The must-know core of Toki Pona — greetings, yes/no, the pronouns, and the handful of phrases you reach for first.

• tokihello!; language; speech; to talk
• toki!hi! / hello! — the standard greeting
• ponagood; simple; positive; to fix / improve
• ikebad; negative; evil; complicated
• lonyes / true; to exist; to be present; at / in
• alano; not; zero; nothing
• miI / me; we / us; my / our
• sinayou; your
• onahe / she / it / they; his / her / its / their
• semewhat? which? (the question word)
• tanbecause; from; reason; cause; origin
• aah! / oh! — emphasis or emotion particle
• muany animal sound; woof / meow / moo (playful noise)
• li(separates a non-mi/sina subject from its verb)
• e(marks the direct object that follows)
• pona tawa sinagoodbye / peace to you (lit. "good to you")
• mi ponaI'm good / I'm fine (lit. "I am good")
• pona mutethank you very much (lit. "much good")