There aren't as many animals as you think...

Because toki pona has a small vocabulary, most of its words span the meanings of many words in English. For example, soweli is a toki pona word that refers to any kind of land mammal, whether it be a sheep, a tiger, or a rhino. There are ways, which you'll learn later, to be more specific in toki pona. But a lot of the time, there's no need -- either it doesn't really matter, or it's obvious from context. This will take some getting used to, but it's one of the most fun things about toki pona!

It's time to learn some grammar!

A word you haven't seen yet, but which appears in the majority of toki pona sentences, is li. Technically, it is a predicate marker -- but you don't need to know what that means in order to use it! The most basic type of sentence in toki pona is [subject] li [verb]. It describes an action undertaken by the subject at some point in time; jan li toki can mean a person talks, a person has talked, a person will talk, or even people talk. toki pona doesn't mark time or amount by default; you'll learn how to do that when needed in later lessons. So, why haven't you already seen li? Because mi and sina are the exceptions to the rule. When the subject of a sentence is exactly mi or exactly sina, the li is dropped, as in mi toki (I talk). Using li in these cases is grammatically incorrect. In this skill, you'll get some practice with li and learn more words. Have fun!