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== Functions of la ==
la is a context particle. Anything that comes before la in a sentence is taken as context for the rest of the sentence. "X la Y" –> "in the context of X, Y."
; ma mi la kon li lete.
: The air in my country is cold.
It can be used to convey the same information as lon. Anything that you would say after a prepositional lon, you could put before a la and it would mean the same thing.
; mi pilin pona lon tenpo ni.
; jan mute li lon ma ni.
It can also move other prepositional phrases to the front, often negating the need for the preposition (but not always).
; ni li pona tawa mi.
: mi la ni li pona.
: tawa mi la ni li pona.
; sina pali e ni tan seme
A la-phrase can even take entire sentences under it, making a conditional phrase
; suno li loje la tenpo li pona.
sina weka la mi pilin ike = "If you leave, I'll feel sad"▼
; sina weka la mi pilin ike.
: When you leave, I feel sad.
== Idioms ==
ni la ≈ "so/then"▼
Certain [[la]] phrases are used with particular meanings.
; ante la
== External resources ==
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Revision as of 21:16, 22 February 2023
la is a particle of toki pona used to separate a sentence from its context.
Functions of la
la is a context particle. Anything that comes before la in a sentence is taken as context for the rest of the sentence. "X la Y" –> "in the context of X, Y."
- ma mi la kon li lete.
- In the context of my land, the air is cold.
- The air in my country is cold.
It can be used to convey the same information as lon. Anything that you would say after a prepositional lon, you could put before a la and it would mean the same thing.
- mi pilin pona lon tenpo ni.
- tenpo ni la mi pilin pona.
- jan mute li lon ma ni.
- ma ni la jan mute li lon.
It can also move other prepositional phrases to the front, often negating the need for the preposition (but not always).
- ni li pona tawa mi.
- mi la ni li pona.
- tawa mi la ni li pona.
- sina pali e ni tan seme
- tan seme la sina pali e ni.
A la-phrase can even take entire sentences under it, making a conditional phrase
- suno li loje la tenpo li pona.
- When the sun is red, the time is right.
- sina weka la mi pilin ike.
- If you leave, I'll feel sad.
- When you leave, I feel sad.
Idioms
Certain la phrases are used with particular meanings.
- ni la
- so/then
- ante la
- in any case/anyway