Tok Pisin for Beginners

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). 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.

Part one of this course is only intended for absolute beginners.

Part One - The Basics

Lesson 1: Pronunciation

Pronunciation

Tok Pisin has an interesting way of writing because its uses natural sounds. Unlike English, Tok Pisin does not contain a difficult spelling system. Instead, 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".

The Tok Pisin word for "fish" would then be "pis" and the word for finger would be "pinga" (remember, the "r" wouldn't be pronounced). For all those Spanish speakers out there, this is really how "finger" is written.

There are twenty-two letters in the alphabet.

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

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

Dipthongs
Letter	Sampa	IPA	Equivalence
ai	[ ai ]	[ ai ]	as i in "time"
au	[ 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.

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Lesson 2: Personal Pronouns, Inclusive / Exclusive

Personal Pronouns

A pronoun is a word that takes the place of a noun. For example: he, herself, it, and this. If we replaced the nouns in the sentence "Please give the book to John" it would read "Please give it to him.". There are different types of pronouns. For now, we will look at the personal pronouns.

In Tok Pisin the pronouns are as follows, according to the simpler common pronoun chart, which has only singular and plural:

	Singular			Plural
1st person	mi	I, me		mipela	we
2nd person	yu	you		yupela	you (all)
3rd person	em	he,she, it		ol	they, them

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.

Inclusive / Exclusive

Tok Pisin has what is called an inclusive and exclusive rule. In English, when you say something like "we are friends" in English, you wouldn't know whether that person meant you or someone else. Tok Pisin, however, has a rule for making that distinction.

Example:

we (excluding you) are kids	mipela stap pikinini
we (including you) are kids	yumi stap pikinini

we (inclusive) = yumi
we (exclusive) = mipela

Now we will look again at the personal pronoun table, expanded to include the extensions we discussed.

	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)

More 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

There are a few things in the above examples which you haven't seen. First is 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. We will look at more of these tense markers in the next lesson.

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. The creation of such an device in the language might be caused by the misinterpretation of "he" when used in reduplication. In simpler terms, a person might say "John, he is a fool", with "he" referring back to "John". With "i" sounding like "ee", this seems a logical explanation.

Lastly, note that nouns do not change form when used as plurals. The plural is inferred mainly from the context. We will discuss this more in the next lesson.

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Lesson 3: Verbs, Modals, & Plural Nouns

Verbs

In this lesson we will cover some verbs and their forms. In Tok Pisin, verbs don't change from person to person (1st person, 2nd person, etc..). Also, you don't have to add any "ed" or "ing" suffixes to show tenses. Ex: mi wok nau (I'm working now) mi wok asde (I worked yesterday).

Most Tok Pisin verbs come from a root verb in English or a local language, like "kat" ("cut"), "giv" ("give"), "rit" ("read"). To make these verbs transitive (acting upon a object), the ending "-im" is added.

Intransitive		Transitive
I cut	Mi kat	I cut fruit	Mi katim frut.
I give	Mi giv	I give money	Mi givim mani.
I read	Mi rit	I read books	Mi ritim buk.

There are some verbs that 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"). "kaikai" also means "food" when used as a noun.

We are going to look at 4 tenses here: 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). The present tense uses no auxillary verb, being the most basic of tenses. The present progressive tense is shown by "stap", as we learned in the previous lesson. The past tense is marked with "bin", which comes from English "been". The future tense is shown with "bai", which is a short form of "baimbai", which in turn comes from the English "by and by". There is also an immediate future tense shown by "laik". Be careful not to confuse this with the modal "laik" which will be shown later.

	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 bin wok asde	John worked yesterday
Jon bai i wok tumora	John will work tomorrow

In the first sentence, you can see that it works pretty much like you would expect, with the verb tense marker bin coming after the i. However, in the second sentence, the i comes after the tense marker bai. This is probably because of the way such phrases would be said in English. We would say (in a simplified way) "John he worked yesterday" and "John, by and by, he works tomorrow". Now note an even bigger change in the next sentence.

Jon i wok i stap nau

John is working now

In the above example, the verb (wok) goes before the auxillary verb (stap>), and an extra i is added.

Lastly, we have pinis, which equates to the English "finish" and always goes after the verb.

Jon i wok pinis

John is finished working

Modals

Modal verbs are special verbs which behave very differently from normal verbs. The work with normal verbs to further define them. We will look at five of them here: 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.

Note that "inap" has no i before it. This is because it has already been combined ("inap").

Plural Nouns

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

Example:
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".

I saw three men

mi bin lukim tripela man

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Lesson 4: Days, Months, Greetings, Adjectives, and Possesive Pronouns

Days of the Week

Now you can learn a few basic word groups, like 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
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

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.

Example:
 noun = red, adjective = redpela

tisa i save i laik yusim redpela buk	the teacher likes to use the red book
em i save istap naispela olgeta taim	she is always beautiful
em i gat bikpela haus	he has a big house

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.

Examples:

mama graun bilong mi	my home land
mamapapa bilong mi	my parents
haus bilong waswas	the bathroom/ shower room

Note: "waswas" comes from "wash"

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Lesson 5: Prepositions, Comparisons, & Numbers

Prepositions

Prepositions are short words that describe a relationship between other words in a sentence. Most prepositions tell where or when, or show possession. Some common prepositions in English are "on" ("on the table"), "in" ("in the house"), "at" ("at the store"), and "over" ("over time").

Tok Pisin only has two prepositions. The first one we saw in the previous lesson to show possession: "bilong" meaning "belong". It also can be used to mean "of" or "for". The other preposition is "long", and it is used for basically everything else (at, in, on, to, with, until etc.). "long" also means "tall, long", so don't confuse them.

Comparisons

As we learned in the previous lesson, adjectives are formed by adding "-pela" to certain words. Now we will show you how to compare things using those adjectives.

First, we have need the adjective to show the comparison, like "longpela" meaning "tall, long". In English, we might say that someone is "taller", but since Tok Pisin doesn't change the form of the adjective to show comparison, we need to use a qualifer instead. So instead of saying "taller", we would say "more tall". 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.

Note:
    "papa bilong em" = "her father". This is using the method of showing possession you learned in the previous lesson.
    "long" = "than". This is the other preposition that you learned in this lesson.

We can show that a comparison is greater using reduplication of "moa" into "moa moa". This is like saying "much more".

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 is achieved by adding another modifer: "yet", which equates to English "even, 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".

Beyond a comparison, we have the superlative, which says that something is the most. In English, for example, comparing two heights would be "taller", but the among all heights, only one is "tallest". This is shown in Tok Pisin with the contruction "long ol".

Em i longpela long ol.	She is tallest.
Mama bilong em i sotpela long ol.	Her mother is shortest.

Note: "mama bilong em" = "her mother". "sotpela" = "short".

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

To form the other numbers, a sort of math is involved. 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

Vocabulary

Some of these words you've learned already.

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End Of Part One

This is the end of part one.

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