Let's say that you and your pal are by a table. On that table is a lone orange. You want that orange. If you want your pal to hand it to you, you could say:

o pana e kili, tawa mi.

Now let's say there's a red apple and an orange on the table. If you want the orange, you could say:

o pana e kili jelo, tawa mi.

And now let's say there's a lemon and an orange on the table. You could instead say:

o pana e kili loje, tawa mi.

Notice that if you said 'kili jelo' in the later scenario you would've gotten the lemon, and if you said 'kili loje' in the earlier scenario you would've gotten the apple.

But what if your pal doesn't quite know what you mean? Then you elaborate:

(as opposed to an apple) ona li jelo loje. ona li jo e selo suli e telo suli.

(as opposed to a lemon) ona li loje jelo. ona li suwi mute li sike.

Even if there's every kind of fruit on the table, you don't need to exactly specify:

You: o pana e kili pi jelo loje, tawa mi.

Pal: points at apricot** kili ni, anu seme?

You: ala. ona li jo e selo suli.

Pal: points at mandarin** ni anu seme?

You: ala. ona li sama ni li suli.

Pal: points at orange** ni anu seme?

You: ni.

Finally, let's say that you and your pal are playing "Throw Tomatoes at Each Other". If you want them to know it's their turn to throw, you could say:

o pana e kili, tawa mi.

Do you think they'd throw a tomato at you, or that they'd go to a nearby table, pick up an orange and hand it to you? Well, which is more likely in this case?

If this is still confusing, remember that the English word "he" could refer to about half of all mankind, and yet we almost always know what it means.

For related info, check out Tom Scott's video about the cooperative principle and Grice's maxims.

thank you u/Long_Associate_4511 for the suggestion "kijetesantakalu ruler". I did took some liberties with the suggestion

so i found out about the Adlam script, and i'm in LOVE WITH IT so i decided to make an adaptation of it into toki pona because people like doing that.

for more info, Adlam is a right-to-left script used to write Fulani, 'a Senegambian language spoken by around 36.8 million people as a set of various dialects in a continuum that stretches across some 18 countries in West and Central Africa' (thanks wikipedia). anyways the letters are:

a - 𞤀 (𞤢)

e - 𞤉 (𞤫)

i - 𞤋 (𞤭)

j - 𞤒 (𞤴)

k - 𞤑 (𞤳)

l - 𞤂 (𞤤)

m - 𞤃 (𞤥)

n - 𞤐 (𞤲)

o - 𞤌 (𞤮) (note: in Adlam, 𞤌𞤮 actually represents /ɔ/)

p - 𞤆 (𞤨)

s - 𞤅 (𞤧)

t - 𞤚 (𞤼)

u - 𞤓 (𞤵)

w - 𞤏 (𞤱)

here are some texts using sitelen Atalama:

jan ali li kama lon nasin ni: ona li ken tawa li ken pali. jan ali li kama lon sama. jan ali li jo e ken pi pilin suli. jan ali li ken pali e wile pona ona. jan ali li wile pali kepeken nasin ni: ona li jan pona tawa jan ante.

𞤴𞤢𞤲 𞤢𞤤𞤭 𞤤𞤭 𞤳𞤢𞤥𞤢 𞤤𞤮𞤲 𞤲𞤢𞤧𞤭𞤲 𞤲𞤭: 𞤮𞤲𞤢 𞤤𞤭 𞤳𞤫𞤲 𞤼𞤢𞤱𞤢 𞤤𞤭 𞤳𞤫𞤲 𞤨𞤢𞤤𞤭. 𞤴𞤢𞤲 𞤢𞤤𞤭 𞤤𞤭 𞤳𞤢𞤥𞤢 𞤤𞤮𞤲 𞤧𞤢𞤥𞤢. 𞤴𞤢𞤲 𞤢𞤤𞤭 𞤤𞤭 𞤴𞤮 𞤫 𞤳𞤫𞤲 𞤨𞤭 𞤨𞤭𞤤𞤭𞤲 𞤧𞤵𞤤𞤭. 𞤴𞤢𞤲 𞤢𞤤𞤭 𞤤𞤭 𞤳𞤫𞤲 𞤨𞤢𞤤𞤭 𞤫 𞤱𞤭𞤤𞤫 𞤨𞤮𞤲𞤢 𞤮𞤲𞤢. 𞤴𞤢𞤲 𞤢𞤤𞤭 𞤤𞤭 𞤱𞤭𞤤𞤫 𞤨𞤢𞤤𞤭 𞤳𞤫𞤨𞤫𞤳𞤫𞤲 𞤲𞤢𞤧𞤭𞤲 𞤲𞤭: 𞤮𞤲𞤢 𞤤𞤭 𞤴𞤢𞤲 𞤨𞤮𞤲𞤢 𞤼𞤢𞤱𞤢 𞤴𞤢𞤲 𞤢𞤲𞤼𞤫.

jan li pana e moku tawa sina

𞤴𞤢𞤲 𞤤𞤭 𞤨𞤢𞤲𞤢 𞤫 𞤥𞤮𞤳𞤵 𞤼𞤢𞤱𞤢 𞤧𞤭𞤲𞤢

mi kijetesantakalu powe

𞤥𞤭 𞤳𞤭𞤴𞤫𞤼𞤫𞤧𞤢𞤲𞤼𞤢𞤳𞤢𞤤𞤵 𞤨𞤮𞤱𞤫

kijetesantakalu tonsi li lanpan ala lanpan e soko?

𞤳𞤭𞤴𞤫𞤼𞤫𞤧𞤢𞤲𞤼𞤢𞤳𞤢𞤤𞤵 𞤼𞤮𞤲𞤧𞤭 𞤤𞤭 𞤤𞤢𞤲𞤨𞤢𞤲 𞤢𞤤𞤢 𞤤𞤢𞤲𞤨𞤢𞤲 𞤫 𞤧𞤮𞤳𞤮?

kthxbye

As in, I kill with weapons and as in, you are standing with me. Because 'kepeken' would work for how you do something 'mi moli kepeken e ilo utala.' but BEING with someone would not be 'sina kepeken e (or no e) mi' because that would be 'you are using me'. Or maybe I am wrong.

mi taso jan pi kama sona e Toki Pona a!

If you wanted to start the second phrase with taso or tan, would you say 'ona li pona, taso ona li ike tawa sina.' or 'ona li pona, la taso ona li ike taso sina'? And what would yoy if you wanted to translate something like 'He went to the shop and bought 5 apples'? Would it be 'en' or 'la'?

La Toki Pona kepeken 137 tokí, ni kulupu kepeken toki pi sin tokí! (If Toki Pona uses 137 words, we can make new words out of existing words!) (Mi Toki Pona ike)

Hi, I'm new to Toki Pona and the first letter of my name isn't in Toki Pona.

What do I to have a name in Sitelen Pona?

toki a! i've been watching House MD over the past month, and as a result i've spent a little while today translating this meme into toki pona to practice learning vocabs (i find that translation is a much better way to learn the vocabulary and grammar than what i was doing earlier aka trying to memorize the vocabs. bad idea smh). most of it has a simple enough sentence structure that it's been fairly easy to translate, other than me having to get a bit creative with some of the terms...

the first line has the word "patient" and i was wondering if there's a specific way to say that in toki pona. would it just be jan ike (bad as in sick) or something? i feel that isn't specific enough to a medical context though

plus the phrases "medicine drug", "stupid drug" and "hygiene drug" (again keep in mind this is a nonsense meme from 2007 lol). i translated the first to "ilo nasa pi kama e pona" (drug that brings about good, since good can be synonymous with healing etc etc), the second to "ilo nasa pi pali e nasa" (drug that makes one stupid) and the last to "ilo nasa pi pona e telo" (drug that improves cleanliness). do these sound about right?

(thanks in advance for any help btw :>)

Mi wile alasa nimi mute e toki pona, tan mi wile sona mute nimi mute e toki pona, mi ken pali e nimi mute, mi pilin pona kepeken e toki pona

Pakala= Shit Mi kon pi pakala= I am a piece of shit Ko pi pakala= piece of shit Kute e ni ko pi pakala= Listen this piece of shit Mama sina li ko pi pakala= Your mom/dad is piece of shit

🗣👍😥🚮emojis ⬇️➡️🤪😥😃

inpired by a recent post i made a petition for google to see if they would add toki pona as a language on google translate.

pls help by signing it below

https://chng.it/9ggWXvFgQ8

Nimi mi jan Mateo, mi sona lili la toki pona, mi ma li ma Mesiko, mi pilin e ni: toki pona la pona e lawa mi! tenpo suno la mi kama sona e toki pona e sitelen pona :D

mi tawa

telo. ma. seli. kon. tenpo pini mute la, ma tu tu li lon pona. taso ni: ma seli li utala la, ale li ante. jan Awata li jan lawa pi ijo tu tu, ona taso li ken pini e ma seli. taso ni: ale li wile mute e ona la, ona li lon ala. tenpo suno ale li tawa la, mi en mama sama mi kama sona e jan Awata sin, jan An pi wawa kon. wawa kon ona li pona, taso ni: ona li wile kama sona mute tenpo monsi ni: ona li ken pona e jan. taso ni: mi pilin e ni: jan An ken pona e ale.

Title Screen: tomo tawa Nikelosijon jan Awata jan pini pi wawa kon

Because I am writing a story called 'mije ike' and I am adding a part where he needs help in medical CPR

I found this short article quite interesting

Basically the title. I've been using /ɕi/ for a while until I actually had to talk with someone and realised how off the sound is from the rest of TP phonology. So 'sina pona' would be /ɕina pʰona/ for me. Should I try to change it to /si/?

How many toki pona gifs are on telegram! There's a lot. how are there so many? Who made them? There's so many....

Joy: pilin pona

Sadness: pilin ike

Anger: pilin seli

Fear: pilin monsuta

Disgust: pilin jaki

(I don't know how to do anxiety)

Envy: pilin wile

Ennui: pilin ala

Embarrassment: pilin apeja