munmoon, night sky object, star, celestial body
anteother, altered; modify, change; difference
sitelenimage, picture, representation, symbol, mark, writing
pokicontainer; bag, bowl, box, cup, cupboard, drawer, folder
pakaladamage, break, botch, harm, mess up; mistake
johold, carry, possess, contain, own
supaflat horizontal surface, especially to put or rest things on e.g. bed, floor, desk, plate, table, platform, stage
seme particleindicates missing information in a question
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 use the ijo ala ijo pattern, where ijo is a placeholder for either the first word in the predicate, or the first preverb if there is one.
to answer a question like this you repeat ijo for yes, and say ala or ijo ala for no.
/
ona li suwi ala suwi tawa sina
suwi / suwi ala
is she cute in your opinion?
yes / no
/
sina wile ala wile pali
wile / ala
do you want to work?
yes / no
notice how easily recognizable the ijo ala ijo pattern is, especially in sitelen pona.
you can also form yes/no questions by appending anu seme to the end. (don't worry, lesson 12 will cover the word anu)
they are answered the same way as ijo ala ijo questions, by either repeating the ijo which would be repeated, or () (ijo) ala.
if you're unsure of which word to repeat, you could also just answer with a sentence.
/ /
sina moku anu seme
mi moku / moku / moku ala
are you eating?
i am eating / yes / no
/ /
ni li ilo kalama sina anu seme
ni li ilo kalama mi / ilo / ala
is this your instrument?
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
mi pakala e ijo / mi soweli Tesa
what are you doing / who are you?
i'm breaking stuff / i'm tess
()
seme li lon supa
mani ale mi (li lon supa)
what's on the table?
all of my money (is on the table)
soweli Sijala li lon seme
ona li lon insa pi poki kala a
where is tiara?
she is inside the container of fish!
mi kama jo e moku mute kepeken mani
i acquired lots of food with money
i bought a lot of food
sina toki tawa mun tan seme
why are you talking to the moon?
sina jo ala jo e sitelen suwi
do you have cute pictures?
seme li sona toki pona
who knows how to speak well?
ijo mute li ante e nimi ona tan toki pona
many change their names because of toki pona
what's up? (not literal)
seme li lon
sina seme
seme li kama
what's up? (literal)
seme li lon sewi
sewi li seme
i wanna be on the bed
mi wile lon supa lape
what did you want to say?
sina wile toki e seme
sina pakala e supa tan seme a
why did you break the table?!
mi wile kepeken pipi tawa pali mi
i want to use bugs for my work
ma ni li lete seme
how cold is that place?
sina kama sona sitelen pona tan seme
why did you learn sitelen pona?
where did you learn to write well from?