mun - moon, night sky object, star
ante - different, altered, changed, other
sitelen - image, picture, representation, symbol, mark, writing
poki - container, bag, bowl, box, cup, cupboard, drawer, vessel
pakala - botched, broken, damaged, harmed, messed up
jo - to have, carry, contain, hold
supa - horizontal surface, thing to put or rest something on
seme - (indicates missing information in a question)
jo is not the same as english's general to have.
i have to work
~ mi wile pali
i have a lot of love for you
~ mi olin mute e sina
i have eaten
~ mi moku
there are two ways to ask yes/no questions, and one way to ask an open-ended one.
to ask yes or no questions, you repeat the first word in the preverbs or predicate in a word ala word pattern.
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?
wile / ala
~ yes / no
ona li suwi ala suwi tawa sina
~ is she 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 word ala word questions, by either repeating the word which would be repeated, or saying (word) ala.
if you're unsure of which word to repeat, you could also just answer with a sentence.
sina moku anu seme
~ do you eat?
mi moku / moku / ala
~ i do eat / yes / no
ni li ilo kalama sina anu seme
~ is this your instrument?
ni li ilo kalama mi
/ ilo / ala~ this is my instrument / yes / no
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?
mi pakala e ijo / mi soweli Tesa
~ i'm breaking stuff / i'm tess
seme li lon supa
~ what's on the table?
mani ale mi (li lon supa)
~ all of my money (is on the table)
soweli Sijala li lon seme
~ where is tiara?
ona li lon insa pi poki kala a
~ she is inside the container of fish!
i acquired lots of food with money
i bought a lot of food
why are you talking to the moon?
do you have cute pictures?
who knows how to speak well?
many change their names because of toki pona
seme li lon
sina seme
seme li kama
seme li lon sewi
sewi li seme
mi wile lon supa lape
sina wile toki e seme