Updated jan Pije's lessons/Lesson 12 Conjunctions, Temperature

Vocabulary

ante - other, different

anu - or

en - and

kin - indeed, still, too

lete - cold; to freeze

lipu - paper, sheet, page, ticket, etc.

mani - money, currency

pilin - feel, think

taso - but, only

anu, en, and taso

Although these three words are all of Toki Pona's conjunctions, they all are used differently, and so the easiest way to teach these words is one at a time. So let's get started.

anu

This word is used to make questions when there is a choice between two different options. For example, what if you came home and saw that someone had eaten all of the cookies. You know that the person who ate them has to be either Susan or Lisa, but you're not sure which one. Here's how you ask:

jan Susan anu jan Lisa li moku e suwi?

In a semi-literal way, this sentence says "Susan or Lisa ate the cookies?" If we were asking this question in everyday, spoken English, we'd say something like "Did Susan eat the cookies, or was it Lisa?". So you see, you can't follow the English way of saying things, especially when using anu. Just think independently. Here are some more examples:

sina jo e kili anu telo nasa? -- Do you have the fruit, or is it the wine that you have?

sina toki tawa mi anu ona? -- Are you talking to me, or are you talking to him?

ona anu jan ante li ike? -- Is he bad, or is it the other person who's bad?

sina toki pi mama anu jan lili? -- Are you talking about the parent, or is the child that you're talking about?

Do you know how sometimes in English we say stuff like, "So are you coming or what?" ... Well, we can do the same thing in Toki Pona (except "So" gets left out):

sina kama anu seme? -- Are you coming or what? (lit: "You come or what?")

sina wile moku anu seme? -- Do you want to eat or what?

sina wile e mani anu seme? -- Do you want the money or what?

Personally, I think this a nice little feature. But if you don't like it, you can still use the other way of making questions like we learned in lesson eight.

en

This word simply means "and". It is used like in English to join two nouns in the subject of a sentence together:

mi en sina li jan pona. -- You and I are friends.

jan lili en jan suli li toki. -- The child and the adult are talking.

kalama musi en meli li pona tawa mi. -- I like music and girls.

Note that en is not intended to connect two direct objects. For that, use the multiple-e technique that you learned in lesson four.

Correct: mi wile e moku e telo. -- I want food and water.

Incorrect: mi wile e moku en telo.

Also note that en is not used to connect two whole sentences, even though this is common in English. Instead, use the multiple-li technique from lesson four or split the sentence into two sentences:

I'm eating fruit, and I'm speaking in/using Toki Pona. ---->

mi moku e kili li toki kepeken toki pona.

OR

mi moku e kili. mi toki kepeken toki pona.

en can also be used with pi if two people own something together:

tomo pi jan Keli en mije ona li suli. -- The house of Keli and her boyfriend is big.

jan lili pi jan Ken en jan Lisa li suwi. -- Ken and Lisa's baby is sweet.

taso

taso has two uses: as an adjective, and as a conjunction. We'll talk about its use as a conjunction first.

Okay, this is really simple. If you don't understand these examples below, it's because you have forgotten other concepts; taso itself is common sense.

mi wile moku. taso mi jo ala e moku. -- I want to eat. But I don't have food.

mi wile lukin e tomo mi. taso mi lon ma ante. -- I want to see my house. But I'm in a different country.

The only thing you need to remember is to start a new sentence when you want to use taso. Do not run everything together with a comma! You can do that in English if you want to, but not in Toki Pona.

Correct: mi pona. taso meli mi li pakala. -- I'm okay. But my girlfriend is injured.

Incorrect: mi pona, taso meli mi li pakala.

Incorrect: mi pona taso meli mi li pakala.

All right. As I stated a minute or two ago, taso can be used as an adjective. It goes after the noun, just like all other adjectives in Toki Pona.

jan Lisa taso li kama. -- Only Lisa came.

mi sona e ni taso. -- I know only that. (or, in everyday English, "That's all I know.")

And since it can be used as an adjective, of course it can be used as an adverb.

mi musi taso. -- I'm just joking.

mi pali taso. -- I just work. (in everyday English, we might say, "All I ever do is work.")

mi lukin taso e meli ni! ali li pona. -- I only looked at that girl! Everything's okay.

kin

kin is used to mean also, still, or indeed. For example:

1. mi tawa ma Elopa. -- I went to Europe.

pona! mi tawa kin. -- Cool! I went too.

2. mi mute o tawa. -- Let's go.

mi ken ala. mi moku kin. -- I can't. I'm still eating.

3. a! sina lukin ala lukin e ijo nasa ni? -- Whoa! Do you see that weird thing?

mi lukin kin e ona. -- I see it indeed.

Temperature and pilin

Now we're going to go back over a word that you've already learned in lesson six but which needs closer attention, and we're going to learn something new at the same time.

Okay, if you've forgotten, seli means hot or heat. We can use this word to talk about the weather. In this lesson, you also should have learned that lete means cold. We can use these words to describe the temperature:

seli li lon. -- "Heat is present." It's hot.

lete li lon. -- "Cold is present". It's cold.

You can also use lili and mute to be more specific.

seli mute li lon. -- Much heat is present. It's very hot.

seli lili li lon. -- A little heat is present. It's warm.

lete mute li lon. -- Much cold is present. It's very cold.

lete lili li lon. -- A little cold is present. It's cool.

Now the thing about these phrases is that they're only used to talk about the temperature of the surroundings in general. For example, if you walked out of your house, you could use one of those phrases to describe how the temperature is. Or if you walked into a cave that's cold, you could use one of those. However, if you're referring to a certain object that is cold, regardless of the surrounding environment, you use pilin...

Suppose you grab an axe and you discover that the handle is cold. Here's what you'd say:

ilo ni li lete pilin. -- This axe is cold to-touch.

This structure is just like pona lukin. pilin is actually acting as an adverb here. A strict translation of the sentence above would be "This axe is touchily cold." -- You also see that pilin is used to describe the temperature of specific objects, while lon is used to describe the general temperature of the entire surrounding area. Also, just like with the lon phrases, the pilin phrases can use mute and lili to intensify the descriptions:

ni li lete pilin mute. -- This feels cold a lot. This is very cold.

ni li seli pilin lili. -- This feels hot a little. This feels warm.

Other uses of pilin

You also use pilin to describe how you're feeling.

mi pilin pona. -- I feel good. I feel happy.

mi pilin ike. -- I feel bad. I feel sad.

sina pilin seme? -- How do you feel? (This not a literal translation into English, by the way.)

It can also mean to think:

mi pilin e ni: sina ike. -- I think this: You're bad. I think that you're bad.

When you ask someone "What are you thinking about?" in Toki Pona, the "about" part is removed:

sina pilin e seme? -- What are you thinking?

However, when you answer to say what you're thinking about, the "about" part gets added back in. Use pi if needed:

mi pilin ijo. -- I'm thinking (about) something.

mi pilin pi meli ni. -- I'm thinking about that woman.

Practice

Try translating these sentences from English to Toki Pona.

Do you want to come or what?

Do you want food, or do you want water?

I still want to go to my house.

This paper feels cold.

I like currency of other nations.

I want to go, but I can’t.

I’m alone.

mi kin olin e sina.

mi pilin e ni: ona li jo ala e mani.

mi wile lukin e ma ante.

mi wile ala e ijo. mi lukin taso.

mi pilin lete.

sina wile toki tawa mije anu meli?

Answers

sina wile kama anu seme?

sina wile e moku anu telo?

mi kin wile tawa tomo mi.

lipu ni li pilin lete.

mani pi ma ante li pona tawa mi.

mi wile tawa. taso mi ken ala.

mi taso li lon.

I still love you. / I love you too.

I think that he doesn’t have money.

I want to see other countries.

I don’t want anything. I’m just looking.

I’m cold. (lit. ”I feel cold.”)

Do you want to talk to a male, or a female?