Beginner's Resource of Toki Pona

by kule epiku Atawan

a

• a doesn't really mean anything precise. It simply adds emphasis to your conversation, like a cherry on top of your word sundae. For example, "ona li ike a" still means "It is bad," but it's particularly bad. The "a" in this sentence conveys more emotion than simply saying "ona li ike." In this way, "a" sort of acts like an exclamation point.
  
• A common response to, well, anything in toki pona is simply responding with "a." It can be used to show your acknowledgement of something.
  
• Keep in mind that a is still a modifier, and only a modifier. "a" doesn't really mean anything on its own.

akesi

• Note that, although akesi can mean both a non-cute animal and a lizard, it doens't imply that those are the same. You can have an "akesi suwi" (cute lizard) as much as an other animal.

ala

• Aside from simply adding a negator to any word it modifies, ala is also how questions are commly formed in toki pona. Putting "x ala x" is pretty much just asking "x, or not x?" For example, "sina pona ala pona?" does mean "Are you good?" but it more literally means "Are you good or not good?"
  
• Be careful when using ala. A common mistake for beginners is to say "mi sona e toki pona ala," but unless you are trying to say "I know not toki pona," then you should say "mi sona ala e toki pona." In the second sentence, the "ala" modifies the verb, changing it to "don't know," while in the first, the "ala" modifies the noun, changing it to "not toki pona."

alasa

• In casual conversation, alasa is used simply for "find." For example, "mi wile alasa e supa monsi ante" means "I want to find another chair."

• Some people use alasa as a preverb, that is, a word that comes before a verb to change it's meaning. Preverb alasa means "try," as in, "mi alasa sona e sina," meaning "I try to understand you." This is opposed to the other word which means try, lukin. Another fun idea is that alasa can mean actions with no definite end, whereas lukin refer to actions which can end.

ale

• When talking about numbers in toki pona, ale can mean 100. For example, "ale mute mute luka tu wan" means 100+20+20+5+2+1, or 148.

• ale has a synonym, ali, to make it distinct from ala. Unlike other words which are claimed to be synonyms, these are exactly the same, and are used interchangably.

anpa

• anpa is a relative positional noun, meaning that it refers to a position relative to the subject. For example, "ona li lon anpa pi supa lape" means "It is underneath my bed." This is one of the weaker examples of a positional noun though, as it means a lot more than just "downwards."

ante

• When using this word, take into consideration that it does not mean "opposite." It only means different, so a "pimeja ante" doesn't mean white, it only means a different shade of black.

• ante can be used in many phrases. Some cool examples include: "jan ante" which means "other people," and "toki ante" which means "different speech." Putting this phrase into the verb spot gives us the word "translate."
  
• Another neat phrase is "ante la," which means "differently." This is often used to change the topic of a conversation, as in "mi sona e ni. ante la, sina sona ala sona e musi Tewawija?" which means "I know this. Changing the subject, do you know the game Terraria?"

anu

• A common phrase in toki pona is "anu seme," which means "or what." It's often stapled onto the end of sentences to turn them into questions, for example, "sina ken toki, anu seme?" means "Can you talk?" but it more literally means "Can you talk, or what?" This isn't to say that it has the same laid-back English connontation... but it is used in the same way.

• anu is rarely used as a content word, meaning to choose, or decide. For example, "o anu e leko" is telling someone to decide on a block.

apeja

awen

• awen can be used as a preverb, meaning that it can go before the verb to modify it. An example of this would be "ona li awen pona," which means "It continues to be good."
  
• A common thing to say in toki pona before the beginning of a sentence is "awen la," which means "continually." An example would be "awen la ona li pipi e mi," which means "She continually anoys me." The distinction between "awen la" and awen preverb is subtle, but noticeable.

e

• Always remember to use e. A common beginners mistake is to omit e, like in the sentence "mi kama sona e toki pona," which is sometimes incorrectly said as "mi kama sona toki pona." It does sound more similar to English, but remember that it's not correct.
  
• e goes before the direct object, so it's the thing your doing the action on. This causes some quirks that you must be aware of; for example, "mi toki e sina" doesn't mean "I'm talking to you," but it means "I'm talking you."

• There is a really strange analysis that e is actually a preposition, meaning "affect" or "directed at." Syntactically, e is the same as a preposition, but it doesn't have a content word meaning. For the first actual preposition, see kepeken.

en

• A common English word that en is compared to is "and," which can be useful as a demonstration but isn't really how en works. English "and" is much more versatile than en is; for example, in English you can say "I ignored and blocked her," but you cannot say "mi weka en pake e ona." Instead, you would say "mi weka li pake e ona." en can only be used to connect subjects; other words connect verbs and objects, specifically li and e respectively.
  
• Multiple subjects with the word en are considered "connected," in that they share the same verb. An example of this is "mi en sina li pana e leko tu." This sentence means "Me and you give two blocks," but not two blocks each.

• en is sometimes used in the phrase "en la" to mean "and." This definitely isn't how you're supposed to use it, because en isn't a content word and thus has no meaning, but it's still fun.
  
• en is also sometimes used to like items in prepositional phrases together. For example, "mi pana e ni tawa jan Jepo en jan Tenli." In this case, I am giving something to both Jepo and Tenli.

epiku

• Despite epiku obviously being a joke word, one of it's common definitions, "to an exceedingly great extent," implies some possibility of a technical use.
  
• epiku is sometimes used as a modifier to turn other words into joke words, as in, "tawa epiku," meaning "yeet."

esun

• One of the most common uses of esun (probably more common than what it's actually used for) is the phrase "tenpo esun," meaning "week." This is because most business operations are week-based, and so one could say that a unit of "business time" is a week. Yes, I know, it's a tenuous claim.

ijo

• ijo may sometimes be used to mean "situation." "ijo ni li ike" may mean "This is a bad situation."

ike

• There are plenty of words in toki pona (arguably, all of them) which can be used as interjections, single word sentences. ike is one of the most common examples of this; if someone told you that they had to do schoolwork all day and haven't had a break, an appropriate response would be "ike!"

ilo

• The transitive verb from of ilo is "to make into a tool," which has the same meaning as the word kepeken. So, at least in the verb case, you could say that kepeken and ilo are synonyms.
  
• The phrase "tenpo ilo," can be interpreted to mean either "minutes" or "hours," the idea being that either minutes and hours can be used as a tool for telling the time, or that they are the units of time measured by a clock.

insa

• insa is a relative positional noun, so you can use it to describe positions relative to you. For example, "ona li lon insa pi supa lape" is "It is inside my bed." All positional nouns follow this pattern; each one can mean a position, as well as a part of the body, in this case, the stomach.

isipin

• isipin is one of the harder words to get a hold of. A good translation of isipin is the English word muse. It is different from "sona," in that what you are thinking about isn't always factual, and it's different from "pilin," in that what you are thinking isn't always emotional.

• isipin can be used to create all sorts of fun words, like "isipin ken," which means guess, "isipin ike," which means skepticality, "isipin sin," which means idea, "isipin kon," which means "dream," or "isipin awen," which means "something that you can't stop thinking about."
  
• isipin is one of the newest words to be generally recognized; only coming into creation in August of 2020. Unlike most other generally accepted new words, this word was only made by one person, who goes by "ko." This method of creating new words has gone under heavy criticism; so much so that people will hate me for saying that isipin is "generally accepted."

jaki

• You can also say "jaki ala" to mean clean. This is most commonly used as a verb: "mi jaki ala e sijelo mi" means "I clean my body."

jan

• When saying names in toki pona, it's important that the name has to describe something. The most common thing for it to describe is a jan, because most people tend to be humans. For this reason, the word "jan" may be shortened to just the letter "j" when talking about someone's name. For example, "jan Tenli" may be shortened to "jTenli."

jasima

• jasima is a post-pu word- one of the most common, in fact. It was of a few created by a committee of people on the ma pona pi toki pona Discord server.
  
• jasima often means just a few things which aren't quite related to what it actually means. jasima is often used to mean "echo," which is a valid interpretation, but it's also used to mean "livestream," or "record," as in, "sina ken ala ken jasima e sinpin sina?" which means "can you stream your screen?" The idea comes from the fact that the streamed recording is a reflection of the original, but it's not quite the same meaning as jasima proper.
  
• jasima is sometimes used as a preposition, though this usage is not very popular. If you want to see the first word that is actually a preposition, see kepeken.

jelo

jo

• There is a faction of people known as jon'ters who insist that jo is an uneccessary word. The argument here is that jo can be replaced by other words, specifically either poki or luka. So, while a normal person would say, "mi jo e supa monsi ni" to mean "I am carrying this chair," a jon'ter would say, "mi luka e supa monsi ni," meaning "This chair is in my hand."
  
• A common usage of the word jo is "metaphorical jo," which is when you use the word jo with something that isn't really an object. An example of this is "lawa mi li jo e sona lili," which means "My brain carries little information."
  
• A much less common usage of the word jo is "relational jo," where jo specifies a vague relationship between two words. An example would be "nasin ni li jo e jan lawa" which would mean "This road has a caretaker." In this case, the word jo acts much more like the English word have.

kala

• kala can mean any sort of animal that goes into water. This includes obvious ones, like fish, to whales and dolphins, but any water animal can be a kala. Penguins are sometimes called kala because they spend lots of time in water.

kalama

• A common usage of kalama is the phrase "kalama musi," which means music. kalama doesn't just mean music though; it means any sound. Because it is a general sound, it has a lot of overlap with other words. toki is just "kalama jan," and mu is just "kalama soweli."

kama

• The main usage of kama is as a preverb. Despite being the primary definition, it doesn't translate well into English; you can think of it as "coming," as in, "mi kama lape" means "I am coming to sleep," but even that doesn't portray the word very well.
  
• A very common usage of kama is "tenpo kama" which means "the future."

kapesi

• kapesi is a pre-pu word, and probably the least used one on this list. Color words are typically considered irrelevant anyways, so if you don't want to use non-pu words, you can say "kule ma" to mean earth color.

kasi

• The definition of most things in toki pona is not strictly scientific, and this word is a good example. "kasi" can refer to plants, but can also refer to things that aren't typically considered plants, like lichen or algae or coral.

ken

• ken as a preverb means that something is possible, but this can mean much more than the English word "can." It could mean "can," or it could mean "may," or "able to." One thing that it may not mean, though, is "must." ken generally leans towards things that have a possibility of being done, but don't have to. If you want a word that implies things need to be done, see wile.

• The interpretation that the noun form of ken is possibility is very rarely used, though it does appear in the most common phrase using ken, "ken la," which means "in the context of possibility," or put more simply, "maybe." Some people don't like this interpretation though, and insist that "ken la" isn't a good translation of "maybe."

kepeken

• kepeken is a preposition. (The first one on this list!) This means that you can use it after the direct object to specify an indirect object. For example, if you wanted to say "I make a house with a hammer," you could say "mi pali e tomo," but the hammer would disappear! To solve this problem, you can use a preposition to specify the inderect object, so in this case you could say "mi pali e tomo kepeken ilo."
  
• Be careful when using prepositions. There is not a particle to determine where a prepositional phrase starts, so you must pay attention and use the context of the sentence to find it.

• Usually, when you use prepositions without a direct object you omit the word "e," because if you include it, the meaning of the sentence may change. However, kepeken is an interesting case. "mi kepeken e ni" has effectively the same meaning as "mi kepeken ni," except for the fact that some people hate it. Use whichever interpretation you want.

kijetesantakalu

• kijetesantakalu has been the subject of numerous numbering systems. In particular, using the syllables as numbers has been suggested by jan Eko, and using the whole word as numbers and differetiating them by placing different stresses on each number has been suggested by soweli nata.
  
• kijetesantakalu has also been extended to include other types of mammals, particularly lemurs, ferrets, red pandas, and even bats, although these definitions are unconventional.

kili

• kili can mean pretty much any edible plant part that isn't pan. Many things can be kili if you can eat them, like nuts, carrots, or even cacti. In fact, it's not even limited to plants, as mushrooms can be kili too. (Although, this usage does overlap with soko.)

kin

• In lipu pu, "kin" is treated as a complete synonym of a, but in modern usage this isnt really true. kin still means emphasis, just a specific type that says "me too!" Some circles of toki pona may continue to use kin in the same way as a, so be aware of this when using this word.

• A cool phrase to use is "kin la," which means "also." This often relates back to the previous sentence, as in "jan mute li lon. kin la, jan mute li toki ala," which means "Many people are here. Also, many people aren't talking."
  
• Most of the time, kin is strapped onto the end of a sentence, but sometimes it's used like a regular modifier. You can say "mi pali e ni kin" to mean "I'm doing this too," but if you want to, you can say "mi kin li pali e ni" to mean "I, too, am doing this."

kipisi

• kipisi means a similar, though not quite exact, thing to the word tu. Both can mean "to make into two," but while "mi tu e ijo ni" means "I make this thing into two," "mi kipisi e ijo ni" specifically means "I cut this thing into two parts," which implies that the two things created from the action are parts of the whole.

kiwen

• kiwen as a modifier means "hard," but it can really represent any attribute that a stone has. In some cases, it can mean a similar thing to the word awen, in that it can be used to mean "tough," or "enduring."

ko

kon

• kon can mean many things, and is useful as both an adjective and a noun. "kon wawa" is wind, "len kon" is a cloak, "jan kon" is a spy, "kon nimi" is a definition, "monsuta kon" is a ghost, and "kon jan" is a person's soul. Just to name a few.

ku

kule

• While there are words for individual colors in toki pona, if you wish to you can describe any color as kule. Examples include: "kule suno" for yellow, "kule telo" for blue, "kule kasi" for green, "kule seli" for orange, "kule sewi" for blue/white, "kule jaki" for brown, and plenty of others.

• kule can also refer to the LGBTQ+ community, because the community is described as "colorful," potentially in reference to the pride flag.

kulupu

• It may be worth pointing out that kulupu doesn't have to mean only people, as most people can parse a "kulupu ijo" as being a group of objects.

kute

• The "obey" definition of kute is VERY rarely used. Often, people use lawa to mean "control," and flip the entire sentence around. Though, on the flipside, "o kute" is probably one of the most common usages of kute, and it means "pay attention."

la

• This word is probably the hardest word to describe in toki pona, as it's a concept that English really lacks. la separates the context phrase from the main phrase. The way I usually translate it is "with this as context," which sounds weird, but actually helps. An example may be: "jan Tenli li sona e nimi la jan Tepo li sona kin." Using this translation, the sentence becomes "Tenli knows the word. With this as context, Tepo also knows it." This may seem like a very weird and useless sentence, until you rearrange it and see that it means "When Tenli knows the word, Tepo also knows it."
  
  
• la can be used for all sorts of cool things; one common usage is to form conditionals. For example, "mi pali e ni la ijo pona li kama" means "If I make this, good things will come." In this case, the la translates into the word "if."
  
• Another common usage of la is with time. "tenpo kama la" means "in the context of the coming time," which translates into English as "in the future." You can also say "tenpo pini la" for "the finished time," or "tenpo lon la"/"tenpo ni la" to mean "right now." In this way, la can be used as a tense marker.
  
• And, lastly, single words can be used as adverbs. "awen la" means continually, "ken la" means maybe, and "tan la" means originally. There are also some other cool constructions, like "mi la," which means "in my opinion." la really is a cool word!

• A comma may or may not go after the word la, depending on the context. A comma isn't required, but it can be there, and when speaking toki pona it's one of the few parts where speakers include a pause.
  
• In a way, the word la really is an embodiment of the language. toki pona is generally very context sensitive, and la helps to define the context in which you are speaking.

lanpan

• Some people really, REALLY hate this word. This is partially because it is a word created by a bunch of people after lipu pu was released, but also because some people think that the concept of "take" is not a concept suited in toki pona. As mentioned in jo, there is a concept of shared possesion that lanpan breaks somewhat. Some people like this though, because it allows you to express something that is normally outside of the boundaries of the language. Personally, I don't hold a very strong opinion either way; I just use it because it is a word that many people understand.
  
• Some people like to use "kama jo" as a substitute for lanpan, though this kind of misses out on the meaning, as "lanpan" deliberately expresses intent to steal, whereas "kama jo" is more passive.

lape

• Most of the time, lape means sleep, and the resting definition is ignored. However, when it is used to mean rest, it can often cause confusion, because people may think that you are going to sleep even when you are just sitting down for a bit. To remedy this, some people (and when I say some people I mean jan Kawa) made the joke word "slape," which means just sleep. Clearly, this is the worst word ever made in toki pona.

laso

• laso may seem odd if you come from a language which has different words for blue and green, but it actually makes a lot of sense for other languages. Most people tend to think of laso as cyan, or teal, rather than as one or the other.

• The need for a differentiator between green and blue in toki pona has led to two joke word being made: "blaso," which means blue, and "graso," which means green. More serious attempts at differentiation include "laso telo" and "laso kasi" for blue and green respectively.

lawa

leko

len

• One of len's definitions is "cover," which can also mean "cloaked." In this way, its definition kind of overlaps with kon.

lete

• lete is sometimes jokingly used to mean the word "cool," as in, "sina lete" means "You're cool."

li

• li is used between the subject and the verb, and it's used in pretty much every single toki pona sentence, so don't forget to put it in! The only time where a li may not be used is when the subject is mi or sina. In this case, you can omit the li, like in "sina pona," which means "you are good." In that case, the li is implied.

• While li is omitted when mi or sina is the subject the vast, vast majority of the time, it's technically not gramatically incorrect to say "mi li" or "sina li," though I would heavily advise against saying this because you will definitely get some weird looks if you say that.

lili

• lili can either mean few or small. The only way to figure out is by context; if you are talking about a group of things, it's more likely "few," but when talking about a single thing, it's more likely to be "small." However, the context is very important.

• lili famously has two antonyms; "suli," which means "big," and "mute," which means "many." toki pona has a few of these imbalances, where 1 word has two opposites; sewi is a good example.

linja

• linja can also be used to mean "connection," since if two things are connected, you could metaphorically "draw a line" between them. In this way, linja is often used to talk about the internet, as in the phrase "linja mi li pakala," which means "My internet cut out." Alternatively, you can use the post-pu word linluwi for connection.

lipu

• lipu in usually means any object that you can write on, but it can really include any object that has a flat surface. Most things that people consider as supa can also be a lipu, like, for example, a table.

loje

lon

• lon is a preposition, which means that you can use it for indirect objects. For a better description of what a preposition is, see kepeken.
  
• If something is being described as "lon," it means that it exists. For example, "ijo lon li lon" means "A thing that exists is existing." You can also use "lon e ijo" to mean "bring into existence," like in the sentence, "mi lon e ijo ni," which means "I create this thing."
  
• One of the definitions of lon is "true," so often, people use lon as an affirmative response, like how you would use "true" in English. However, it may certainly not be used to say "yes" to a question of the form "x ala x."

• "seme li lon" is a common greeting in toki pona, and it usually means something like "What's up?" in English.

luka

• luka can be used as the number 5. For a better description on how numbers in toki pona work, see ale.

• One possible interpretation of luka is "to press," because if you apply your hand to something, you press it.

lukin

• A cool constructing you can do with lukin is "lukin mi la," which means "from what I can see."
  
• Some people like to use just lukin for eye, but most people use oko.

lupa

• The definition of lupa to mean "door" is somewhat contested, since, to be consistent with the other definitions, lupa should be the doorway, not the door itself, and "lupa sinpin" should be the door itself. However, more often than not, noone cares.

ma

• ma does not refer to a spot. It refers to an area of land, or an outdoors space, not a particular space in a room or other indoor place.

majuna

mama

mani

• mani can refer to anything that is used as currency, or, more broadly, anything of agreed value. This is where the definition of "large domesticated animal" comes from.

meli

• Although meli (and tonsi and mije) can be a person, it's much more commonly used as an adjective, as in, "jan meli."

meso

mi

• mi does not just mean "me." mi can mean "we," "us," or any variation on a first person pronoun. Often, people say "mi mute" to differentiate between singular and plural, but I would advise against this unless absolutely necessary.
  
• Using mi as an adjective to modify a word often shows possesion, as in, "soweli mi" is "my pet." This also works with sina and ona.

mije

misikeke

• Often, misikeke is used for "help" in general, as in, "mi misikeke e sina" means "I help you."

moku

• moku just means ingest, so not only is eating moku, but drinking is "moku e telo," and breathing is "moku e kon."

moli

monsi

monsuta

• monsuta is the origin of the famous "monsutatesu" concept, which is the idea that the transitive definition of a word can mean the opposite of the intransitive definition of a word. Basically, the example goes as thus: "mi monsuta e ona" can mean "I fear them," as part of the definition. "mi monsuta e ona" can also mean "I apply fear to them," or "I make them fear." Therefore, the sentence can either mean "I fear them" or "They fear me."

mu

• Although mu is primarily used for animal noises, it can really just be any sort of mumbling or otherwise non-speech sound that comes from a living thing.

mun

• A common mistake is to assume that mun can only be used when talking about the moon. In reality, it can be used for any night sky object, like stars, planets, galaxies, and what have you.

musi

mute

• mute can be used as the number 20. For a better description on how numbers in toki pona work, see ale.

n

• Despite the fact that this word technically breaks toki pona phonotactics, it is listed in lipu ku as a nimi ku suli.

namako

• In pu, namako is used as a synonym for sin, but most people agree that there is a difference. They are still used similarly, but namako has a slightly different connotation to sin.

• Although it isn't the original meaning, namako is often used to talk about literal spices. A good example is "namako pimeja" to mean "black pepper."

nanpa

• nanpa, aside from being used just as the word "number," is a particle which says what order things are in. For example, "mi pini lon nanpa tu" means "I finished second."

• There is an analysis which treats nanpa as a preposition, and with it you can make a whole bunch of interesting constructions. A common phrase is "nanpa anpa," which is "last place." Other common uses include "nanpa pona" and "nanpa sewi," both of which means first.
  
• Another idea using nanpa is that nanpa can mean "order." For example, "mi nanpa e ona" might mean "I order them." You may even extrapolate this further to mean things like "put into a system."

nasa

• A common mistake is to assume that nasa is bad. In reality, nasa has a mostly neutral connotation. If you want to specify that the thing you're talking about is bad, try "nasa ike."

• A common use of the word nasa is in the phrase "telo nasa," which means "alcohol."

nasin

nena

ni

• A common construction in toki pona is called the "ni" method: You can use ni with a colon to make more complex sentences. for example, you could say "mi wile e pona pi jan ale," but that may be confusing, so instead you might say "mi wile e ni: jan ale o pona." This is even more useful in more complex sentences.

• ni is often used in the phrase "tenpo ni," which means "right now."
  
• Another common construction is the phrase "ni la," which translates approximately to "with this in mind."
  
• A common way of shortening speech is the idea of using ni as a verb to refer back to something previously said. For example, I might describe an action like "mi tawa e leko lili," which means "I push the light box," and then say "o ni kin," which is telling you to do the same; it can be interpreted as "Do this too."

nimi

• There are a couple of constructions that you can make with nimi. A few examples are "linja nimi" for "sentence," and "nimi lili" for "letter." Translating the names of the parts of speech is left as an exercise for the reader.

noka

• noka can, in some circumstances, be used to mean -5 (as in, the opposite of luka). While this is mostly a joke, there are some legitimate applications of this meaning.
  
• noka can be used as a verb. "mi noka e jan." means "I apply my foot to them," or just "I kick them."

o

• o is another highly complex word. It has 3 primary usages: vocative, imperative, and optative. Vocative is the simplest one: Basically, if you say someone's name followed by o, it means that you are calling them. For example, if someone said "jan Tenli o!" it means they are trying to get the attention of Tenli. They might also say "jan ale o!" to get everyone's attention.
  
• Imperative is a bit more tricky. Basically, you can drop the word "sina" at the start of a sentence and replace it with the word "o" to turn it into a command. "sina pali." is just a sentence that means "you work," but "o pali" is a command that is telling you to work.
  
• Lastly, optative is when someone expresses their wishes or desires. This version of o replaces li. As an example, you could say "mi lape." to mean "I sleep," but you might say "mi o lape." to mean "I wish to go to sleep." In this way, it functions similarly to the imperative, but instead you aren't demanding something, just wishing for it.

oko

• In lipu pu, oko has the exact same meaning as lukin, an it can indeed be used as a synonym. However, oko is usually used specifically to mean eyeball rather than sight in general.

olin

ona

• English has a lot of specificity compared to toki pona, so it can be difficult to get used to being so vague. ona does not distinguish between gender, animacy, (living/nonliving) number, or really anything else. This can greatly affect they way you talk about things in toki pona.

open

pakala

• pakala is often used as an interjection, specifically as a curse expletive, or swear word.

pake

• This word's definition has some overlap with pini because, in lipu pu, pake was removed, and instead pini's definition was extended to cover over it. pini and pake still have distinct definitions to this day, although some people don't recognize it.

pali

• pali has a rather unconventional preverb definition; it can act as a sort of transitivity marker. As an example, "mi uta e ona" may mean "I taste it," but "mi pali uta e ona" means "I make it into a mouth."

palisa

pan

pana

• There are lots of compound words which use pana. "pana sona" may mean "teach," "pana wawa" may mean "throw," and "pana mi" may mean "what I give."

• pana is often used more poetically, as it can replace lots of other words. For example, "mi toki e ijo ni tawa sina" can be expressed with more words as "mi pana e toki pi ijo ni tawa sina." This may or may not be more helpful, depending on the context.

pi

• pi is used to divide the order and way that noun groups affect the main noun. Using the example, "kili suwi mute" means "many sweet fruits," but "kili pi suwi mute" means "very sweet fruits." Another good example is "ilo kalama musi," which means "fun and noisy tool" versus "ilo pi kalama musi," which means "music tool."
  
• A common mistake is equating pi to the word "of". This can be helpful, but it can also be somewhat misleading. pi only regroups modifiers, so in many cases it is not like "of."
  
• If you need more examples of how to use pi, here is a good example by asali.

• Similarly to the way that you should omit a li when it comes after mi or sina, you shouldn't use a pi it there is only one word after it. If you have a single word after a pi, it means the exact same thing as if you didn't have the pi at all. There are very specific cases where a single word after a pi might add clarification, but be warned: you might get looks if you do it.

pilin

• pilin is uniquely copular, so be sure not to confuse "mi pilin pona" with "mi pilin e pona." The first one means "I'm good" while the second one means "I'm touching a good."
  
• similarly to all of the positional words, pilin can also mean "heart." A very common mistake is to assume that olin means heart, but this is not the case.

• A very common saying in toki pona is "sina pilin seme?" which means "how are you?" A good response would be "mi pilin pona!" or "mi pilin ike."

pimeja

• An interesting use of pimeja is the expression "kalama pimeja," which can mean "low pitch." This contrasts "kalama walo," which can mean "high pitch."

pini

• The most common use of pini is in the phrase "tenpo pini" which refers to the past.

pipi

• A more colloquial usage of pipi is for an annoyance. For example, "jan sama mi li pipi e mi" can be translated to "My sister is annoying me."

poka

• An interesting usage of poka is for time: some people say "tenpo poka" to mean "sometime soon," since the time they are referring to is beside the current time.

poki

pona

• While nowadays pona refers to things that can be good or simple, in the past, there was the word "pasila" which just meant "simple." This is very, very rarely used today.

powe

• If you wish not to use words that aren't from lipu pu, an alternative to powe is "lon ala."

pu

• pu is the most well known joke word in toki pona. There is a common joke in toki pona that pu isn't the book itself, it's only interacting with the book. That means that writing, reading, touching, burning, and yes, even throwing it into a lake are all valid ways to pu, but the book itself is not pu. Instead, to refer to the book, use "lipu pu."

sama

• Outside of its prepositional usage, sama is most often used in the phrase "jan sama," meaning "sibling" or "peer." In general, sama can be used as an adjective to show anything that is similar to something else. As an example, "soweli pi sama telo" means "animal that is like water," which may be interpreted as "cat."

• sama may also be used as a verb, meaning "to make the same." In particular, this can be extended to anything that makes things the same: "coordination" could be "sama e nasin," and "mix" could be "sama e kule."

seli

• seli has a lot of interesting definitions. To seli something may mean to cook it or to make it react, like rusting. "sona seli" can also be understood as chemistry.

selo

• There is a similar, albeit much less common word, ete, which somewhat overlaps with selo. The only difference is that it doesn't mean the boundary specifically, but just outside of the boundary.

seme

• seme can be combined with a lot of other words in order to create all of the common question words in english. The most common translations are: "jan seme" for "who," "seme" for "what," "ma seme" for "where," "tan seme" for "why," "tenpo seme" for "when," and "kepeken nasin seme" for "how."

sewi

• Along with it's myriad of other translations, sewi can also sometimes literally mean sky, as in "o tawa waso lon sewi laso" means "Fly in the blue sky."

sijelo

sike

sin

sina

• Much of the advice on the usage of sina is the same as mi, just in the second person.

sinpin

sitelen

• sitelen may or may not refer to anything which is a symbol or representation. For instance, an animal may be a sitelen if it is used to signify something greater.
  
• sitelen is commonly used in the phrase "sitelen tawa," meaning "video." It is also use to say "write," sometimes with the phrase "sitelen toki."

soko

• soko can either refer to the fungus itself or the mushroom part; it isn't really clear. If you want to be unambiguous, say "kili soko" for the fruiting part of a fungus.

sona

• sona can sometime be used to mean "understand," as in: "mi sona," can mean "I understand," and "sina sona ala sona," can mean "Do you understand?"

soweli

• soweli refers to any animal that goes on land, which means that some animals which are technically birds in English, like ostriches, are considered soweli in toki pona.

suli

• Keep in mind that, more often than not, suli is used to signify that something is important, not necessarily big.

• Many people use suli to refer to old things, but some people like to use the pre-pu word majuna instead.

suno

• The definition of suno may overlap somewhat with walo, since they can both mean something is bright. In general, try to use suno when referring to actual light, and use walo to refer to colors.

supa

• supa is a surprisingly useful word. It is used for all sorts of compounds, like "supa nena" for "keyboard," "supa lape" for "bed," and "supa anpa" for floor, as well as many others.

suwi

• suwi has plenty of unconventional uses, but in general it is used for anything that is pleasant to experience in general. Words like "comfortable" and "soft" can be expressed with suwi.
  
• suwi can sometimes be used to refer to something that is sweet. For example, "suwi" can mean "candy." This phenomenon isn't unique to suwi, but it is the most well known example, and as such it has been dubbed "suwitesu."

tan

• Keep in mind that tan has two somewhat seperate uses, in that it can mean "because of" or "from." "mi tawa tan ni" can mean "I left because of this," or "I left from this."
  
• "tan seme" is a common phrase that usually means "why." It literally translates as "what reason."

• A very unconvential usage of tan is to use it as a conjunction, similarly to how la and anu can be used. If you wanted to say "I built this because they wanted it," you might be able to say "mi pali e ni tan ona li wile e ona." Alternatively, if you don't want to be so nasa, you can say "mi pali e ni tan wile ona," or "mi pali e ni tan ni: ona li wile e ona."

taso

• It is sometimes considered a rule that taso can only mean "however" if it is at the beginning of a sentence, but it is not very heavily enforced, so it is up to you if you want to follow it.
  
• You can change the position of taso to specify the thing you are referring to. For example, "sina pali e ni taso" means "You only made this," implying that you may have done other things with it, whereas "sina pali taso e ni" means "You only made this," implying that you may have made other things. It is complicated to explain in English, but gets easier with practice.

• taso is sometimes used as a content word to mean "focus," although this is primarity for hypothetical purposes and not at all for actual speech.

tawa

• It is very important to distinguish the propositional and content word uses of tawa especially, since they often go right next to eachother. For example, "mi pana e sike tawa tawa sina" can be difficult to parse, but it means "I throw a moving ball to you."
  
• tawa can also mean "from the perspective of." An example would be "ona li lon tawa mi," which means "It exists to me," or, more clearly, "To me, it exists."

telo

• Because telo means beverage, it can technically also mean "to drink." However, this usage of telo is very uncommon, and it much more common to say "mi moku e telo."

tenpo

• tenpo can be used a lot with other words to describe time. Some examples include "tenpo seme," for "when," "tenpo lili," for "moment," "tenpo suli," for "long time," "tenpo kama," for "future," and "tenpo pini," for "past."
  
• This word is not spelled "tempo."

toki

• toki means "talk," but it also means "hello," so whenever someone says "toki!" in toki pona, they are basically saying "Start talking!"

tomo

tonsi

• tonsi can also be used to means transgender or otherwise non-cisgender.

tu

• tu can also mean cut, although some people like to use the pre-pu word kipisi.

unpa

• Although the given definition implies both sexual and marital relationships, "marital relationships" is generally accepted to be a euphemism, although both usages are prevalent.

uta

• If you uta something, one interpretation is that you put it in your mouth, which could mean that you taste it. Similarly, uta can be applied to mean your tongue in general.

utala

walo

wan

• wan can also mean "to unite," as in, "I united the country," could be "mi wan e ma."

waso

wawa

• wawa is often used to represent electricity. For example, "linja wawa" could mean "cable," and "poki wawa" or "lipu wawa" is often used to mean "computer."

weka

• weka is often descirbed as "the most toki pona word" since there isn't really a good English equivalent. It can mean all sorts of things depending on context, and can be either lighthearted, serious, or completely neutral.

wile

• Often, people get confused as to why "must" and "want" are the same word. In toki pona, it is not useful to distinguish the two, so having one word makes the overall concept easier to digest. Instead of treating it like two seperate meanings of the same word, try thinking of it as one very broad word.