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.

Spatial metaphors

A reoccurring idea from learners coming from English is to use tenpo monsi and tenpo sinpin to refer to the past and future. Although it seems unambiguous at first, 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: if a meeting is "moved forward", does it now come earlier or later than before?