Tok Pisin

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Contents 1 Introduction 2 Pronunciation 2.1 Vowels 2.2 Consonants 2.3 Dipthongs 3 Personal Pronouns 4 Verbs 4.1 Transitive vs. Intrasitive 4.2 Tense 4.3 Modals 5 Plural Nouns 6 Adjectives 7 Possessive Pronouns 8 Prepositions 9 Comparisons 10 Numbers 11 Phrases & Word Lists 11.1 Days of the Week 11.2 Months 11.3 Greetings 11.4 Daily Expressions and Phrases

Introduction

Tok Pisin is a creole language spoken in the northern mainland of Papua New Guinea and surrounding islands. It is one of the official languages of Papua New Guinea and the most widely used language in use there, spoken by over 4 million people. Tok Pisin is also more commonly called in English New Guinea Pidgin.

The name "Tok Pisin" itself comes from the language, with "tok" meaning "talk" and "pisin" meaning "pidgin". A pidgin language is one that is created to facilitate communications between two different groups which share no common language. Since its formation, however, it has been steadily developing a more complex and distinctive grammar, and it is now considered a creole (a pidgin language that now has native speakers, who speak it as their first language). The vocabulary is 5/6 Indo-European (mostly English, with some German, Portuguese, and Latin), 1/7 Malayo-Polynesian, and the rest is from Trans-New-Guinea and other languages.

Pronunciation

In Tok Pisin words are written as how they are said. Many sounds, with consonants that are not pronounced in English are written without those consonants in Tok Pisin. For example: "work" (if you say it with a British or Australian accent, the "r" isn't pronounced) would be written "wok". Tok Pisin also has an absence of the "sh", "j" and "ch" sounds. These are replaced with an "s", and the "f" sound is replaced by the "p".

There are twenty-two letters in the alphabet.

Vowels

Vowels
A a	[a]	as a in "father"
E e	[e]	as e in "example"
I i	[i]	as i in "issue"
O o	[o]	as o in "code"
U u	[u]	as u in "clue"

Consonants

Consonants
B b	[b]	as b in "baby"
D d	[c]	as d in "doctor"
F f	[f]	as f in "feet" (used in some words)
G g	[g]	as g in "ghost"
H h	[h]	as h in "help"
J j	[ʤ]	as j in "jew" (used in some words)
K k	[k]	as k in "kill"
L l	[l]	as l in "law"
M m	[m]	as m in "month"
N n	[n]	as n in "name"
P p	[p]	as p in "palm"
R r	[r]	as in Spanish r or dd in "ladder"
S s	[s]	as s in "sail"
T t	[t]	as t in "top"
V v	[v]	as v in "vibe"
W w	[w]	as w in "weigh"
Y y	[j]	as y in "yes"

Dipthongs

Dipthongs
ai	[ai]	as i in "time"
au	[au]	as ow in "cow"

Note that that C, Q, X, and Z of the English alphabet have been removed. Their sounds are replaced by K or S, KW, KIS, and S respectively.

Personal Pronouns

	Singular			Dual			Triple			Plural
1st excl.	mi	I, me		mitupela	he/she and I		mitripela	both of them and I		mipela	all of them and I
1st incl.	--	--		yumitupela	you (familiar) and I		yumitripela	both of you and I		yumipela	all of you and I
2nd	yu	you (familiar)		yutupela	you two		yutripela	you three		yupela	you (four or more)
3rd	em	he,she, it		tupela	they two		tripela	they three		ol	they (four or more)

• To make a pronoun plural, you add "-pela". -pela is also used in adjectives. *em and ol are not part of this rule*
• Tok Pisin extends the distinction between you (singular) and you (plural). You would use yutu, when addressing two people, or yutri, when there are three people. Four or more people would be yupela.
• Tok Pisin makes a distinction between inclusive and exclusive.

Examples:

I am a kid	mi stap wanpela pikinini
You are a kid	yu stap wanpela pikinini
He is a kid	em i stap wanpela pikinini man
She is a kid	em i stap wanpela pikinini meri
It is a dog	em i stap wanpela dok
They are kids	ol i stap pikinini

• Note the present progressive form "stap". It's the equivalent of the English "to be" with the "-ing" ending. It's used in this case like "to be", and is normally used with a verb.
• The word "wanpela" means "one", and when needed, acts as the indefinite article "a/an".
• The word "i" that appears before the verb is called a predicate marker, and it must occur in a sentence when the subject is em, ol, or a noun.
• Lastly, note that nouns do not change form when used as plurals. The plural is inferred mainly from the context.

Verbs

Transitive vs. Intrasitive

Most Tok Pisin verbs come from a root verb in English or a local language, like "kat" ("cut"), "giv" ("give"), "rit" ("read"), and are made transitive (acting upon a object), by adding the ending "-im".

I give - Mi giv => I give money - Mi givim mani.

Some verbs have slightly different forms when going from intransitive to transitive:

lukluk => lukim (see)
toktok => tokim (talk)

Some verbs do not get changed for transivity at all, however, such as "kaikai" ("eat").

Tense

The tenses are: the present ("I do"), the present progressive ("I am doing"), the past ("I did"), and the future ("I will do"). Each of these is shown by an auxillary verb (or lack of).
• Present tense uses no auxillary verb.
• Present progressive tense is shown by "stap".
• Past tense is marked with "bin", which comes from English "been".
• Future tense is shown with "bai", which is a short form of "baimbai", from the English "by and by".
• There is also immediate future tense shown by "laik".

	kat = cut		giv = give
Present (intransitive)	Mi kat.	I cut.	Mi giv.	I give.
Present	Mi katim frut.	I cut fruit.	Mi givim mani.	I give money.
Present progressive	Mi stap katim frut.	I am cutting fruit.	Mi stap givim mani.	I am giving money.
Past	Mi bin katim frut.	I have/had cut fruit.	Mi bin givim mani.	I have given money.
Future	Bai mi katim frut.	I will cut fruit.	Bai mi givim mani.	I will give money.
Future (immediate)	Mi laik katim frut.	I am about to cut fruit.	Mi laik givim mani.	I am about to give money.

These tense markers interact with the predicate marker "i" in different ways.

Jon i wok i stap nau	John is working now
Jon i bin wok asde	John worked yesterday
Jon bai i wok tumora	John will work tomorrow

There is also pinis, which equates to the English "finish" and always goes after the verb.

Jon i wok pinis - John is finished working

Modals

Modal verbs work with normal verbs to further define them. Here are five: laik, save, ken. mas, and inap.

Modal	Usage	From	Tok Pisin	English
laik	desired	English "like"	Jon i laik wok	John likes to work.
save	habitual	Portuguese "saber" (know)	Jon i save wok long tunde	John works on Tuesday.
ken	permission, ability	English "can"	Jon i ken wok	John can work.
mas	obligation	English "must"	Jon i mas wok	John must work.
inap	able		Jon inap wok	John is able to work.

Plural Nouns

In Tok Pisin, nouns are pluralized by putting "ol" before the word.

man = man => ol man = men
I saw a man - Mi bin lukim wanpela man
I saw men - Mi bin lukim ol man

Note: If pluralization is implied, as in "triplea dok (three dogs), don't use "ol".

Adjectives

In Tok Pisin, adjectives are made by adding the suffix "-pela" to the end of some words. Adjectives come before the noun they define, as in English.

noun = red, adjective = redpela
Tisa i save i laik yusim redpela buk - The teacher likes to use the red book

Some adjectives don't include "-pela"

em i nogut - he's bad
liklik buk - little book

Possessive Pronouns

In Tok Pisin, you show possession by putting the word "bilong" after the object that someone or something possesses.

mama graun bilong mi - my home land

Prepositions

Tok Pisin only has two prepositions:
"bilong" meaning "belong" shows possession or can mean "of" or "for".
"long" used for basically everything else (at, in, on, to, with, until etc.).

Comparisons

In Tok Pisin, "more" is shown by "moa". This would go after the adjective.

Em i longpela moa long papa bilong em. - She is taller than her father.

A greater comparison is shown using reduplication of "moa" into "moa moa".

Em i longpela moa moa long papa bilong em. - She is much taller than her father.

A comparison to show that some is "even" more of something uses "yet". This is placed after "moa".

Em i longpela moa yet long brata bilong em. - She is even taller than her brother.

Note: brata bilong em" = "her brother".

There is also the superlative comparison shown in Tok Pisin with the contruction "long ol".

Em i longpela long ol. - She is tallest.

Numbers

The numbers 1-10 in Tok Pisin have two forms. The first form is used in forming other numbers and in numerical situations, like telling time. The second form is when they take on the ending "-pela" and act as adjectives. "siro" (zero) has no such adjective form.

Numbers (0-10)
0	siro
1	wan	wanpela
2	tu	tupela
3	tri	tripela
4	foa	fopela
5	faiv	faipela
6	sikis	sikispela
7	seven	sevenpela
8	et	etpela
9	nain	nainpela
10	ten	tenpela

The adjective form is used to describe number forms, like saying 11 = one ten plus one = wanpela ten wan. Some numbers also have single words to describe them.

Numbers (continued)
11	wanpela ten wan	eleven
12	wanpela ten tu	twelv
13	wanpela ten tri	tetin
14	wanpela ten foa	fotin
15	wanpela ten faiv	fiftin
16	wanpela ten sikis	sikistin
17	wanpela ten seven	seventin
18	wanpela ten et	etin
19	wanpela ten nain	naintin
20	tupela ten	twenti
21	tupela ten wan	twentiwan
22	tupela ten tu	twentitu
23	tupela ten tri	twentitri
30	tripela ten	teti
40	fopela ten	foti
50	faipela ten	fifti
60	sikispela ten	sikisti
70	sevenpela ten	seventi
80	etpela ten	eti
90	nainpela ten	nainti
100	wan handet
200	tu handet
300	tri handet
1000	tausen
2000	tu tausen
1,000,000	one milien

Phrases & Word Lists

Days of the Week

Days of the Week
Monday	Mande
Tuesday	Tunde
Wednesday	Trinde
Thursday	Fonde
Friday	Fraide
Saturday	Sarere
Sunday	Sande

Months

Months
January	Jenueri
February	Februeri
March	Mars
April	Epril
May	Mei
June	Jun
July	Julai
August	Ogas
September	Septemba
October	Oktoba
November	Novemba
December	Disemba

Greetings

Greetings
Welcome	Welkam
Good morning	Monin tru, Gutpela monin
Good afternoon	Avinun tru, Gutpela avinun
Good evening	Gutpela nait
Hello	Gude, Halo

Daily Expressions and Phrases

Daily Expressions and Phrases
What is your name?	Husat nem bilong yu?
please	plis
sorry	sori
Thank you	Tenkiu
Thank you very much	Tenkiu tru, Tenkiu tumas
Do you know Tok Pisin?	Yu save Tok Pisin?
I speak English	Mi save tok Inglis
Enjoy!	Hamamas!
What do you think?	Yu ting wanem?
How much does this cost?	Em hao mas?
today	tete
tomorrow	tumora
yesterday	asde