lesson 10: intermission 1
Nouns, verbs, adjectives, pronouns, prepositions, preverbs — you have learned a lot by now! Let’s slow down. As you know, language learning often focuses on drilling sentence after sentence. But getting good isn’t just about repetitive bits of practice. It’s also about listening, and reading, and talking to people.
For this lesson, let’s read a short story in Toki Pona! It only uses the words and grammar we’ve learned so far.
part 1: kalama li lon ma
Listen to an audio recording, and follow along in the text.
After you’re done listening, try to read the text aloud. See if you can follow the meaning of the text! Once you’re done practicing reading and listening, you can check the translation!
soweli li lon ma kasi.There was a deer in the forest.
nimi ona li soweli Mumu.Her name was Mumu.
soweli Mumu li lape pona.Mumu was fast asleep.
kasi li awen e lape ona.Trees protected her sleep.
kalama nasa suli li kama.There came a strange loud noise.
lape li weka tan soweli.The deer woke up.
soweli li wile sona e kalama.She wanted to find out more about the noise.
part 2: waso li kalama
waso lili suwi li kama.There came a cute little sparrow.
nimi ona li waso Siju.His name was Siju.
soweli li lukin e ona.The deer looked at the sparrow.
soweli li kama sona e ni:She learned this:
kalama wawa li tan waso ni.the noise came from this bird.
waso li wile moku.The sparrow was hungry.
wile ona li suli.He was desperate.
ona li kalama suli tan ni.And so he cried out.
part 3: waso li moku pona
ni li ike tawa soweli Mumu.This saddened Mumu.
soweli li wile pona e waso.The deer wanted to help the sparrow.
soweli li pana e pipi suli tawa ona.She fed him a large caterpillar.
waso li moku e pipi.The sparrow ate the bug.
ni li pona tawa ona.This satisfied his hunger.
You may notice the translation isn’t quite as literal as the example sentences! This is common. Once you have a story that spans several sentences, they start to help each other along.
Did any Toki Pona sentences or translations give you pause? Perhaps you still don’t fully understand them? Good! That, too, is part of learning. This is where the community comes along. Join an active Toki Pona group, show them the sentences, and ask for advice. There are always people who will gladly help!