Source:Toki Pona: The Language of Good/Words and Sentences

"Lesson 2: Words and Sentences" is a chapter of Toki Pona: The Language of Good, by Sonja Lang.

Lesson 2: Words and Sentences

Words

NOUNS

ijo	thing, something, being
jan	person, human
kili	fruit, vegetable
lipu	document
meli	woman, female
ni	this, that
soweli	animal, land mammal

Grammar

A noun is a word for a person, place or thing.

To build a simple sentence in Toki Pona, follow this model:

NOUN + li + NOUN.
ijo li ijo.
Something is something.

By themselves, nouns are not singular or plural. The word meli can mean either ‘woman’ or ‘women’.

Toki Pona doesn’t use articles like ‘a’ or ‘the’. The word jan can mean ‘a person’ or ‘the person’, depending on the situation.

Examples

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. soweli li ijo.
   Animals are things.
6. meli li jan.
   Women are people.

Translate

1. Something is something.
2. This is a book.
3. The woman is a person.
4. Humans are beings.
5. The bear is female.
6. Blueberries are things.
7. This is a piece of paper.

Answers are on page 63.

Navigation

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