a

This article is about the Toki Pona word. For the English word "a(n)", see Articles.

a is a particle used to indicate emphasis and emotion.

a
Pronunciation	/a/ 🔊 🔊
Usage	2023: Core (99% → )2022: Core (99%)
Book and era	nimi pu ("synonym" in pu)
Part of speech	Particle
Codepoint	󱤀 U+F1900

Function

a is used to indicate emphasis or emotion on a word, phrase, or sentence. When at the end of a sentence, it is equivalent to the exclamation mark in English. It may also be used alone as an interjection, meaning "ah", "oh", "uhm", among other words.

a　ni li pona tawa mi

a! ni li pona tawa mi.

Oh. This is good for me.

ni li musi a tawa mi

ni li musi a tawa mi!

This is so fun!

It typically applies to the word immediately before it. Take for example, the following phrases with similar but the exact meaning, where the particle a emphasizes a different word in the sentence.

ona a li pali e tomo

ona a li pali e tomo.

She builds a house.

ona li pali a e tomo

ona li pali a e tomo.

She builds a house.

ona li pali e tomo a

ona li pali e tomo a.

She builds a house.

When a is reduplicated, it is used to express laughter.

a a a

a a a!

Hahaha!

pu

In the "Official Toki Pona Dictionary" section, the book Toki Pona: The Language of Good defines a as:

PARTICLE  (emphasis, emotion or confirmation)

ku

For Toki Pona Dictionary, respondents in ma pona pi toki pona translated these English words as a:

ah⁵81–100% of respondents, oh⁵81–100% of respondents, ha⁵81–100% of respondents, ooh⁴61–80% of respondents, uh⁴61–80% of respondents, gosh⁴61–80% of respondents, whoa⁴61–80% of respondents, wow⁴61–80% of respondents, um³41–60% of respondents, huh³41–60% of respondents, uh-huh²21–40% of respondents, quite²21–40% of respondents, gasp²21–40% of respondents, really²21–40% of respondents, mm-hmm²21–40% of respondents, hmm²21–40% of respondents, sigh²21–40% of respondents

sitelen pona

The sitelen pona glyph for a (󱤀) is composed of the punctuation stem and the lowercase Latin letter A.

The letter A at the bottom is typically drawn in its single-story form ɑ, usually resembling the Latin letter's handwritten forms more than in type. However, the letter A can occasionally also be seen written as its double-story form a, or as the lower case Greek letter alpha (α, resembling a mirrored kala glyph). The punctuation stem can be drawn upright (aa) or at a diagonal (aa).

Compare the glyphs for kin, n, and o.

sitelen sitelen

The sitelen sitelen word glyph for a (aa) is a rounded shape with a flat bottom that includes a phonetic a radical (AA) and an uta radical (utauta, seen also in akesi: akesiakesi and toki: tokitoki).

The word may optionally also be written as the syllable glyph (AA).

Further reading

Resources

• Toki Pona: The Language of Good: Lesson 10
• jan Kekan San: Intejections
• jan Lentan: Lesson 7
• soweli Tesa: Lesson 10
• nasin toki pona: the emoticle a
• Jonathan Gabel: Interjections and Commands

Dictionaries

• "a" on lipu Linku
• "a" on lipu Wikipesija
• "a" on English Wiktionary