Mi toki

[jan sewi kasi]

Attempt to communicate myself with toki pona. It's been a while since I've properly seen the grammar and some terms I've made up on the spot, so I hope I have this right. My test will be if you understand it.

Tenpo pini la mi lon lon ilo tawa. Mi tawa tawa ma pi pana. Mi kama jo e ala. Mi jo ala mani. Mi kama tawa tomo poka kulupa mi.

Translation to follow.

[janKipo]

Tenpo pini la mi lon lon ilo tawa. Mi tawa tawa ma pi pana. Mi kama jo e ala. Mi jo ala mani. Mi kama tawa tomo poka kulupa mi.

Translation to follow.

Only need one 'lon', 'tawa'. no 'pi' since only one word follows. need an 'e' before 'mani'. Not sure what 'ma pana' means. not sure whether you came to a house with your group (what you said) or to a house near your group. no capital letters.
I was in a car ('tomo tawa' is standard, but this works). I went to a giving country (??). I got nothing. I have no money. I came to a house with my group.

[janMato]

Predicates of motion-- they don't exist in English but exist on other languages, parse like this:

[subject] (li) (prepositional phrase, including those starting with kama, tawa)

jan li tawa tomo sama. He went to his home. (He "to-home"'d)
jan li kama ma mi. He came to/returned to our country.

Using lon as a verb draws undue attention to "existence", cf. I'm home, I exist at home.

There is a thread somewhere on the forum about this-- most commonly people attempt to say, jan li tawa e tomo sama. (Which actually means, he moved his house, maybe it was a mobile home)

And for extra credit, you can do this construction, which also generates a lot of discussion:

jan li tawa tomo sama e soweli sin. The guy took his new pet to his house. (subject li prep phrase for destination e thing-being-moved/placed/returned)

[jan sewi kasi]

Thanks for that. And now for my translation.

Tenpo pini la mi lon lon ilo tawa. - I was in my car.
Mi tawa tawa ma pi pana. - I went to market ("place of exchange")
Mi kama jo e ala. - I bought nothing. (I wasn't sure how to use kama, but I inferred this use from the dictionary)
Mi jo ala mani. - I had no money.
Mi kama tawa tomo poka kulupa mi. - I went back home with my group (friends and family).

[janKipo]

'kama' is not a preposition, it needs 'tawa' (or maybe 'lon') for the place arrived at.
"market" is '(tomo) esun' (a recent word)

[jan sewi kasi]

What does esun mean on its own? Is there any place to see an updated dictionary or at least updates?

More practice phrases:

mi en meli mi li lon tomo. mi mute lukin e ilo lukin. mi mute li lape lon supa. mi mute lape pona.

[janSilipu]

'esun' is marketplace, fair, etc. more by going to the entry under words on the wiki reachable fro the top of this forum page. See also the page and the exercise on tpnimi.blogspot.com

My wife and I are at home. We watch tv. We sleep on a bed. We sleep soundly. 'mi mute' requires 'li'.

[jan sewi kasi]

pona.

mi pali e musi toki pona.

[jan Nowo]

mi wile toki mute. toki kepeken Toki Pona li ken. mi wile e ni. jan mute wile toki kepeken e toki ni.

[janSilipu]

pona! mi kin wile e ni.
'toki pi kepeken toki pona' 'jan mute li wile toki kepeken toki pona'