lipu sona

Location words

The words poka, monsi, anpa, sewi, and sinpin are all used to indicate locations.

Prepositions

When you say that something is “at a location”, “using a tool”, or “from a place”, you’re using prepositions. toki pona has five prepositions.

lon

lon means “at, in, existing”. It covers a wide range of meanings that, in English, would be several words. It can also be used as a noun or a verb, meaning “existing” or “to exist”.

Prepositions go before a content phrase.

lon ni
“in this”
here

lon poka mi
at my side
next to me

A prepositional phrase can be used as a predicate.

ona li lon ni.
She is here.

mi lon tomo sewi.
I’m in the upstairs apartment.

seme li lon monsi ni?
What’s behind this?

tawa

tawa means “to”, “toward”, or “in the perspective of”. It also is often used as a noun, verb, or adjective meaning “movement”, “to move”, “moving”.

You can attach a prepositional phrase to the end of a sentence to express a detail about the predicate.

ni li pona tawa mi.
To me, this is good.
I like this.

ona li pali e lipu lon tomo ante.
They’re writing a book in a different room.

tan

tan means “from”, “because”, or “by”. It can also be used as a noun meaning “reason” or “cause”.

You often see tan used in questions ending in tan seme? (from what?) meaning “why?”

ike li lon tan seme?
Why is there evil?

You can use multiple prepositions together.

mi lon anpa ma tan seme?
Why are we underground?

ni li tan utala suli.
It’s because of the war.

kepeken

kepeken means “using” or “with”, as in “with a tool”. (It doesn’t mean “with” as in “with another person”.)

sina pali e sinpin kepeken ilo.
You build a wall using a tool.

ona li tawa wawa kepeken tomo tawa.
He moved quickly in his car (“moving room”).

sama

sama means “as”, “like”. It’s often used as an adjective meaning “similar”, “the same”, or “sibling”.

jan sama mi li pona.
My sibling is good.

ona li pali sama ilo.
They worked like a machine.

Other uses of prepositions

Some people use prepositions in the subject. This is especially prevalent in the dialect of ma pona pi toki pona, the largest toki pona Discord server.

jan lon ma ni li pona.
People in this country are good.