Personal pronouns

From sona pona, the Toki Pona wiki
Revision as of 02:22, 10 September 2023 by Jan Pensa (talk | contribs)
mi in sitelen pona
mi in sitelen sitelen
Pronunciation /mi/
Usage 2023: Core (100% → )2022: Core (100%)
Book and era nimi pu
Part of speech Content word
Codepoint 󱤴 U+F1934
sina in sitelen pona
sina in sitelen sitelen
Pronunciation /ˈsi.na/
Usage 2023: Core (100% → )2022: Core (100%)
Book and era nimi pu
Part of speech Content word
Codepoint 󱥞 U+F195E
ona in sitelen pona
ona in sitelen sitelen
Pronunciation /ˈo.na/
Usage 2023: Core (100% ↗︎ )2022: Core (99%)
Book and era nimi pu
Part of speech Content word
Codepoint 󱥆 U+F1946

The personal pronouns in Toki Pona are mi (first person), sina (second person), and ona (third person). Pronouns act like any other content word when it comes to syntax and number.

Number

Pronouns do not mark number, so they can be singular and plural.

mi

mi

I/me

we/us

sina

sina

you

y'all (or any other plural form)

ona

ona

it (or she/her, he/him, singular they/them, and the like)

they/them

If number must be specified, it can be added as a modifier:

mi wan

mi wan

I

mi tu

mi tu

us two

mi mute

mi mute

we[1]

mi ale

mi ale

we all

  1. Just like with regular nouns, mute is generally reserved for three or more individuals. If "we" refers to two people it is more common to use mi tu or just mi instead of mi mute.

Possessives

When used as modifiers, personal pronouns almost always imply possession:

ijo mi

ijo mi

my stuff

our stuff

ijo sina

ijo sina

your stuff

ijo ona

ijo ona

their stuff

Distinction

Pronouns do not mark gender. Instead, you can narrow down the referent of a pronoun by using any quality as a modifier.

ona jelo

ona jelo

the yellow one(s) of them

sina suli o!

sina suli o!

Hey, the tall one(s) of you!

li dropping

If the subject of a sentence is only mi or only sina, the li that would follow is dropped.

mi pona  ijo mi li pona 

mi pona. ijo mi li pona.

sina pona  sina kin li pona 

sina pona. sina kin li pona.

mi en sina li pona 

mi en sina li pona.

ona li pona 

ona li pona.

Other pronouns

ni ("that") and seme ("what") are also pronouns, as they stand in for a content word or phrase, but they are not personal pronouns. See also ona vs ni.