Lesson 1: Words and Basic Sentences

Your First Words

Let's start by learning some basic nouns.

If you don't know what a noun is, Wikipedia defines it as:

...a word that represents a concrete or abstract thing, such as living creatures, places, actions, qualities, states of existence, and ideas.

Basically, a person, place, or thing. Below is a table of some basic nouns to get your feet wet with Toki Pona.

Toki Pona	English
ijo	thing, something, being
jan	person, human
kili	fruit, vegetable
lipu	document, book, website
meli	woman, female
ni	this, that
soweli	animal, land animal

You'll notice that a lot of words have multiple meanings. I mean, kili means any type of fruit and any type of vegetable, lipu is pretty much anything that contains written information; how am I supposed to know what someone is referring to when they speak?! The answer is simple: context and elaboration.

For example, there is no word for apple in Toki Pona, so instead you might say "round, red fruit".

It's okay if you don't memorize these words right away; that's what the Practice section is for!

Grammar

Okay, don't panic. I know this section is called, "Grammar", but it's not as bad as it sounds. I promise. Remember, Toki Pona is meant to be simple and easy. That includes its grammar.

Grammar 1

You can construct a simple sentence with two nouns connected by the word, li, where li means "is/are".

For instance, if you want to say, "This is that", in Toki Pona, then you would say, ijo li ijo.

Singular and Plural

In many languages, a word is modified to indicate multiple of that same noun. This is usually accomplished by adding a suffix. This might be 's', 'es', 'e', 'en', etc.

In English, you have many bananas. In German, you have many Bananen.

But in Toki Pona, you just have kili. The word by itself doesn't stand for a singular or plural of that noun. So soweli could mean 'animal' or 'animals'.

Grammar 2

If the thought of an indefinite vs definite article strikes fear into your soul, then let out a deep sigh of relief: Toki Pona has no articles!

If you don't know what an article is in the context of grammar, it's pretty much the words, "a", "an", and "the". They are words used with nouns to indicate whether a specific noun is being referenced, or a general one.

You use a definite article, like "the", to refer to a specific noun:

"The book is the best"

And an indefinite article, like "a" or "an", to refer to a general noun:

"A book is the best"

If your eyes are starting to glaze over then unglaze them, because you don't need to know anything about articles to master Toki Pona.

If you want to say, "This is an animal", then you would say, ni li soweli, which would translate literally to, "This is animal." But that is also the translation for, "This is the animal". What the meaning is depends on the context of the conversation.

Practice Sentences

Below are some sentences with a possible English translation. After that, there are some for you to translate yourself. When you're ready to see the answer, click on the box below the question.

Toki Pona to English

1. ni li jan.
   This is a person.

2. ni li kili.
   This is a banana.

3. lipu li ijo.
   A book is a thing.

4. jan li meli.
   The person is a woman.

5. meli li jan.
   Women are people.

English to Toki Pona

1. That is something.

2. The woman is a person.

3. This is a watermelon.

4. Humans are books.

5. The bear is female.