pi

pi is a particle used for grouping modifiers together. The resulting phrase that follows it is called a pi phrase, by analogy to prepositional phrases.

How it works

By default, each modifier applies to the whole phrase before it:

jan pona

good person

jan pona mute

many good people

pi marks the next word as a new head, which takes its own modifiers.

jan pi pona mute

very good person

The effect can be similar to hyphenating an adjective phrase in English:

tomo telo nasa

strange water room (the room, perhaps a washroom, is weird)

tomo pi telo nasa

strange-water room (the liquid is weird; perhaps a pub)

pi needs to be followed by at least two content words: the new head and a modifier applying to it. If there would only be one word after it, you don't need the pi.

There is no way to "close" a pi phrase. Instead, modifiers that apply to the first word should be moved before the pi:

jan pi pana sona

knowledge-giving person (teacher)

jan ike pi pana sona

knowledge-giving bad person (bad teacher)

Multiple pi

While not defined in pu, some speakers do use multiple pi in a single phrase. However, this carries a risk of ambiguity as to whether the second pi is contained within the first or not:

lipu pi sona mute pi toki Inli

English much-knowledge book (is the book in English or is the knowledge about English?)

jan Lope argues that, like li and e, both pi phrases apply equally to the first noun in the phrase, rather than nesting. As an example, he gives:

kulupu pi kalama musi pi ma Inli li pona.

The English rock band is good.

The ambiguity is whether it's an English band that plays some sort of music, or a band from somewhere that plays English music. There is no consensus on this matter, and in practice both interpretations are possible. In fact, many speakers want it to be ambiguous so that clearer phrasing is used instead.

Using a single word between the pi does prevent the ambiguity, as a non-nested layout would contain an invalid single-word pi phrase. However, if you feel the need to stack this many modifiers, you might be better off rephrasing the phrase into a sentence:

kiwen pi soweli pi kute suli

big-eared animal rock

kiwen ni li sama soweli pi kute suli.

This rock is like a big-eared animal.

soweli pi kute suli li lawa e kiwen ni.

A big-eared animal rules over this rock.

pi is not "of"

Some dictionaries define pi as the English word "of". This is misleading, as most senses of "of" don't translate into pi:

toki pi pona

the language of good

It may be more helpful to think of every modifier as having an implied "of" before it:

kala utala suli

fish of fighting of bigness

Possession

A related misconception is that pi marks possession. In reality, adjectives can be interpreted as possessive with or without pi. It is just about whether the possessor is referred to with more than one word.

tomo ona

their house

tomo pi ona ale

all of theirs' house

tomo pi ona wan

one of them's house

Controversy

pi is controversial. To many speakers, it feels too engineered for Toki Pona's natural design, it creates more complexity and misconceptions than it is worth, and it encourages learners to find "the phrase" for any given word. Avoiding pi is a common nasin called pin't.

External resources

• pu Lesson 11
• jan Lentan Lesson 9
• soweli Tesa Lesson 6
• sitelen sitelen Descriptions and Possesives
• nasin toki pona
• jan Kekan San Modifiers and pi