Toki Pona: Start Here
Practise: Toki Pona flashcards and quizzes (works on any phone).
Core lists: vocabulary by theme · everyday phrases · example sentences
You can find the official website here.
The language was developed by Sonja Lang (first published online in 2001, the official book Toki Pona: The Language of Good in 2014) as an experiment to see how much meaning can be built from around 120 words only!
Toki Pona is part of a very rich tradition and community called the “conlangers”. Conlang is short for constructed language, and is an interesting idea in itself. On these pages I document my adventures in the land of Toki Pona.
1. Sounds and spelling
Toki Pona has just 14 letters, all lowercase except for proper names:
- vowels a e i o u (as in Spanish: a in “father”, e in “bet”, i in “machine”, o in “go”, u in “food”)
- consonants j k l m n p s t w (j sounds like English y)
Stress is always on the first syllable: TO-ki PO-na. Names are adapted into these sounds and capitalised as adjectives: jan Mewi (a person called Mary), ma Kanata (Canada).
2. Core grammar
Noun + li + noun: something is something.
| toki pona | English |
|---|---|
| ni li jan. | This is a person. |
| lipu li ijo. | A document is a thing. |
| jan li meli. | The person is a woman. |
Noun + li + adjective: something is some way. There is no word for “is”.
| toki pona | English |
|---|---|
| ijo li pona. | The thing is good. |
| tomo li suli. | The house is big. |
Noun + adjective: describe the noun (modifiers come after). A second noun can act as an adjective.
| toki pona | English |
|---|---|
| tomo suli | big house |
| jan pona | good person, friend |
| telo kili | fruit juice (“fruit liquid”) |
| tomo telo | bathroom (“water house”) |
You and I: li is dropped after mi and sina.
| toki pona | English |
|---|---|
| mi mije. | I am a man. |
| sina sin. | You are new. |
| tomo sina li sin. | Your house is new. |
| kulupu sin li wawa. | The new community is strong. |
Noun1 + li + verb + e + noun2: e marks the object.
| toki pona | English |
|---|---|
| mi moku e telo. | I drink water. |
| mi sona e toki pona. | I know Toki Pona. |
| soweli suli li moku e sina. | The big animal eats you. |
| tomo sona li jo e lipu. | The school (“knowledge house”) has books. |
| meli li kute e mije. | The woman listens to the man. |
| kulupu lili li jo e toki sin. | The small group has a new language. |
Negation: put ala after the word: mi sona ala, I don’t know.
3. Essential phrases
| toki pona | English |
|---|---|
| toki! | Hello! |
| mi jan VikiD. | I am VikiD. |
| sina pilin seme? | How do you feel? |
| mi pilin pona. | I feel good. |
| mi sona ala. | I don’t know. |
| pona! | Thanks! / Great! |
| tawa pona! | Goodbye (to someone leaving: “good going”) |
| awen pona! | Goodbye (to someone staying: “stay well”) |
4. Vocabulary
All my vocabulary cards are now on one page: Toki Pona: Vocabulary.
Learning path
- Toki Pona: Start Here (you are here)
- Toki Pona: Vocabulary
- Toki Pona: Everyday Phrases
- Toki Pona: Example Sentences
Videos and links
- Introduction video
- Toki Pona, the 120-Word Language – Christopher Huff at the Polyglot Gathering Berlin 2014
- 7 hour learn Toki Pona stream!
- Tokipona.alinome dictionary
- lipu-lili-pona
- Sitelen Sitelen
See you soon!