This sheet does not include any vocabulary.

This sheet does not include any vocabulary.

mi mi

I, we, me, us

sina sina

you, listener, addressee

jan jan

person, people

toki toki

communicate, talk

pona pona

good

sona sona

knowledge, know, memory

ni ni

this, that

lon lon

exist, true, real, be present

tenpo tenpo

time, situation, event

tawa tawa

motion, vibrate, walk

li li

[marks sentence predicate]

mi mi

I, we, me, us

sina sina

you, listener, addressee

jan jan

person, people

toki toki

communicate, talk

pona pona

good

sona sona

knowledge, know, memory

ni ni

this, that

lon lon

exist, true, real, be present

tenpo tenpo

time, situation, event

tawa tawa

motion, vibrate, walk

li li

[marks sentence predicate]

mi mi

I, we, me, us

mi talks about the speaker. It can also refer to groups that include the speaker. Similarly to sina, when quoting others, it doesn’t necesserily refer to the one who is speaking at the moment, and instead refers to the one being quoted. But besides situations like that, mi always includes the speaker.

sina sina

you, listener, addressee

sina is the listener, reader, the one who interprets what the speaker says, or any group that contains them. Similarly to mi, when quoting others, it doesn’t necesserily refer to the one who is listening at the moment, and instead refers to the one listening from when the quote is from. But besides situations like that, sina always includes the listener. Many people also use sina as a general hypothetical pronoun, similar to “one” in english when used as a pronoun. Others use sina when talking to inanimate objects. Perhaps this frames the object as listening. I recommend playing around with this at least a little bit.

jan jan

person, people

usage of jan differs a lot between groups of speakers, but many speakers use it broadly to refer to any sentient creature. But this can break down when you consider what sentience is and where we draw lines between ourselves and nature. This also gets complicated when we take into account nonhuman identities such as radical reclamation of dehumanization, which is awesome. many toki pona speakers specifically choose to not be a type of jan, so jan broadly cannot be applicable to all speakers of language. It’s still used frequently to refer to a group of people, some of whom may not be humans, and especially “somebody,” i.e. a hypothetical unspecified agent. If someone is not a jan, it’s often rude to call them one--just stick with whatever word they’ve chosen for themselves.

toki toki

communicate, talk

The semantic space of toki contains any form or act of communication. This can be communication using the mouth, such as spoken language, or communication using the hands, such as signed languages. This could be communication using a written medium. toki doesn’t have to just be for humans. Bee dances are toki. toki doesn’t have to be between two parties either. Communication with one’s self (such as someone thinking or talking to themselves) is toki. toki can get very abstract. If I can feel the atmospheric pressure change and I can detect that it’s probably going to rain later because I’m old, I could say that the sky is toki-ing to me. If I read a sign, the action that sign is doing can be toki.

pona pona

good

pona is a biased word. It defines toki pona’s design goals and names them as good. “pona” can be any good quality, but to truely understand pona, one must understand the reason behind each decision made when creating toki pona. This is why in toki pona it’s so easy to call the language “toki pona”--it’s the language that most closely fits the design goals, which are also the semantic space of the word “pona.” you’ll seldom see speakers who disagree with this and describe toki pona as not pona, but that’s because most of the people who don’t like toki pona’s design don’t speak it very well if at all.

sona sona

knowledge, know, memory

The semantic space of sona contains all knowledge. If something is knowable or known, it is sona. For example, the knowledge of time of day can sona. Wisdom can be sona. sona can also be a skill. The knowledge of how to write a book can certainly be sona. Knowing about a person or who they are can be sona. A person’s memory can be sona. If I were to describe information on a computer as “sona,” I would be framing it as being known by the computer. A warning to english speaking learners: the type of knowledge that sona covers doesn’t completely contain the english concept of “knowing someone.” For that, it might be a better idea to explain what your relationship with that person is in more detail.

ni ni

this, that

ni is similar to “this” and “that” and “yonder” in english. it is used in two different contexts. The easiest way to use ni is to point at a physical object. This could be demonstrated with a finger, a gesture of the head, a glance, or even a drawn arrow. In those contexts, the semantic space of “ni” is that thing you’re pointing at. You can also use ni as a modifier to be more specific. Are you pointing at a specific box? You can say “poki ni.” are you pointing at a specific location? “ma ni” works just as well as “ni.” What about the current situation? “tenpo ni” is perfect for this! extended into the metaphorical, ni can also be used to point at things you or others have said. It always stands in for at least one clause (a clause is any phrase with a verb in it). Most often you’ll see it standing in for a previous or upcoming sentence. ni can also be used as a modifier to elaborate on a word in a sentence. If your sentences are getting too long, ni is among the easiest way to break it up. you can turn “mi wile e soweli pi linja pi suwi mute” into “mi wile e soweli ni: linja ona li suwi mute.” Note how “ona” in the next sentence stands in for “soweli ni.” If you want to learn more about this, look into anaphora and deixis. toki pona lacks proximity distinctions, unlike english. In english, the difference between “this” and “that” and “yonder” is how close the object is to the speaker and listener. toki pona’s “ni” can fill the meaning of any of these. It is more general, but you can usually tell what it’s talking about due to context. If you’re worried that people might not be able to tell where something is, you can say how close it is by using “poka” and “weka,” among other tools.

lon lon

exist, true, real, be present

For many people, lon is core to the philosophy of toki pona. It’s a key example that ties together the physical and metaphysical. lon is existence, lon is truth, lon is reality. lon is not only existing at a place, but also existing during a time, or in a context. lon’s usage outside of a preposition mostly derives from this meaning of existing.

tenpo tenpo

time, situation, event

you’ll usually hear people say that tenpo means “time.” but what does that mean? what even is the abstract concept of time? this definition isn’t very useful, so a different angle I suggest people take is to look at tenpo as either a situation or a duration. tenpo could be that one time I robbed a bank, or all the times I cooked with shmalts. tenpo could be a minute, or an hour, or an eon (1 billion years). tenpo can be the time when the sun shines, or the cycle it takes for the earth to rotate around the sun, or for the earth to rotate such that the sun goes away and comes back. tenpo can be the time when it’s dark, the time when it’s cold or warm, the time it takes for the moon to go through all its phases, the time it takes for markets to set up and disband a few times a week, the time when we work, the time when we sleep, the time when we travel, or the time when we arrive. tenpo can talk about the abstract concept of time, but usually it is used to talk about specific events, situations, and durations.

tawa tawa

motion, vibrate, walk

tawa is motion. tawa frequently has a destination, and when used as a preposition, it marks the word after it as this destination. a destination isn’t critical to tawa though; speakers will use tawa for vibrating or shaking in place, or wandering. When tawa is used as a preposition, it marks that which the motion approaches. This can be physical, but metaphysically tawa can mark a recipient, beneficiary, point of perspective, etc.

li li

[marks sentence predicate]

mi mi

I, we, me, us

mi talks about the speaker. It can also refer to groups that include the speaker. Similarly to sina, when quoting others, it doesn’t necesserily refer to the one who is speaking at the moment, and instead refers to the one being quoted. But besides situations like that, mi always includes the speaker.

sina sina

you, listener, addressee

sina is the listener, reader, the one who interprets what the speaker says, or any group that contains them. Similarly to mi, when quoting others, it doesn’t necesserily refer to the one who is listening at the moment, and instead refers to the one listening from when the quote is from. But besides situations like that, sina always includes the listener. Many people also use sina as a general hypothetical pronoun, similar to “one” in english when used as a pronoun. Others use sina when talking to inanimate objects. Perhaps this frames the object as listening. I recommend playing around with this at least a little bit.

jan jan

person, people

usage of jan differs a lot between groups of speakers, but many speakers use it broadly to refer to any sentient creature. But this can break down when you consider what sentience is and where we draw lines between ourselves and nature. This also gets complicated when we take into account nonhuman identities such as radical reclamation of dehumanization, which is awesome. many toki pona speakers specifically choose to not be a type of jan, so jan broadly cannot be applicable to all speakers of language. It’s still used frequently to refer to a group of people, some of whom may not be humans, and especially “somebody,” i.e. a hypothetical unspecified agent. If someone is not a jan, it’s often rude to call them one--just stick with whatever word they’ve chosen for themselves.

toki toki

communicate, talk

The semantic space of toki contains any form or act of communication. This can be communication using the mouth, such as spoken language, or communication using the hands, such as signed languages. This could be communication using a written medium. toki doesn’t have to just be for humans. Bee dances are toki. toki doesn’t have to be between two parties either. Communication with one’s self (such as someone thinking or talking to themselves) is toki. toki can get very abstract. If I can feel the atmospheric pressure change and I can detect that it’s probably going to rain later because I’m old, I could say that the sky is toki-ing to me. If I read a sign, the action that sign is doing can be toki.

pona pona

good

pona is a biased word. It defines toki pona’s design goals and names them as good. “pona” can be any good quality, but to truely understand pona, one must understand the reason behind each decision made when creating toki pona. This is why in toki pona it’s so easy to call the language “toki pona”--it’s the language that most closely fits the design goals, which are also the semantic space of the word “pona.” you’ll seldom see speakers who disagree with this and describe toki pona as not pona, but that’s because most of the people who don’t like toki pona’s design don’t speak it very well if at all.

sona sona

knowledge, know, memory

The semantic space of sona contains all knowledge. If something is knowable or known, it is sona. For example, the knowledge of time of day can sona. Wisdom can be sona. sona can also be a skill. The knowledge of how to write a book can certainly be sona. Knowing about a person or who they are can be sona. A person’s memory can be sona. If I were to describe information on a computer as “sona,” I would be framing it as being known by the computer. A warning to english speaking learners: the type of knowledge that sona covers doesn’t completely contain the english concept of “knowing someone.” For that, it might be a better idea to explain what your relationship with that person is in more detail.

ni ni

this, that

ni is similar to “this” and “that” and “yonder” in english. it is used in two different contexts. The easiest way to use ni is to point at a physical object. This could be demonstrated with a finger, a gesture of the head, a glance, or even a drawn arrow. In those contexts, the semantic space of “ni” is that thing you’re pointing at. You can also use ni as a modifier to be more specific. Are you pointing at a specific box? You can say “poki ni.” are you pointing at a specific location? “ma ni” works just as well as “ni.” What about the current situation? “tenpo ni” is perfect for this! extended into the metaphorical, ni can also be used to point at things you or others have said. It always stands in for at least one clause (a clause is any phrase with a verb in it). Most often you’ll see it standing in for a previous or upcoming sentence. ni can also be used as a modifier to elaborate on a word in a sentence. If your sentences are getting too long, ni is among the easiest way to break it up. you can turn “mi wile e soweli pi linja pi suwi mute” into “mi wile e soweli ni: linja ona li suwi mute.” Note how “ona” in the next sentence stands in for “soweli ni.” If you want to learn more about this, look into anaphora and deixis. toki pona lacks proximity distinctions, unlike english. In english, the difference between “this” and “that” and “yonder” is how close the object is to the speaker and listener. toki pona’s “ni” can fill the meaning of any of these. It is more general, but you can usually tell what it’s talking about due to context. If you’re worried that people might not be able to tell where something is, you can say how close it is by using “poka” and “weka,” among other tools.

lon lon

exist, true, real, be present

For many people, lon is core to the philosophy of toki pona. It’s a key example that ties together the physical and metaphysical. lon is existence, lon is truth, lon is reality. lon is not only existing at a place, but also existing during a time, or in a context. lon’s usage outside of a preposition mostly derives from this meaning of existing.

tenpo tenpo

time, situation, event

you’ll usually hear people say that tenpo means “time.” but what does that mean? what even is the abstract concept of time? this definition isn’t very useful, so a different angle I suggest people take is to look at tenpo as either a situation or a duration. tenpo could be that one time I robbed a bank, or all the times I cooked with shmalts. tenpo could be a minute, or an hour, or an eon (1 billion years). tenpo can be the time when the sun shines, or the cycle it takes for the earth to rotate around the sun, or for the earth to rotate such that the sun goes away and comes back. tenpo can be the time when it’s dark, the time when it’s cold or warm, the time it takes for the moon to go through all its phases, the time it takes for markets to set up and disband a few times a week, the time when we work, the time when we sleep, the time when we travel, or the time when we arrive. tenpo can talk about the abstract concept of time, but usually it is used to talk about specific events, situations, and durations.

tawa tawa

motion, vibrate, walk

tawa is motion. tawa frequently has a destination, and when used as a preposition, it marks the word after it as this destination. a destination isn’t critical to tawa though; speakers will use tawa for vibrating or shaking in place, or wandering. When tawa is used as a preposition, it marks that which the motion approaches. This can be physical, but metaphysically tawa can mark a recipient, beneficiary, point of perspective, etc.

li li

[marks sentence predicate]

wile wile

want, wish, desire

ona ona

they, it, she, he (3rd prsn.)

mute mute

many, very

tan tan

reason, from, because

kama kama

arrive, become, happen

ike ike

bad

ken ken

ability, possibility, able to

pilin pilin

feeling, opinion, sense

lili lili

small

sitelen sitelen

symbol, picture, write

e e

[before the direct object]

wile wile

want, wish, desire

ona ona

they, it, she, he (3rd prsn.)

mute mute

many, very

tan tan

reason, from, because

kama kama

arrive, become, happen

ike ike

bad

ken ken

ability, possibility, able to

pilin pilin

feeling, opinion, sense

lili lili

small

sitelen sitelen

symbol, picture, write

e e

[before the direct object]

wile wile

want, wish, desire

The semantic space of wile contains all desires. A desire to eat is a wile. A desire to be near others is a wile. These desires can be influenced by external forces: a desire to do tedious chores motivated by the prospect of negative consequences is a wile. By using wile to describe something, it’s being framed as a type of desire. For example, if I normally don’t want to tidy up my workspace but I feel obligated to anyway, if I used wile to describe that feeling of obligation, I’d be describing it as some sort of desire. This can be used for anything, no matter how animate. Speakers frame nonliving objects as having desires very frequently. A warning I have for wile is assuming it contains the idea of a “need.” A “need” is a complex concept and trying to use wile to describe it is misguided. While most needs can be framed as types of desires, the goal of “wile” isn’t to merge those concepts, it’s to throw one of them away. This enables a toki ponist to align their desires with their actions by giving them a word to describe their desires without any complex connotation. Sometimes it’s more useful to say “my body wants food, but I don’t want to eat.” Another part of wile’s usage is its use as a preverb. wile changes the sentence it’s part of to make the subject desire to perform the verb, rather than just performing it. It’s similar to the word “want” in english.

ona ona

they, it, she, he (3rd prsn.)

ona is the only third person pronoun in toki pona. unlike ni, ona is seldom used except for to point at objects from previous sentences, i.e. toki ponists don’t usually use it to talk about things they’re pointing at. ona has no animacy connotation, just as no toki pona word does (except for maybe jan). ona can just as easily refer to a block of wood or a doorknob as it can to a human or animal. It also has no gender connotation, just like every other toki pona word, so it can just as easily mean he or she or they.

mute mute

many, very

there’s an old running joke that I take with me everywhere: toki ponists can’t tell apart numbers above two. Whenever one of my professors asks a question about “how many” of something there are, I always say “like three,” whether that be tubes of paint or languages in the world or measures in a Bach chorale. mute doesn’t specify a huge or small number. a few, several, a lot, and a ton are all mute. Usually in context, it’s easy to tell these amounts apart. mute as a noun means “amount” and as a verb it can mean either “multiply” or “divide.” If I cut a kili in pieces, now I have many kili, and if I cast a spell to multiply a kili into multiple kili, I have many kili, so either way it doesn’t matter. Unless it does matter, in which case, ask yourself: why does it matter? The answer to that question will guide you on disambiguating efficiently. mute is used as a general intensifier too when modifying some sort of quality or another modifier.

tan tan

reason, from, because

tan is some sort of point of origin. It can be a place or object, like a birthing parent or the source of a river, but it can also be a reason like a thrilling feeling or the fear of being yelled at. this corresponds with tan’s use as a preposition, where it MARKS this point of origin, i.e. the word directly after prepositional tan is also some sort of point of origin in the same exact way.

kama kama

arrive, become, happen

kama is a strong metaphor in toki pona. To arrive at a location and to arrive at a state of being are the same concept in toki pona. This means that kama can refer to arriving home to eat dinner, arriving at school, or the moment you become an akesi because an evil prescriptivist wizard cursed you for using too many nimisin. This of course describes kama’s use as a preverb, in which its meaning is close to “become.” This can imply the start, body, or end of this process. It’s easy to describe the reverse of whatever process kama preverb is representing by negating the word that follows it, i.e. “kama X ala.”

ike ike

bad

ike is any negative quality. Anything can be ike. ike is a judgement call. what one person considers ike can be pona to another. For example, the complexity of computer coding is not a good thing for me, so I’d call it ike. But for a lot of my friends, that same complexity is pona! the simple melody of “mary had a little lamb” is boring to many people on its own, so they might call it ike. But a baby might enjoy it a lot, so despite being overly simple for adults in an anglophone culture, it’s just right for that baby, i.e. pona. If something isn’t bad, you can’t use ike to describe it without framing it as such. ike can mean complex and simple just as easily as pona can.

ken ken

ability, possibility, able to

ken is all about abilities. These could be inherent abilities, like the ability to fly, walk, or swim. These could also be external, like permission to use the bathroom. If I can blow bubbles with bubble gum because I’m not around anyone who I don’t want to annoy, that ability is a ken. Unlike some languages, toki pona has a single word that contains all abilities. ken can also refer to a probability or a possibility. The throughline here is almost saying that an event is able to occur, but that doesn’t mean it necessarily will or won’t. These ideas of possibility and ability are two sides of the same coin.

pilin pilin

feeling, opinion, sense

pilin is some sort of sensory quallia. pilin can refer just as easily to internal senses as it can to external ones, so pilin can mean both touch and emote. most speakers use pilin to mean “opinion” as well, framing an opinion as some sort of internal sensory experience.

lili lili

small

The semantic space of lili contains all qualities of smallness relative to context. The thing that ties all things lili together is their relative size. A tall man might be lili compared to a mountain. A long speech may be lili compared to a novel. lili is a relative word, and therefore is always dependent on context.

sitelen sitelen

symbol, picture, write

sitelen are depictions, such as images or symbols. A painting or a photograph are both sitelen. It’s also common to see sitelen used to describe a symbol in a writing system. The letter Q and the maya glyph for b’alam (jaguar) are both sitelen. sitelen is usually used for things that were created, but these don’t need to be organized. A random scribble is still a sitelen even though it doesn’t necesserily represent anything. pure random noise has the potential to be a sitelen too, but doing so will likely frame the noise as having some sort of order to it. perhaps it was chosen? maybe it’s being used for something? maybe it’s a mistake? explore sitelen!

e e

[before the direct object]

wile wile

want, wish, desire

The semantic space of wile contains all desires. A desire to eat is a wile. A desire to be near others is a wile. These desires can be influenced by external forces: a desire to do tedious chores motivated by the prospect of negative consequences is a wile. By using wile to describe something, it’s being framed as a type of desire. For example, if I normally don’t want to tidy up my workspace but I feel obligated to anyway, if I used wile to describe that feeling of obligation, I’d be describing it as some sort of desire. This can be used for anything, no matter how animate. Speakers frame nonliving objects as having desires very frequently. A warning I have for wile is assuming it contains the idea of a “need.” A “need” is a complex concept and trying to use wile to describe it is misguided. While most needs can be framed as types of desires, the goal of “wile” isn’t to merge those concepts, it’s to throw one of them away. This enables a toki ponist to align their desires with their actions by giving them a word to describe their desires without any complex connotation. Sometimes it’s more useful to say “my body wants food, but I don’t want to eat.” Another part of wile’s usage is its use as a preverb. wile changes the sentence it’s part of to make the subject desire to perform the verb, rather than just performing it. It’s similar to the word “want” in english.

ona ona

they, it, she, he (3rd prsn.)

ona is the only third person pronoun in toki pona. unlike ni, ona is seldom used except for to point at objects from previous sentences, i.e. toki ponists don’t usually use it to talk about things they’re pointing at. ona has no animacy connotation, just as no toki pona word does (except for maybe jan). ona can just as easily refer to a block of wood or a doorknob as it can to a human or animal. It also has no gender connotation, just like every other toki pona word, so it can just as easily mean he or she or they.

mute mute

many, very

there’s an old running joke that I take with me everywhere: toki ponists can’t tell apart numbers above two. Whenever one of my professors asks a question about “how many” of something there are, I always say “like three,” whether that be tubes of paint or languages in the world or measures in a Bach chorale. mute doesn’t specify a huge or small number. a few, several, a lot, and a ton are all mute. Usually in context, it’s easy to tell these amounts apart. mute as a noun means “amount” and as a verb it can mean either “multiply” or “divide.” If I cut a kili in pieces, now I have many kili, and if I cast a spell to multiply a kili into multiple kili, I have many kili, so either way it doesn’t matter. Unless it does matter, in which case, ask yourself: why does it matter? The answer to that question will guide you on disambiguating efficiently. mute is used as a general intensifier too when modifying some sort of quality or another modifier.

tan tan

reason, from, because

tan is some sort of point of origin. It can be a place or object, like a birthing parent or the source of a river, but it can also be a reason like a thrilling feeling or the fear of being yelled at. this corresponds with tan’s use as a preposition, where it MARKS this point of origin, i.e. the word directly after prepositional tan is also some sort of point of origin in the same exact way.

kama kama

arrive, become, happen

kama is a strong metaphor in toki pona. To arrive at a location and to arrive at a state of being are the same concept in toki pona. This means that kama can refer to arriving home to eat dinner, arriving at school, or the moment you become an akesi because an evil prescriptivist wizard cursed you for using too many nimisin. This of course describes kama’s use as a preverb, in which its meaning is close to “become.” This can imply the start, body, or end of this process. It’s easy to describe the reverse of whatever process kama preverb is representing by negating the word that follows it, i.e. “kama X ala.”

ike ike

bad

ike is any negative quality. Anything can be ike. ike is a judgement call. what one person considers ike can be pona to another. For example, the complexity of computer coding is not a good thing for me, so I’d call it ike. But for a lot of my friends, that same complexity is pona! the simple melody of “mary had a little lamb” is boring to many people on its own, so they might call it ike. But a baby might enjoy it a lot, so despite being overly simple for adults in an anglophone culture, it’s just right for that baby, i.e. pona. If something isn’t bad, you can’t use ike to describe it without framing it as such. ike can mean complex and simple just as easily as pona can.

ken ken

ability, possibility, able to

ken is all about abilities. These could be inherent abilities, like the ability to fly, walk, or swim. These could also be external, like permission to use the bathroom. If I can blow bubbles with bubble gum because I’m not around anyone who I don’t want to annoy, that ability is a ken. Unlike some languages, toki pona has a single word that contains all abilities. ken can also refer to a probability or a possibility. The throughline here is almost saying that an event is able to occur, but that doesn’t mean it necessarily will or won’t. These ideas of possibility and ability are two sides of the same coin.

pilin pilin

feeling, opinion, sense

pilin is some sort of sensory quallia. pilin can refer just as easily to internal senses as it can to external ones, so pilin can mean both touch and emote. most speakers use pilin to mean “opinion” as well, framing an opinion as some sort of internal sensory experience.

lili lili

small

The semantic space of lili contains all qualities of smallness relative to context. The thing that ties all things lili together is their relative size. A tall man might be lili compared to a mountain. A long speech may be lili compared to a novel. lili is a relative word, and therefore is always dependent on context.

sitelen sitelen

symbol, picture, write

sitelen are depictions, such as images or symbols. A painting or a photograph are both sitelen. It’s also common to see sitelen used to describe a symbol in a writing system. The letter Q and the maya glyph for b’alam (jaguar) are both sitelen. sitelen is usually used for things that were created, but these don’t need to be organized. A random scribble is still a sitelen even though it doesn’t necesserily represent anything. pure random noise has the potential to be a sitelen too, but doing so will likely frame the noise as having some sort of order to it. perhaps it was chosen? maybe it’s being used for something? maybe it’s a mistake? explore sitelen!

e e

[before the direct object]

pali pali

work, activity

musi musi

entertain, interesting, fun

lukin lukin

see, watch, eye, (pv.) try

ale ale

everything, all

ala ala

not, nothing, no

tomo tomo

indoor space or shelter

suli suli

big, important

nimi nimi

word, name

kin kin

also, too, additionally

a a

[emphasis or emotion]

pi pi

[regroups modifiers]

pali pali

work, activity

musi musi

entertain, interesting, fun

lukin lukin

see, watch, eye, (pv.) try

ale ale

everything, all

ala ala

not, nothing, no

tomo tomo

indoor space or shelter

suli suli

big, important

nimi nimi

word, name

kin kin

also, too, additionally

a a

[emphasis or emotion]

pi pi

[regroups modifiers]

pali pali

work, activity

pali is work. But what does that mean? In toki pona, pali needs at least a little bit of effort, and it needs to make a little bit of something. But if it only had a little of each, calling it “pali” might be a worse choice than using another word. Just because eating requires a little work and makes energy inside of your body doesn’t mean pali will be understood. So almost always, pali will either require a lot of effort or create a significant thing. A professional potter making pottery might not require a lot of effort because they are skilled enough, but it will create a significant object. And on the reverse, learning a new language may not create a significant object (just some new knowledge in your head), but it does require a lot of effort.

musi musi

entertain, interesting, fun

The semantic space of musi contains all things funny, entertaining, enticing, and interesting. An enjoyable book is musi. A good joke is musi. A game is musi. A documentary about fish is musi. The act of enjoying something or just enjoying one’s self is musi. Some speakers disagree about whether something serious like a documentary about the holocaust can be musi. I encourage discussion about this, because I don’t have a good answer at the moment.

lukin lukin

see, watch, eye, (pv.) try

lukin is both passive seeing and active watching. it can also mean something that sees, like eyes or a camera. lukin is also used as a preverb that means to “try” to do something.

ale ale

everything, all

ale is everything. this can be either everything ever or a smaller subset of everything. If you modify ale with another word, it is limited to objects that have that word’s quality, such as “ale loje” for “all things red,” “ale lipu” for “all things related to books,” or “ale pali” for “all things related to working.” this is often similar to the reverse, but not exactly the same. for example, “loje ale” is all reds, not all things red, “lipu ale” is all books, and would not talk about a printing press or reading glasses, and “pali ale” would be something like all jobs or activities, and wouldn’t talk about a hammer or a cheesecloth.

ala ala

not, nothing, no

the semantic space of ala contains nothing. But don’t be fooled, it isn’t void of information. “ala li lukin e kili” can be “nobody’s looking at the fruit.” “jan li moku e ala” can mean “the person ate nothing.” as a modifier, it actually reverses the semantic space of whatever words come before it, which no other content word does. “soweli li alasa ala e kili” can mean “the monkey doesn’t forage for fruit.” An ijo ala is never a type of ijo. as a verb, ala can mean “erase” or “delete.”

tomo tomo

indoor space or shelter

A tomo contains objects meant to contain things being framed as living. Sometimes living is literal. A family of five is considered living, so their domicile can be considered a tomo. Sometimes living is a metaphor. A dollhouse can be considered a tomo if the hypothetical dolls it can contain are being framed as living, even if they aren’t empirically alive. By calling a container intended for nonliving things a “tomo,” a speaker is ascribing life to those objects. There’s no animacy hierarchy in toki pona, so what is and isn’t considered life is up to personal preference and doesn’t impact mutual intelligibility.

suli suli

big, important

suli is big, tall, wide, vast, deep, etc. Any physical dimension of largeness can be suli. toki pona doesn’t use different words to distinguish different ways of being big. In the metaphysical of toki pona, if something is big that means it is important, so suli can also mean important. suli could mean that something is made up of a lot of stuff, often implying that it’s complex. suli can talk about necessity. If something is crucial, it is suli. Combining suli with perspectives can show what people value, allowing us to construct a map of what matters more or less to others. seme li suli tawa seme?

nimi nimi

word, name

nimi are words and names. “lipamanka” is a nimi. “paralelepípedo” is a nimi. “cupcake” is a nimi. This description of nimi’s semantic space is nimi.

kin kin

also, too, additionally

a a

[emphasis or emotion]

pi pi

[regroups modifiers]

pali pali

work, activity

pali is work. But what does that mean? In toki pona, pali needs at least a little bit of effort, and it needs to make a little bit of something. But if it only had a little of each, calling it “pali” might be a worse choice than using another word. Just because eating requires a little work and makes energy inside of your body doesn’t mean pali will be understood. So almost always, pali will either require a lot of effort or create a significant thing. A professional potter making pottery might not require a lot of effort because they are skilled enough, but it will create a significant object. And on the reverse, learning a new language may not create a significant object (just some new knowledge in your head), but it does require a lot of effort.

musi musi

entertain, interesting, fun

The semantic space of musi contains all things funny, entertaining, enticing, and interesting. An enjoyable book is musi. A good joke is musi. A game is musi. A documentary about fish is musi. The act of enjoying something or just enjoying one’s self is musi. Some speakers disagree about whether something serious like a documentary about the holocaust can be musi. I encourage discussion about this, because I don’t have a good answer at the moment.

lukin lukin

see, watch, eye, (pv.) try

lukin is both passive seeing and active watching. it can also mean something that sees, like eyes or a camera. lukin is also used as a preverb that means to “try” to do something.

ale ale

everything, all

ale is everything. this can be either everything ever or a smaller subset of everything. If you modify ale with another word, it is limited to objects that have that word’s quality, such as “ale loje” for “all things red,” “ale lipu” for “all things related to books,” or “ale pali” for “all things related to working.” this is often similar to the reverse, but not exactly the same. for example, “loje ale” is all reds, not all things red, “lipu ale” is all books, and would not talk about a printing press or reading glasses, and “pali ale” would be something like all jobs or activities, and wouldn’t talk about a hammer or a cheesecloth.

ala ala

not, nothing, no

the semantic space of ala contains nothing. But don’t be fooled, it isn’t void of information. “ala li lukin e kili” can be “nobody’s looking at the fruit.” “jan li moku e ala” can mean “the person ate nothing.” as a modifier, it actually reverses the semantic space of whatever words come before it, which no other content word does. “soweli li alasa ala e kili” can mean “the monkey doesn’t forage for fruit.” An ijo ala is never a type of ijo. as a verb, ala can mean “erase” or “delete.”

tomo tomo

indoor space or shelter

A tomo contains objects meant to contain things being framed as living. Sometimes living is literal. A family of five is considered living, so their domicile can be considered a tomo. Sometimes living is a metaphor. A dollhouse can be considered a tomo if the hypothetical dolls it can contain are being framed as living, even if they aren’t empirically alive. By calling a container intended for nonliving things a “tomo,” a speaker is ascribing life to those objects. There’s no animacy hierarchy in toki pona, so what is and isn’t considered life is up to personal preference and doesn’t impact mutual intelligibility.

suli suli

big, important

suli is big, tall, wide, vast, deep, etc. Any physical dimension of largeness can be suli. toki pona doesn’t use different words to distinguish different ways of being big. In the metaphysical of toki pona, if something is big that means it is important, so suli can also mean important. suli could mean that something is made up of a lot of stuff, often implying that it’s complex. suli can talk about necessity. If something is crucial, it is suli. Combining suli with perspectives can show what people value, allowing us to construct a map of what matters more or less to others. seme li suli tawa seme?

nimi nimi

word, name

nimi are words and names. “lipamanka” is a nimi. “paralelepípedo” is a nimi. “cupcake” is a nimi. This description of nimi’s semantic space is nimi.

kin kin

also, too, additionally

a a

[emphasis or emotion]

pi pi

[regroups modifiers]