lesson 15 - la

vocab

󱥤 sunolight, shine, glow, radiance; sun, light source; brightness

󱥎 pilinemotion, feeling, opinion; heart

󱥰 utamouth, throat, consuming orifice

󱤜 kopaste, powder, goo, sand, soil, clay; squishy, moldable

󱥀 nenaprotuberance; bump, button, hill, nose

󱤝 konair, breath, wind; essence, spirit, soul, ghost; unseen agent

󱤡 la particlebetween the context phrase/sentence and the main sentence

lesson

la

the particle 󱤡 la is used to establish context. whatever comes before 󱤡 la is established as context for whatever comes after.

A 󱤡 B
A la B

if A, then B
in the context of A, B

things which can go after prepositions can often also go before 󱤡 la instead and express a similar, albeit much vaguer, meaning.

󱤴󱥩󱥞󱤬󱥫󱤖
󱥫󱤖 󱤡 󱤴󱥩󱥞
mi tawa sina lon tenpo kama
tenpo kama la mi tawa sina

i go to you in the future

󱤴󱤘󱤂󱥩󱤉󱥭󱥧󱥵󱤴
(󱥧)󱥵󱤴 󱤡 󱤴󱤘󱤂󱥩󱤉󱥭
mi ken ala tawa e tomo tan wawa mi
(tan) wawa mi la mi ken ala tawa e tomo

i can't move a house because of my strength

examples

󱥞󱤢 󱤡 󱤴󱥹󱤧󱤢
sina lape la mi kin li lape

if you sleep, i'll sleep too

󱤴 󱤡 󱤄󱤧󱥔
mi la ale li pona

everything is good with mein my opinion, everything's good

󱥫󱤬 󱤡 󱤌󱤼󱤧󱤖
tenpo lon la ijo mute li kama

right now, lots of people are coming

󱥎󱥞 󱤡 󱤴󱥦󱤂󱥦
pilin sina la mi suwi ala suwi

do you think i'm cute?
according to your feelings, am i cute?

󱥴󱤇󱥑 󱤡 󱥙󱤧󱥔󱤼
waso anu pipi la seme li pona mute

are bugs or birds better?
in the context of bugs or birds, which one is really good?

exercises

translate from toki pona to english

mi kama pipi la sina awen ala awen olin e mi

would you still love me if i became a bug?

pilin sina la kon ni li seme

what do you think the meaning of this is?
what do you think this smell is?

suno li lon sewi la mi sona e ni · pona li kama

when the sun is in the sky, i know that good is coming

mi tawa nena la pilin mi li pona

when i go to the mountains, i feel good

translate from english to toki pona

every day you kiss me is a good day

sina uta e mi la tenpo suno ni li pona

when i'm happy, i howl at the moon

pilin mi li pona la mi mu tawa mun

i can't see you because you're small

sina lili la mi ken ala lukin e sina
mi ken ala lukin e sina tan lili sina

read sitelen pona

󱤴󱥌󱤉󱤜󱥩󱤗󱦜󱥁󱤧󱥵󱤉󱤗

mi pana e ko tawa kasi · ni li wawa e kasi
i give some fertilizer to the plants. this makes the plant stronger.

󱥭󱥞󱤧󱥣󱤼󱤡󱤴󱥷󱤢󱤬󱥆

tomo sina li suli mute la mi wile lape lon ona
your home is huge, so i wanna sleep there

󱤴󱥷󱥬󱤀󱦜󱤹󱦜󱥁󱤧󱤄

mi wile toki a · mu · ni li ale
i wanna say something. meow! thats all.

󱥞󱥷󱥈󱤉󱤺󱤡󱥄󱥁

sina wile pakala e mun la o ni
if you want to destroy the moon, do it!