Lesson 4: Verbs

To say the sentences that we've constructed thus far have been boring would be an understatement. The reason for that is because we haven't been using any verbs.

Grammar

What is a verb?

A verb is a type of word that describes an action being done by a noun.

In the sentence, "I eat food." The verb would be eat because it is the action being done by the pronoun I, which is the subject of the sentence. The noun receiving the action is called the direct object. In our above sentence, the direct object would be food.

Your First Verbs

Enough grammar, let's learn some verbs!

Toki Pona	English
jo	to have, contain, carry
kute	to listen to, obey
moku	to eat, drink
pali	to make, do, work on
sona	to know
toki	to talk, speak, communicate

Grammar II

Sentence Construction with Verbs

We can create sentences with verbs using the following rule:

NOUN + li + VERB + e + NOUN.

So the sentence, "People listen to you," would translate to, jan li kute e sina.

But, we still have to follow the rule from the previous lesson where we drop li when using mi or sina as the subject.

I listen to you.

becomes

mi kute e sina.

Tenses

In lesson 0 we learned about stress. Now we're talking about a verb tense. I'm not sure if it's just a coincidence that so many grammar terms have negative connotations associated with them, but the rules for verb tenses in Toki Pona are simple:

There are none!

Whether you're trying to say, "I speak," "I spoke," or "I will speak," they all get translated to the same thing: mi toki.

It couldn't be easier.

Dropping Direct Objects

Earlier I described how to form sentences where one noun performs an action on another. You can also form sentences without a direct object.

soweli li moku.

The animal eats.

If you would like to keep the form where there is a direct object but still want to convey the meaning as if there wasn't, then you can slap on ijo as your second noun:

soweli li moku e ijo.

becomes

The animal eats something.

Verbs as Nouns

Any verb can be converted into a noun using either of the following rules:

1. When referring to an object or concept associated with the action:

something that you VERB

2. When describing the action itself as a noun:

the act of VERBing

That's not very intuitive, so let's look at some examples using our new verbs.

toki

something that you speak (language); the act of speaking (speech)

sona

something that you know (knowledge); the act of knowing (cognition)

Verbs as Adjectives

Just like how any verb can be converted into a noun, any verb can also be converted into an adjective! You follow the same format as the previous adjectives:

SUBJECT + ADJECTIVE

So, an animal that eats a lot (like my dog), may be called a soweli moku, which literally translates to, "an eating animal."

jan toki can be translated to a speaker/presenter, because that is a "person who speaks."

As you continue to learn more of this language, you will realize that you have quite a bit of agency when it comes to translations and conveying meaning. But that's what Toki Pona is all about! You cannot dedicate one of those 137 precious words to something as specific as a dining room; instead, you would say, tomo moku ("room of eating"). That's all part of the fun.

Wrap Up

Wow, we covered a lot! Verbs are incredibly versatile in Toki Pona. As you'll see below, it opens up what we can say quite a bit.

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. meli li jo e tomo suli.
   The woman has a big house.

2. soweli wawa li moku e kili.
   The strong animal will eat fruit.

3. mi pali e tomo lipu.
   We built a library.

4. mi moku e moku suli.
   I eat a lot of food.

5. tomo sona li jo e lipu.
   The university ("knowledge building") has books.

English to Toki Pona

1. I had a book.

2. You will know a simple language.

3. The community has workers.

4. This book has little information.

5. The group of animals listens to a new language.