, Z is the thing that the action is done to, the direct object
- It can also be basically any kind of thing or being
- It is either the receiver of the action Y performed by X, e.g. soweli li pali e tomo - “The animal builds a nest.”
- … or the stimulus that X experiences through doing Y, e.g. soweli li lukin e kili - “The animal sees a fruit.”

phrases

Since toki pona has a very minimalist lexicon, all the content words cover broad semantic fields. To specify what we are talking about, we can build multi-word phrases.
In general, a phrase consists of a main content word, the head, and zero or more additional content words, the modifier(s).

The head is the main thing we are talking about, while the modifiers further specify the head’s (usually very broad) semantic field. We can always remove any modifiers from a given phrase without changing that it could refer to the same thing as before, but it becomes less specific by doing so. (Exception: modification with ala, see below.)

Example:
In tomo waso (“bird-house”), the word tomo is the head while waso modifies it. We are talking first and foremost about a tomo. The modifier tells us that the tomo is in some way related to the semantic field of waso.

We use loan words like any other modifier:
ma Kanata li suli - “The land called Kanada is big.”
lipu kulupu Wikipesija li sona e ijo mute - “The community-document Wikipedia knows a lot of things.”

negation

To negate a phrase, just append the word ala.

Examples:
mi pali ala - “I will not work.”
jan ala li lon tomo ni - “Nobody is in this house.”
sina utala ala e waso suli - “You didn’t fight the horse-sized duck.”
ilo li tawa e jan ala - “The tool moves no persons.” (Maybe it’s a conveyor belt in a factory.)

multiple modifiers

If multiple modifiers are present they all apply to the head of the phrase. We can simply append additional modifiers. Thus, X Y Z is an X that is related to Y and to Z. Often, the order in which modifiers occur is not very important, apart from slightly changing the focus. An exception is modification with the word ala.

Examples:
soweli suli pimeja - “dark big animal”
soweli pimeja suli - “big dark animal”
jan lawa pona - “good ruling person”
jan pona lawa - “ruling good person”
tomo ala mute - “many non-houses”
tomo mute ala - “not many houses”

the particle `pi`

To modify the head of one phrase with another phrase instead of a single content word, we precede that second phrase with pi.

Example:
poki pi telo wawa - “strong-liquid container”, e.g. a cup of coffee, but
poki telo wawa - “strong liquid-container”, e.g. a diamond bottle

no objects in phrases

Generally, objects cannot be part of phrases. They are a kind of recursion that is usually not done in toki pona.² As such, we can use the prepositions as content words in phrases.

how to use prepositions

Prepositions are generally used to mark different kinds of indirect objects. They can be used in two ways. They are either appended to the predicate they modify (possibly including a direct object as well) or come directly after li and become the predicate themselves.

X li Y [e Z] <prep> W: the prepositional phrase describes the predicate Y
X li <prep> Y: the prepositional predicate describes the subject X’s action or state

Importantly, e is not used to mark the prepositional objects!

Example:
kasi li suli tan wawa suno - “The plants are big because of the sun’s power.”
mi sama sina - “I am like you.”
ona li kepeken ilo - “They use tools.”
Note that these last two constructions may seem strange at first. In the sama sentence the English copula “to be” has no equivalent. This is because toki pona simply doesn’t have a copular content word.
In the kepeken sentence, the (seemingly direct) object is not marked with e. The resolution: kepeken is a word that does not exist in English. Its indirect object is the thing that’s being used (to achieve something), not its direct object, like would be the case for the English verb “to use”.

negation of prepositions

Usually, prepositions cannot be modified when used in their grammatical function. We can follow them with the particle ala, though. This negates the preposition.

mi lon ala tomo - “I am not in the house.”
soweli li tawa ala kasi - “The naked mole rat does not move to the eggplant.”

how to use preverbs

The preverbs are used to change the semantic field in ways that simple modifiers cannot. They are added before the predicate they are applied to.

X li <preverb> Y [e Z]

Note that the direct object (here Z) relates to the predicate (here Y) and not to the preverb. The individual preverbs are covered in more detail here.

negation of preverbs

As with prepositions, preverbs cannot be modified when used in their grammatical function. But we can also follow them with the particle ala. This negates the preverb.

mi wile ala toki - “I don’t want to talk.”
waso li kama ala suli - “The bird didn’t become important.”

how to say “and”

The word “and” has no translation in toki pona. Instead, a general rule is to just repeat the appropriate particle to form conjunctions.

multiple subjects

To combine different phrases into a subject, we use the word en.

X en Y li Z
A en B en C li D

multiple predicates

To say that a subject X is doing two things, Y and Z we just repeat the predicate marker li like so:

X li Y li Z

Note that X and Y here may also be prepositional predicates.

If the subject is mi or sina, we have no li to repeat, so in that case, we simply start a new sentence.³

mi X. mi Y. mi Z

multiple direct objects

To add multiple objects, just repeat the particle e.

A li B e C e D

multiple prepositional phrases

We can also add multiple prepositional phrases to a sentence.

A li B <prep> C <prep> D

Here are some examples of how to say or not say “and” in prepositional contexts:
waso li musi kepeken wawa kepeken kon - “Birds play using power and air.”
jan Pin li sama jan Po li sama jan Kiko. - “Finn is like Bob and like Rico.” (Note the additional li.)
jan Pin li sama jan Po sama jan Kiko. - “Finn, like Rico, is like Bob.”
Note the difference between these last two examples! In the second version without the additional li, the second sama is a prepositional phrase describing the (prepositional) predicate.

in `pi`-phrases

While the general principle suggests that all pi-phrases should simply apply to the overall head of the phrase, context can often indicate that instead, the internal pi relates to the head of the external pi-phrase instead.

In general, we should avoid using multiple pi inside of one big phrase, because shorter phrases are easier to parse and less grammatically ambiguous.

combining different conjunctions

When multiple predicates are present, it can be ambiguous which predicate(s) the object(s) and preposition(s) apply to.

Example:
jan li pali li pakala e tomo e ilo lon ma kepeken luka
Note how this ambiguity is also present in English: “The person builds and breaks houses and tools in the field by means of their hands.”

We can often resolve the ambiguity by restructuring, depending on what is really meant:
jan li pali e tomo lon ma li pakala e ilo kepeken luka - “The person builds a house in the field and breaks tools using their hands.”
jan li pali e tomo e ilo kepeken luka li pakala e ona lon ma - “The person builds houses and tools using their hands and breaks them in the field.”

questions

There are three different ways to build a question. Note that since all of them unambiguously mark the sentence as a question, we have no need for a question mark in toki pona.

`X ala X`

This construction is used for simple yes-or-no questions: Y li X ala X
It asks the listener which one of the sentences Y li X and Y li X ala is true.
To answer an X ala X question, we simply repeat the predicate (X) to say that Y li X is true, or the predicate followed by ala (X ala) to say that Y li X ala is true.⁴ For the second case, we can also just say ala. Of course it is always possible to answer in a full sentence instead.

Example:
soweli loje li moku ala moku e kili - “Do foxes eat vegetables?”
moku ala - “No.”

Special cases:

If there is a preverb before the predicate, apply X ala X to the preverb instead of the main-predicate,
e.g. kili li kama ala kama suli (“Did the fruit grow big?”).
If the predicate is a phrase, you may just repeat the head,
e.g. jan li pana ala pana pi wawa mute e sike (“Does the person yeet the ball?”).
To stress what you are asking for, you can also X ala X other parts of the sentence,
e.g. soweli ala soweli li nasin e sina (“Did an animal lead you?“)

`anu seme`

The second way to ask a yes-or-no question is X li Y anu seme. This is not much different from the first, but it suggests that a less simple answer than just “yes” or “no” may be expected. It is answered the same way as the X ala X question.

Example:
ma sina li lete anu seme - “Is it cold where you are?”
lete. taso suno pini li seli a - “Yes, but yesterday it was very warm!”

Note: anu seme can be interpreted as just a variant of a normal seme question (see below) in combination with the particle anu.

`seme`

If we replace the thing that is asked for with seme, we can ask an open question. Using this construction, we ask the listener to fill the place of seme with the appropriate information. These types of question are often answered with a full sentence. You may also just say the phrase in question.

Examples: jan seme li toki - “Who is speaking?”
mi toki. - “I am.”

ona li seme (“What did they do?“)
ona li tawa tomo ona (“They walked home.“)

sina lukin e seme (“What are you watching?“)
mi lukin e waso (“I am watching birds.”)

“relative clauses”

In toki pona, building sentences that are similar to relative clauses requires multiple sentences (often just two). We can do so by using the word ni to mark the word we want to describe further, and then postponing that further description until the end of the current sentence. (Putting the description before the rest of the sentence is also fine.)

Examples:
jan ni li pona tawa mi: ona li mama e kasi - “People who care for plants are good to me.”
soweli li lukin e waso ni: ona li tawa lon ma kasi - “The animal watches birds that fly through the forest.”

Another strategy is to move the descriptive sentence to the beginning and append the main sentence.

Examples:
jan li mama e kasi. jan ni li pona tawa mi - “People who care for plants are good to me.”
or jan li mama e kasi. ona li pona tawa mi - “People who care for plants are good to me.”
waso li tawa lon ma kasi. soweli li lukin e waso ni - “The animal watches birds that fly through the forest.”
or waso li tawa lon ma kasi. soweli li lukin e ona - “The animal watches birds that fly through the forest.”

ordinals

For ordinal numbers, just attach the pseudo-particle nanpa and then a number. Using nanpa as an ordinal marker comes with a built-in pi, so you mustn’t add that.

Examples:
sina jan nanpa wan lon tomo ni - “You are the first person in this building.”
ilo nanpa wan li pona. ilo nanpa tu tu li pona ala - “The first tool is good. The fourth tool isn’t.”

comparisons

For comparatives, there are multiple possible constructions. It is easiest to learn by example:
jan Ipe li suli. jan Sunsi li lili - “Sunsi is smaller than Ipe.”
tomo mi la tomo sina li loje mute - “Your house is more red than mine.”

Superlatives can be expressed with the ordinal nanpa wan (“first”):
pona la toki ni li nanpa wan - “When it comes to goodness, this language is the best.”
toki ni li pona nanpa wan - “This is the best language.”

transitives

Sometimes, we come across strange constructions in toki pona. Things like mi tomo e waso⁵ may look confusing at first, but there are simple strategies to interpret this.

When we use the construction X li Y e Z we usually mean one of two things, depending on context:

The subject causes the object be Y, “X causes Z to be Y.”. In terms of toki pona, we can restructure this to X li pali e ni: Z li Y.
mi pona e tomo - e.g. “We cause the room to be good.”, or “I repair the house.”
mi tomo e waso - e.g. “We turn the bird into a house.” (Maybe it is a very big bird and we can live in its plumage!)
The subject applies Y to the object, “X applies Y to Z.”.
mi luka e soweli len - e.g. “I pet the hidden dog.”, or “I hit the plush toy.”
mi tomo e waso - e.g. “I apply the house to a bird, i.e. I put the bird into the house”
sina telo e sina - e.g. “You wash yourselves.”, or “You spill water on yourself.”

interjections

A way to comment on things without building full sentences are interjections. They usually consist of a simple phrase, a prepositional phrase, or both. We have already seen an example of simple interjections in the section on questions, specifically when answering yes-no questions. Other uses include (but aren’t limited to) short comments on things we’re currently experiencing or feeling, and expressions of our opinions on things.

Examples:
pona a - “so nice!”
waso suwi - “sweet bat!”
wawa tawa sina - “may the force be with you!”
tan seme a - “why?!”
a - “oh!”, “ah!”, “wow!”, …

context

If you have ever asked a jan pi toki pona how to say some word from a natural language, you will probably have heard about context. It is the almighty disambiguator, the thing that condenses the vast semantic fields of our utterance into manageable dimensions. It lets us understand whether someone is talking about a fox’s burrow, a zoo, or a cat-shaped house.

The context of a sentence encompasses the entire experience the speaker and listener have while communicating. In one situation mi o tawa means “I should leave.”, in another it is “Let’s go!“.

Beginners often try to express the wildest things in single phrases. They stack pi upon pi, throw in more and more modifiers, and end up with an unwieldy construction that is hard to intepret (at best) and even harder to come up with on the fly. When context is missing, all the building blocks of the phrase can be misinterpreted. This is why we need to establish the appropriate context in toki pona, before we can go on to say the things we want to say. Instead of throwing all the information about the intended word into one phrase, we should describe it in multiple short and easily interpretable sentences.

Getting a feeling for context is something this document cannot teach. We need to practice toki pona with other speakers, especially those that have a firm grasp on the language.

in-depth

This section provides more detailed info on how to use and not to use specific words and constructions.

more info on sentence structure

A more complete sentence structure of toki pona is given here. Note again that if the subject is only mi or only sina, then you need to leave out the first li of that sentence, which is not explicitly marked below.

[(A|<prep> A|<sentence>) la]* B [en C]* {li [<preverb>]* D [e F]* [<prep> G]*}+

<sentence> stands for any well-formed sentence here
(X|Y|Z) stands for “pick either X, Y, or Z”
The asterisk (*) means that an object of the same form as the preceding one may occur any number of times (including zero)
The plus sign (+) means that an object of the same form as the preceding one may occur any number of times (excluding zero)

Note that in general, sentences are much (!) more simple and don’t use a lot of this potential complexity. If we find ourselves writing long and complex sentences, we should consider splitting the thought up a bit more.

more info on particles

the particle `en`

The particle en is a subject marker that is always omitted for the first subject. Like all particles, it does not have any semantic meaning. It is not a general conjunction (cf. how to say “and”), but often mistaken for one by new learners.

Examples:
jan en soweli li sama mute - “People and animals are very similar.”
sina en mi li toki - “You and I are talking.”
tenpo mute la kon en telo li wawa - “Wind and rain are often powerful.”
jan An en jan Pita en jan Sen en jan Ton li lon - “Ann, Peter, Sam, and Tom are here.”

the particle `li`

The particle li is a predicate marker. Like all particles, it does not have any semantic meaning.
It is only omitted if the subject is exactly and only mi, or exactly and only sina. Thus, we say mi pali since the subject is mi, but neither in pali mi li pona (subject: pali mi) nor in mi taso li lon tomo (subject: mi taso) nor in sina en mi li toki (subject: sina en mi) can li be omitted.

If we want to add more than one predicate to a sentence that starts with mi or sina, we can instead just start a new sentence.

Often, we can tell from a missing li that an utterance is not a complete sentence. This is of course only true if the subject is not mi or sina and if li is not replaced by o (see below).

Examples:
soweli li suwi - “The animal is cute.”
mi kama. mi oko. mi anpa - “I came, saw, and conquered.”
ona li pali mute li lape lili - “They work a lot and sleep a bit.”

the particle `e`

The particle e is the direct-object marker. Like all particles, it does not have any semantic meaning. The direct object in sentences is either the patient of an action or the stimulus of an experience.

The patient of an action is the thing that the subject changes by performing the action that is described by the predicate.

Example: soweli li pakala e kasi - “The animal breaks off the plant.”

The stimulus is something the subject percieves, feels, or thinks.

Example: mi lukin e mun - “I watch the stars.”

We do not use e to mark indirect (prepositional) objects. They are neither patient nor stimulus. They are instead marked by prepositions.

Example: mi pali lon tomo - “I work in the room.”
Note the difference: mi pali e tomo - “I build a room.”

As above e is not used to mark prepositional (indirect) objects, even in sentences where the predicate is left out.

Example: ona li tawa tomo - “They go to the house.”
Note the difference: ona li tawa e tomo - “They [physically] move the house.”

Finally, e can never occur inside of phrases, e.g. in the subject or in a pi-phrase.

More examples:
waso li mama e waso lili - “The bird cares for the chicks.”
jan Ali li sona e toki Alapi e toki Lasina e toki Inli e toki Putonwa - “Ali knows Arabic, Latin, English, and Mandarin.”

the particle `la`

The particle la marks contextual phrases and sentences. Like all particles, it does not have any semantic meaning. We put the context first, then la, and then the sentence that should be interpreted in the given context:
X la Y li Z - “In the context of X, Y is/does Z.”

la can be used for adding many kinds of information, e.g. tense, manner, place, evidentiality, etc. We can also use it for if-then statements, in case a complete sentence precedes the la. What’s more, we can put prepositional phrases in front of it and it will mean the same as when appending the same phrase (albeit with different focus):

Examples:
tenpo lon la mi sitelen e lipu sona - “Right now, I write a knowlegde-document.”
mi la ni li pona - “As for me, this is nice.”
jan Pala la suno li wawa a - “Barbara told me that the sun is intense!”
supa tomo li jaki la jan li telo e ona - “If the floor is dirty, then people wash it.”
kepeken ilo telo wawa la mi weka e jaki tan supa - “I powerclean the front-porch.”

the particle `pi`

The particle pi marks the head of a phrase that acts as a modifier for another head. It is never used for single-word modifiers. Like all particles, it does not have any semantic meaning.

By default, modifiers are applied from left to right to the head. If a pi is added, everything that follows this pi becomes its own phrase, that in turn modifes the head preceding the pi as one.

Examples:
jan lawa mute - “many head-people” (e.g. “many leaders”)
jan pi lawa mute - “many-headed person”
ilo tawa lili mute - “many small movement-tools” (e.g. “many skateboards”)
ilo pi tawa lili mute - “tool related to many small movements” (e.g. “electric toothbrush”)
ilo tawa pi lili mute - “very small movement-tool”

While it is technically possible to use multiple pi-phrases inside of each other, the general principle of avoiding recursion suggests that it is better to just use sentences to describe the compound in more detail. If for some reason we would be forced to use multiple pi inside one phrase, we need to be aware that there is ambiguity in whether they all apply to the overall head or to the smallest phrase they follow.

the particle `o`

The particle o is a second predicate marker, as well as a vocative marker. Like all particles, it does not have any semantic meaning. It is used in place of li when issuing commands, or describing wishes or desires.

In direct commands to the listener, the subject sina can be omitted.
[sina] o tawa pona - “Drive carefully!”

For wishes, desires, and hopes, replace li by o. (This is also called optative mood.)
ona o lape - “They should sleep.”

Other than li, o cannot be omitted with mi or sina.
mi o toki pona - “I should speak clearly.”

For vocative, o can be appended to a phrase to address the thing described by said phrase.
jan Su o - “Hey Su!”

Combining vocative and imperative can also be done easily:
jan Su o lape pona - “Hey Su, sleep well!”

Note that the optative/imperative and vocative are not distinguishable when there’s only one subject.

the particle `anu`

Info on the word anu has always been notoriously hard to find, while at the same time the community’s usage of it is much more varied than with other words.

In general, anu is a conjunction meaning “or” (both exclusive and inclusive). We can use it to join different parts of speech into a contextually appropriate anu-phrase. What I am calling anu-phrase here consists of two valid phrases joined by the word anu. These phrases then act as a new phrase that can occur in either of the subject, the predicate and the (direct and indirect) object. Using anu inside of pi-phrases should be avoided due to the arising ambiguities.

Examples:
waso anu kala li tawa - “The bird or the fish moves.”
waso li pali anu pakala e tomo - “Birds build or destroy the nest.”
soweli li pali e tomo anu lupa - “Animals build nests or burrows.”

the emoticle `a`

The word a can be appended to any word, phrase, or sentence to add emotional emphasis. It can also be used on its own to express utterances like “ah!”, “oh!”, “wow!”, etc.

Examples:
pona a - “So good!”
ike a - “Oh dang!”
o lukin e pali mi a - “Look at my work!” [e.g. implying pride or sadness, depending on context]
ni li musi a tawa mi - “This is so fun!“

more info on `ni`

ni can mean any of the following in the right context:

“this/that/these/those”
as a modifier, in addition to the above: “related to this/that/these/those”, “in this/that/these/those way(s)“
as a predicate: “to do this/that/these/those”, “to be this/that/these/those”

Examples:
ni li pona - “That is peaceful.”
ona li oko e ni - “They look at this.”
tomo li suwi. jan li ni kin - “The house is cute. The person also is.”
soweli li len e kili lon ma. ona li ni tan tenpo lete - “The squirrel hides some nuts in the ground. It does this because of winter.”

more info on pseudo-particles

the pseudo-particle `nanpa`

As described in the section on ordinals, the pseudo-particle nanpa is used for enumerating the head when appended directly to a phrase.

When there is also a pi present, we have to take care how we order things:
ilo pi akesi suwi nanpa wan - “the first axolotl’s tool”
ilo nanpa wan pi akesi suwi - “the axolotol’s first tool”

When nanpa occurs as a head, it describes the respective number instead of ordinals:
nanpa tu li nanpa pona tawa mi - “I like the number two.”
len pi nanpa wan li loje - “The shirt with the number 1 printed on it is red.”

We can slightly extend the usage of nanpa when pointing to the following, or last thing in an ordered list:
sitelen tawa nanpa pini li musi a - “The last video was so fun!”
mi toki lon kalama pana nanpa kama - “I will speak in the next podcast episode.”

the pseudo-particle `kin`

kin is an additive marker, which describes that a phrase is or is doing something as well, or has something being done to it as well. It is used similarly to the English word “too”.

It can be appended like a modifier to any phrase, but cannot occur as a head itself. The only exception is in the context-phrase kin la, where it marks the whole following sentence as an addition to what was already said. It is often preferable to specify more in which way the sentence is as well, e.g. with sama la (“equivalently”, “similarly”, …) or ante la (“also, unrelatedly”, “on the other hand”, …).

Examples:
jan li ken pona kin - “People can also be peaceful.”
kin la ma li sike e suno - “Furthermore, the earth revolves around the sun.”

Examples of different placement:
ona kin li pali e lipu - “They write a book, too [among other writers of books].”
ona li pali kin e lipu - “They write a book, too [among other things being done to the book].”
ona li pali e lipu kin - “They write a book, too [among other things being created].”
Note that these sentences can all be translated the same in English, potentially with differences in stress. While they have slightly different focus, interpreting this too strictly is not advisable.

the pseudo-particle `ala`

As we’ve seen in the section on negation, the pseudo-particle ala can be used exactly like a content word when negating inside of phrases.

Aside from that, it can be a head itself, with semantic connotations of “nothingness”, “void”, etc.

Additionally, we can negate preverbs and prepositions with it, in a way that no other modifier can:
mi sona ala pali e tomo - “I didn’t know how to build the house.”
kala li moku kepeken ala ilo - “The fish ate without using tools.”

the pseudo-particle `taso`

The word taso is similar to kin in where it can occur. Its meaning is different, of course. Using it as a modifier, we can indicate that the marked phrase is the “only” thing that the sentences statement applies to. Sentence initially, it marks the whole sentence as contrary to some previous statement, like English “but”. In some contexts, it can even work as a head-noun.

Examples:
soweli li ken pona taso - “Animals can only be good.”
taso ma li sike e suno - “But, the earth revolves around the sun.”

Examples of different placement:
ona taso li pali e lipu - “Only they write a book.”
ona li pali taso e lipu - “They only write a book.”
ona li pali e lipu taso - “They write only a book.”

Examples of head-noun taso:
ona li taso - “They are alone.”
mi pilin ike ala tan taso mi - “I don’t feel bad because of being alone.”

a comparative analysis of prepositions

This section provides a comparative analysis of how prepositions work in toki pona. Be aware that the fifth block contains some unusual constructions that not everyone would understand.

idea
X li Y e Z ≈ X li pali e ni: Z li Y

the prepositions

tawa - to, towards, from the perspective of
lon - in, at, on
sama - like, similar to
tan - from, because of
kepeken - using, by means of

prepositional phrases

mi pana e ijo tawa ona - “I give them a thing.”
mi awen lon tomo - “I stay in the house.”
mi pali sama ona - “I work like them.”
mi suli tan moku - “I am big because of food.”
mi toki kepeken kalama - “I speak by means of sound.”

prepositional phrases without predicates

mi tawa tomo - “I go to the house.”
mi lon telo - “I am in the water.”
mi sama ona - “I am like them.”
mi tan ma Apese - “I am from Abc-land.”
mi kepeken ilo - “I do something by means of tools.”

transitive phrases with content-word versions of the prepositions

mi tawa e soweli - “I move the animal [towards an unspecified location].”
mi lon e kala - “I exist the fish (i make the fish exist) [in an unspecified location/time/way].”
mi sama e akesi - “I sameify the frog (i make the frog similar) [to sth unspecified].”
mi tan e ona - “I make them be the result [of something unspecified].”
mi kepeken e ona - “I make them use [something unspecified].“

transitive phrases with prepositional predicates (unusual!)

mi tawa supa e soweli - “I move the animal towards the table or “I surface-move the animal.”
mi lon telo e kala - “I exist the fish (i make the fish exist) in the water.”
mi sama jan e akesi - “I sameify the frog (i make the frog similar) to a person.”
mi tan utala e ona - “I make them be the result of conflict.”
mi kepeken ilo e ona - “I make them use a tool.”

more info on preverbs

pu preverbs

`wile`

The word wile can be used for expressing things on our complete hierarchy of needs.⁶

We can think of everything we might need or want as falling somewhere on this hierarchy. In English, we call things that are very low in the hierarchy (like e.g eating and sleeping) “needs”. Similarly, we call things that are rather high in the hierarchy (like e.g. watching another episode of that tv series) “wants”. The word wile covers the complete hierarchy.

As a preverb, wile marks the following predicate as falling in the hierarchy of needs of the subject.

Examples:
ona li wile pana e kili - “They want to donate the turnip.”
jan lili li wile suli - “The child wants to be an adult.”
mi wile tawa lon nasin noka - “I need to walk on the footpath.”
soweli suli li wile lape lon tenpo lete - “Bears need to sleep during the cold season.”

`sona`

The preverb sona expresses that the subject knows how to be or do the predicate.

Examples:
mi sona toki pona - “I know how to speak simply.”
waso li sona pali e tomo - “Birds know how to build nests.”
jan Oto li sona musi. - “Otto knows how to be funny.”

`awen`

Preverb awen expresses a continous status, or a continuously/repeatedly happening predicate.

Examples:
o awen pali e ijo - “Keep working on the thing!”
mi awen wile e ni - “I still want this.”
ona li awen weka - “They remain far away.”

`kama`

The preverb kama indicates that the predicate became / is becoming / will become true. This means that the subject started doing or being something that it was previously not or not doing.

Examples:
mi kama sona e toki pona - “I learnt toki pona.” (I didn’t know it, and then I came to know it.)
akesi li kama lon nasin telo - “The crocodile arrived in the river.”
tomo li kama suli - “The house became big.” (E.g. when seeing a newly finished house that we only saw when it was much smaller.)

`ken`

The word ken expresses the ability to do something. We use it as a preverb to show that the subject is able to be or do the predicate, or that it is possible that the subject is or does the predicate.

Exampels:
sina ken toki tawa mi - “You can speak to me.”
jan li ken lape lon ma kasi ni - “People are allowed to sleep in this forest.”
kala li ken soweli - “Marine animals can be mammalian.”

`lukin`

The preverb lukin corresponds to trying, seeking, or looking to be or do something. Since oko and lukin are introduced as synonyms in lipu pu, we can arguably also use oko as a preverb. This is rarely done, though.

Examples:
mi lukin pini e lipu ni - “I am trying to finish this document.”
ona li lukin tawa waso - “They are trying to fly.”
mi oko jo e tomo lili lon ma kasi - “I am trying to have a small cabin in the woods.”

other “preverbs”

These words are sometimes used as preverbs although they were not defined as such in lipu pu. Many speakers don’t use them and I personally also recommend against it. There are very easy work-arounds for contextually saying the same thing, compare the alternative (non-exhaustive!) versions marked “some pu options”. Every additional preverb makes the grammar more ambiguous, compare the default non-preverb readings given for comparison (after “OR”).

`open`

Used for starting being or doing something, open preverb introduces new ambiguities into the grammar.

Examples:
ona li open pakala e lupa tomo - “They start breaking the door.” OR “They accidentally open the door.”
some pu options: ona li open e pakala pi lupa tomo or ona li lukin pakala e lupa tomo
jan li open pona e ma - “People will start being good to nature.” OR “People open-up well the land.” (e.g. to dig a hole)
some pu options: pona ma la jan li open or jan li kama pona e ma

`pini`

Analogously, the word pini, when used to indicate that we have finished being or doing something, introduces similar ambiguities.

Examples:
mi pini tawa tomo sona - “I have finished going to school.” OR “I am done from the perspective of the school.”
some pu options: mi awen ala tawa tomo sona or mi kama lon tomo sona
soweli li pini jaki e tomo - “The dog had finished besmirching the house.” OR “The dog had disgustingly ended the house.”
some pu options: tomo li kama jaki tan soweli or simply soweli li jaki e tomo

`alasa`

Very similar to lukin, preverb alasa can be used to indicate trying to be or do something. Compared to lukin it is sometimes said to have a more focused and targeted vibe. Introducing this kind of distinction into the simplistic toki pona seems questionable.
For the recommended pu option, simply replace alasa with lukin here.

Examples:
mi alasa sitelen e lipu pona - “I am pursuing writing a good document.” OR “I document-scavenge the good books.”
jan sona li alasa sona e ijo mute - “The sage tries to know many things.” OR “The sage wisely hunts many things.”

Memory Core

Explorer

tokipona

nasin toki pona—a good way to speak

introduction

table of contents

how to read this grammar

general principles

implied politeness

no sentence-level recursion

no single word for “and”

no tense-marking

word types

particles

pure particles

emoticle

pseudo-particles

content words

pronouns

prepositions

preverbs

question word

loan words

basics

sentence structure

the subject

the predicate

the direct object

phrases

negation

multiple modifiers

the particle pi

no objects in phrases

how to use prepositions

negation of prepositions

how to use preverbs

negation of preverbs

how to say “and”

multiple subjects

multiple predicates

multiple direct objects

multiple prepositional phrases

in pi-phrases

combining different conjunctions

questions

X ala X

anu seme

seme

“relative clauses”

ordinals

comparisons

transitives

interjections

context

in-depth

more info on sentence structure

more info on particles

the particle en

the particle li

the particle e

the particle la

the particle pi

the particle o

the particle anu

the emoticle a

more info on ni

more info on pseudo-particles

the pseudo-particle nanpa

the pseudo-particle kin

the pseudo-particle ala

the pseudo-particle taso

a comparative analysis of prepositions

more info on preverbs

pu preverbs

wile

sona

awen

kama

ken

lukin

the particle `pi`

in `pi`-phrases

`X ala X`

`anu seme`

`seme`

the particle `en`

the particle `li`

the particle `e`

the particle `la`

the particle `pi`

the particle `o`

the particle `anu`

the emoticle `a`

more info on `ni`

the pseudo-particle `nanpa`

the pseudo-particle `kin`

the pseudo-particle `ala`

the pseudo-particle `taso`

`wile`

`sona`

`awen`

`kama`

`ken`

`lukin`

`open`

`pini`

`alasa`