manimoney, currency; thing of value, gold, investment, livestock
lonreal, true, existing, present prepositionlocated at, located in
tawamotion, e.g. walking, shaking, flight, travel prepositionto, for, going to, from the perspective of, for the purpose of
tancause, origin, reason prepositionfrom, because of
samasame, similar, alike prepositionsimilar to, same as
kepeken prepositionusing, by means of
lon, tawa, tan, sama, and kepeken are prepositions.
prepositions are used to express specific details about the predicate, like how or where. just like preverbs, prepositions can be negated by the word ala. the preposition is appended to the end of the sentence, followed by a phrase.
subject ( predicate object) preposition phrase
subject li ( predicate e object) preposition phrase
mi pali lon tomo moku
i work at a restaurant
the preposition can also be the predicate:
ona li lon tomo mi
they are at my house
prepositions can be stacked:
mi kama sona lon tomo sona sama sina
i learned in school like you
prepositions can also be used as regular words:
tawa sina li musi
your movements are amusing
mani mute li lon tomo mani
there's lots of money at the bank
jan li tawa tomo sina
a person goes to your house
mi pali e ijo mute kepeken ilo
i make lots of things with tools
mi toki e pona sina tan ni · mi olin e sina
i say good things about you because i love you
mi lon e tomo sina
i make your house exist
mi lukin pana e kasi tawa sina
i'm trying to give you a flower
ijo li awen sona e pona sina tan ni · sina awen pana e sona ni tawa ona
people remember how good you are because you keep reminding them
mi wile sona e tan
i wanna know the reasons
ijo mute li wile e ilo tawa tan ni · tomo pali ona li weka mute
a lot of people need a car because their place of work is far away
lipu wile li lon tomo sina
the document of wishes is at your place
the necessary papers are in your room
i saw someone who looked just like you
mi lukin e ijo · ona li sama sina tawa lukin
they wanna give you money
ona li wile pana e mani tawa sina
this house needs colourful flowers
tomo ni li wile e kasi pi kule mute
people work for bad reasons
ijo li pali tan ike
birds can learn a lot of things with books
waso li ken kama sona e ijo mute kepeken lipu
wile pi waso ike li ni · sina pana e mani ale sina tawa ona
the villainous bird's demand is that you give it all your money
ona li wile ala pana e ilo ona tawa sina
they don't want to lend you their tool
wawa mi li tan olin sina
my confidence comes from your love
lukin sina li sama lukin pipi
you eyes look similar to a bug's eyes
mi wile e mani tan toki pona mi
i want to be compensated for the great speech i gave
there are some who choose to use kepeken as a transitive verb that has an identical meaning to its meaning as a preposition.
mi kepeken e ni
i use this
personally i wouldn't use kepeken like this, i would say mi kepeken ni instead.