ale - all; abundant, countless, bountiful, every, plentiful; abundance, everything, life, universe
pini - ago, completed, ended, finished, past
lipu - flat object; book, document, card, paper, record, website
kala - fish, marine animal, sea creature
ijo - thing, phenomenon, object, matter
pana - give, send, emit, provide, put, release
kasi - plant, vegetation; herb, leaf
pi - regroups modifiers
ijo is the most generic word. it can stand in as a placeholder for anything.
pi is a really useful particle that regroups modifiers.
normally, each modifier modifies the sum of all the previous words in the phrase. the particle pi creates a second phrase which modifies the first phrase.
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.
when i say phrase, i mean a collection of a headnoun + modifiers, like jan or ilo moku.
it's a common mistake to try to cram as much information as possible into just one phrase. try to avoid this!
if you want to be more easily understood, it's often better to describe concepts in sentences, and then refer back to previously described concepts with a concise phrase which makes sense with the context you have established with previous sentences.
mi toki e ijo pi pona mute
~ i talk about a very good thing
mi toki e ijo pona mute
~ i talk about many good things
mi toki e ijo mute pi pona mute
~ i talk about many things which are very good
seaweed is edible
the animal is handing out documents with lots of knowledge
the marine biologist knows that fish can eat people
they're a really cute bat
all the people are turning into fish
a good amount of new people are coming
a good amount of new stuff is arriving
mi lukin e lipu pi sona ike
pipi li pali e tomo pi lipu pipi
ijo li ijo e ale
jan pona mi li pana e lipu pali · ona li sona pali e tomo
my friend is giving building documents · he knows how to build houses
weka pi olin mi li ike e ale
ala li ken pona e ale
jan pi weka mute li lukin moku e kala mi