Lesson 5: More Adjectives and Adverbs

In English, we have separate terms used to describe words that modify nouns and words that modify verbs. Those terms are adjectives and adverbs, respectively. You've already been exposed to adjectives, so here are some examples of adverbs, with the adverb bolded:

You speak well.

She quickly ran to the store.

For this lesson's words, I didn't break up the table into two; one for the adjectives, and one for the adverbs. That's because in Toki Pona a word can just as easily be an adjective as it would be an adverb, but I'm getting ahead of myself.

New Adjectives/Adverbs

Without further ado, here are your new words:

Toki Pona	English
ala	no, not, zero
ike	bad, negative
mute	many, very
sewi	sacred, divine
wan	one, united

Grammar

As I mentioned above, in Toki Pona the distinction between adjectives and adverbs isn't as clear as in English. So, for the sake of brevity, I will simply refer to the above words as adjectives for the rest of this lesson. I'm sure that linguist enthusiasts (of which there are many!) will cringe, but it will reduce the redundancy of having to specify how adverbs and adjectives work in the language since they behave the same!

Adjectives and Verbs

If you wish to use adjectives to modify a verb (i.e., adverb) then you would simply place the adjective immediately after the verb, like so:

sina toki pona.

Which translates to:

You speak well.

This closely mirrors how English works, although in English you can sometimes place the adverb before the verb, like in my above example, "She quickly ran to the store."

Adjectives and Other Adjectives

Adjectives can be used to describe other adjectives; this is technically called a degree adverb, or adverb of degree. It shows the degree to which the adjective is expressed. Hopefully, that puts me back in the good graces of all the linguist enthusiasts who scoffed at my combining of adjectives and adverbs.

Here is an example, with the bolded words being the adjective's adjective (adverb degree).

English:

You are very strong

Toki Pona:

sina wawa mute

Adjectives as Nouns

Adjectives can also be used as nouns. ike means bad or negative, but if you used it as a regular noun then it would mean something along the lines of "that which is bad." So Voldemort from Harry Potter and Sauron from The Lord of the Rings can be referred to as ike.

The Toki Pona word wan means one. mi jo kili wan, means, "I have one fruit." But if you use it as a noun then it would mean, "the one." So next time you watch The Matrix in Toki Pona, and they keep referring to Neo as wan, you'll understand why.

Adjectives as Verbs

Last, but not least, adjectives can also be used as verbs. Just as you can drop an adjective in the place of a noun, you can also stick an adjective in the place of a verb and have it roughly translate to, "to make ADJECTIVE."

For example, sewi means sacred or divine.

jan sewi

Which translates to "sacred person," might mean priest. Now treating sewi as a verb, the meaning would become, "to make sacred," i.e., bless:

jan li sewi e telo.

This translates to, "The person blesses ("makes sacred") the water."

Here are some other examples:

lili. As an adjective, it means, "small." If you use it as a verb it would mean, "to make small," meaning "shrink," or even, "belittle."

pona means "good" when used as an adjective. Used as a verb it means, "to make good." Said another way, "improve."

Wrap Up

And there we go! In this lesson, you learned not just new adjectives, but how to use what you already knew in different ways. Make sure to keep practicing the flashcards, that way you won't mix up moku, mute, and kute.

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. telo ni li ike mute.
   This water is very bad.

2. moku ala li wawa ike e mi.
   Not eating weakens me.

3. jan lili li kute ala e mama.
   The children did not listen to the parents.

4. mi jo kili wan.
   I have one vegetable.

5. jan ala li jo e mute.
   Nobody has a lot.

English to Toki Pona

1. The lake ("water") is very big.

2. You are belittling me.

3. Dogs ("friendly animals") are sacred.

4. The child does not eat broccoli.

5. The woman is not bad.