lipu sona pona |

toki pona page 8 - colorful language

The vocabulary for this page:

word meaning
kule color, colorful
jelo yellow (and its shades)
laso blue, green (and its shades)
loje red (and its shades)
pimeja black, dark
walo white, bright/light
nasa unusual, strange, silly, intoxicated
jaki dirty, disgusting, toxic
moli death, dying
unpa sex, sexual

Colors

In toki pona, there are five basic color terms: “loje” (red), “jelo” (yellow), “laso” (blue and green), “pimeja” (black) and “walo” (white).

These terms can be combined with each other, or words referring to natural things, to form other shades:

laso sewi – blue (“sky green/blue”)

laso kasi – green (“plant green/blue”)

loje jelo – orange (“yellowish red”)

jelo pimeja – brown (“dark yellow”)

walo pimeja – gray (“dark white”)

loje walo – pink (“light red”)

Example sentences

kili loje lili li pona tawa mi. – I like small red fruits (strawberries/raspberries?).

jan lili li pana e ko jaki tan monsi ona. – The kid pooped himself.

jan Simu o, mije li moli. – He’s dead, Jim.

tomo ni li jo e jaki mute. ni li ike tawa mi a! – This room is covered in gross materials. I don’t like it!

mije mi li unpa ala e jan ante. – My husband is faithful (“doesn’t have sex with other people”).

Comparative sentences

While there are words in toki pona for “good” or “bad”, there is no “better” or “worse”. While there are words for “lots” and “little”, there’s no “more” or “less”.

To make a comparative statement, you instead split it into two sentences:

mi wawa. sina wawa lili. – I am stronger than you. (I am strong. You are slightly strong.)

Of course, the degree of comparison can be adjusted by changing the difference between the adjectives.

mi wawa mute. sina wawa ala. – I am way stronger than you. (I am very strong. You are weak.)

Exercises

Now, try to figure out the meaning of these sentences.

And try to translate the following sentences into toki pona.

Answers