Source:Toki Pona: The Language of Good/Nouns and Adjectives

Toki Pona The Language of Good
Preface
What is Toki Pona?
Part 1: Lessons
1. Letters and Sounds
2. Words and Sentences
3. Nouns and Adjectives
⋮
Part 3: Dictionaries
Sign Language
Hieroglyphs
Place Names
Language Names
Phrase Book
Official Toki Pona Dictionary

"Nouns and Adjectives" is the third lesson of Toki Pona: The Language of Good, by Sonja Lang.

Lesson 3: Nouns and Adjectives

Words

NOUNS

telo	water, liquid
tomo	house, building, room

ADJECTIVES

lili	little
pona	good, simple, friendly
suli	big

Grammar

An adjective is a word that describes a noun. This can be a complete sentence:

NOUN + ADJECTIVE.
ijo li pona.
Something is good.

An adjective can also be added after a noun to describe it. In Toki Pona, the noun comes first: it’s the thing we are talking about. The adjective comes second: it gives more specific information about the noun.

tomo suli
‘large building’
palace

meli lili
‘little woman’
girl

jan pona
‘good person’
friend

telo suli
‘big water’
sea

Note that this is the opposite order from English. Often two Toki Pona words can be translated as a single English word.

A second noun can also fill the role of the adjective. This is similar to using the word ‘of’ in English.

NOUN + NOUN

lipu soweli
‘book of animals’

tomo meli
‘home of a woman’

Examples

1. telo li pona.
   Water is good.
2. telo kili li suli.
   The juice (‘water of fruit’) is large.
3. meli li lili.
   The woman is little.
4. soweli lili li pona.
   The small animal is friendly.
5. jan ni li suli.
   This person is tall.

Translate

1. The female animal is friendly.
2. This is a friend.
3. The bathroom (‘room of water’) is small.
4. This is a kitten (‘small animal’).
5. The baby (‘little human’) is female.
6. The large books are good.
7. The fruit is a watermelon.

Answers are on page 63.