lesson 9: activities
Activities
Let’s learn some more words for things you can do!
to fight, to attack
to sleep, to rest
to produce a sound; sound
to have fun; funny, amusing, interesting
strange, unusual, silly, drunken
These words are pretty straightforward! Let’s use them in sentences:
soweli li utala e jan.
The animal attacked someone.
sina lape lon tomo.
You sleep at home.
nimi ona li nasa tawa mi.
Her name is strange to me.
jan lili li musi tan kalama.
The child is having fun because of noises.
Preverbs
Sometimes we want to talk not only about the activity itself, but about how we relate to it. Maybe we want to do something. Maybe we can do something. Maybe we start or keep on doing something.
In English, these are known as auxilliary and modal verbs. Toki Pona has a similar system, we like to call them preverbs! A preverb is an added verb that goes before the main verb. You already know some of them! Let’s learn what they mean when they act as preverbs:
to begin to ..., to become ...
to continue to ..., to still ...
Only a few verbs in Toki Pona are allowed to be preverbs. So let’s also learn the remaining ones:
to want to ...
to be able to ...
to try to ...
Preverbs are very versatile! Let’s look at some phrases with preverbs:
to want to sleep
to continue to be good
to become knowledgeable, to learn
to try to become strong
Let’s try to use preverbs in sentences:
waso lili li wile lape.
The small bird wants to sleep.
mi kama sona e toki pona.
I learn Toki Pona.
sina alasa tawa ma Tosi.
You try to go to Germany.
toki ona li awen nasa tawa mi.
His speech is still strange to me.