a a a - hahaha
a, sina sona pona - ah, you know well
+to ask yes or no questions, you repeat the first word in the predicate or preverb by saying word ala word
to answer a question like this you repeat the word for yes, and say ala or word ala for no.
-sina wile ala wile pali? - do you want to work?
+
sina wile ala wile pali? - do you want to work?
wile / ala - yes / no
jan ni li suwi ala suwi tawa sina? - is this person cute in your opinion?
+
jan ni li suwi ala suwi tawa sina? - is this person cute in your opinion?
suwi / suwi ala - yes / no
you can also form yes/no questions by appending "anu seme?" to the end. (lesson 12 will cover the word anu)
they are answered the same way as verb ala verb questions, by either repeating the word, or saying ala.
if you're unsure of which word to repeat, you could also just say a sentence
-sina moku anu seme? - do you eat?
+
sina moku anu seme? - do you eat?
moku / ala - yes / no
ona li jan poka sina anu seme? - are they your friend?
+
ona li jan poka sina anu seme? - are they your friend?
ona li jan poka mi - they are my friend
open-ended questions are formed by making a normal sentence and putting the word seme where the missing information would go.
if you have phrased the question correctly, the responder should be able to replace the word seme with the answer.
-sina seme? - what are you doing? / who are you?
+
sina seme? - what are you doing? / who are you?
mi pakala e ijo / mi soweli Tesa - i break things / i'm tess
seme li lon supa? - what's on the table?
+
seme li lon supa? - what's on the table?
len jaki - dirty clothes
soweli Sijala li lon seme? - where is tiara?
+
soweli Sijala li lon seme? - where is tiara?
ona li lon insa pi poki kala! - she is inside the aquarium!
modifiers go after the word they're modifying
-soweli lili - small animal
+soweli lili - small animal
to do possessive, you modify the word with a pronoun
-soweli lili mi - my small animal
+soweli lili mi - my small animal
keep in mind that if you modify mi or sina, you need to use li afterwards
-mi mute li wawa - we are strong
+mi mute li wawa - we are strong
(remember - number rarely needs to be specified, so this could just be "mi wawa" instead)
you use the particle e to indicate who is being affected by the subject's action (the predicate)
-subject li predicate e direct object +
subject li predicate e direct object
jan li pali e tomo - the people are building a house
+when you want to express more complex ideas, you should often split it up into several sentences.
-i saw the person who's building the house -
mi lukin e jan. ona li pali e tomo.
(i saw a person. they were building a house.)
i saw the person who's building the house -
mi lukin e jan. ona li pali e tomo.
(i saw a person. they were building a house.)
you can also use the word ni to refer to an idea from a previous sentence, or to indicate you will elaborate on an idea in a future sentence. you can also use the word ona similarly, but for words instead of ideas.
preverbs go before the predicate and modify it.
they can be negated by the word ala, and otherwise you can't modify preverbs.you can also use multiple preverbs at once
-subject li preverb predicate (e object) +
subject li preverb predicate (e object)
mi ken ala moli e pipi - i can't kill the bug
jan li wile ala moku e pipi - people don't wanna eat bugs
-sina ken kama pona - you can become good +
sina ken kama pona - you can become good
+pi is a really useful particle that regroups modifiers.
normally, each modifier modifies the sum of all its previous words in the phrase. the particle pi creates a second phrase which modifies the first phrase.
-ijo pona mute - many good things
+
ijo pona mute - many good things
ijo pi pona mute - very good thing
in the first example, mute modifies ijo pona, while in the second example, pona mute modifies ijo
mi toki e ijo pi pona mute - i talk about very good things
mi toki e ijo pona mute - i talk about many good things
mi toki e ijo mute pi pona mute - i talk about many very good things
+lon, tawa, tan, sama, and kepeken are prepositions.
prepositions are used to express specific details about the predicate, like how or where. just like preverbs, prepositions can be negated by the word ala.
-mi pali lon tomo moku - i work at a restaurant
+mi pali lon tomo moku - i work at a restaurant
the preposition can also be the predicate
-ona li lon tomo mi - they're at my house
+ona li lon tomo mi - they're at my house
prepositions can also be used as regular words
-tawa sina li musi - your movements are amusing
+tawa sina li musi - your movements are amusing
mani mute li lon tomo mani - there's lots of money at the bank
jan li tawa tomo sina - a person comes over to your house
mi pali e ijo mute kepeken ilo - i make lots of things with tools
mi tawa e tomo sina - i move your house
+to express relative location, use the locative words.
you can combine them with the preposition lon to say "at (place)
-lon sewi - up, aboce
+lon sewi - up, above
jan li lon anpa tomo - people are under the house
waso li tawa lon sewi pi soweli sina - birds are flying above your house
+mi tawa sina lon tenpo kama - i go to you in the future
jan li pali lon tenpo ni - the person is working at that time
mi wile ala pali lon tenpo lon - i don't want to work right now
waso li tawa sewi lon tenpo ale - birds always move in the sky
+