Time

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A sundial tells the time of day by the position of the Sun. When discussing time, you too can refer to things in your environment, like sunlight or a nearby time-telling tool.

There are many ways to discuss time in Toki Pona. The corresponding word is tenpo, and many common phrases incorporate it, though not all.

Durations

Some phrases for duration have become common lexicalizations:

• tenpo suno - day (sun "circles" the Earth)
• tenpo esun - week (based on the weekly workday cycle)
• tenpo mun - month (moon circles the Earth)
• tenpo sike - year (Earth circles the sun)

For units smaller than a day, a somewhat common pattern is tenpo lili and tenpo suli (sometimes with ilo), though it's ambiguous whether they refer to seconds, minutes, or hours.

For approximate durations, one can use tenpo lili and tenpo suli. Some use the same phrases for distances, while others use tenpo poka and tenpo weka. These can then be combined with terms for past and future.

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Past

The most commonly used phrase is tenpo pini - "finished time". If you'd like to (or need to) use something else, here are some potential alternatives for inspiration:

• tenpo majuna - old time, time of old things
• tenpo tan - source time
• tenpo weka - gone time (might be confused with far-away time)
• tenpo kiwen - solid time, time that can't be changed
• tenpo mama - ancestor time, time that created the current time

Present

The most commonly used phrase is tenpo ni - "this time", which can be confused with "the time we're talking about". A somewhat common alternative is tenpo lon - "time that exists". Other possible phrases include tenpo mi - "my/our time" and tenpo pi toki ni - "the time of this conversation".

Future

The most commonly used phrase is tenpo kama - "coming time". If you'd like to (or need to) use something else, here are some potential alternatives for inspiration:

• tenpo sin - new time
• tenpo tawa - moving time, the time we're heading to
• tenpo pi sona ala - unknown time
• tenpo ken - time of possibilities
• tenpo kili - offspring time, time created by the current time

Spatial metaphors

A reoccurring idea is to use tenpo monsi and tenpo sinpin to refer to the past and future. Although it seems unambiguous at first blush, spatial metaphors for time vary across languages: Aymara and Toba put the future behind the speaker, Mandarin Chinese does so in some cases (and often prefers a top-to-bottom timeline), French and Italian kinship terms equate "back" with both great-grandchildren and great-grandparents, and so on. Not even English is completely immune, with e.g. the phrase "moving a meeting forward" having been shown to be ambiguous.