Tok Pisin grammar

Every grammar guide of Lingora’s Tok Pisin A1 course, with examples you can listen to.

01The Predicate Marker 'i'The word i stands between the subject and the rest of the sentence, and it translates as nothing at all. It is not a pronoun, not a verb and not a form…
02The Transitive Suffix '-im'Tok Pisin has almost no word endings, but it has this one, and it is everywhere. Adding -im to a verb marks that verb as transitive: it is the kind of…
03'-im' as a CausativeAttached to a word that describes a state rather than an action, the suffix -im produces a verb meaning "make it that way". This is how Tok Pisin covers,…
04Verbs in Series: 'i go' and 'i kam'Tok Pisin will put two verbs in a row, sharing one subject, with no "and" between them and no "to" in front of the second. English does something similar…
05Intensifiers: tru, stret, tumasThere is no word for "very" that goes in front of an adjective. Tok Pisin strengthens a word by putting something after it, and the three words it uses…
06English Words That Changed MeaningMost Tok Pisin vocabulary can be traced to English, which makes the language look easier than it is. Recognising a word is not the same as knowing what…
07'em' as the Linking WordTok Pisin has no verb "to be" for saying that one thing is another. To identify somebody or something, you put em between the two nouns and stop there.…
08The Verb 'stap'stap covers the part of English "to be" that the linking word em does not: being somewhere, being in a state, and simply existing. It comes from English…
09The Pronoun SystemThe pronouns are where Tok Pisin is richer than English rather than poorer. English has one "you" for any number of people; Tok Pisin has three, and it…
10Two Words for 'We'English "we" is ambiguous. "We're going to the cinema" might be an invitation or might quietly exclude the person you are talking to. Tok Pisin settles…
11No Grammatical GenderNouns have no gender, and neither do the pronouns. One word, em, does duty for he, she and it, and nothing in the sentence has to agree with it.
12The Future with 'bai'The verb never changes to show tense. To put an event in the future you add bai, and everything else in the sentence stays exactly as it was. The word…
13The Past with 'bin'bin, from English "been", is placed in front of the verb to mark past time. It is needed far less often than the future marker bai.
14'pinis': The Completed Actionpinis is the ordinary verb "to finish", and placed after another verb it says that the action is over and done with. It is not a past tense: it is about…
15'save': The Habitual Markersave is two things at once. On its own it is the verb "to know". In front of another verb it says that the action is habitual - something the subject…
16Ongoing Action: 'i stap' and 'wok long'Tok Pisin has two ways of saying that an action is in progress, and neither of them touches the verb. One comes after it, one before.
17Modal Verbs: ken, inap, mas, laikFour short words carry permission, ability, obligation and intention. They stand in front of the main verb, which keeps its ordinary form, and they can…
18Negation: no, nogat, noken, nonapNegation needs no change to the verb. There is nothing like English "doesn't" or "didn't", no extra auxiliary appearing out of nowhere, and no agreement…
19The Negative 'nogat'nogat comes from no plus gat, "not have", and it does three jobs that English splits between quite different words: it is the answer "no", it is the verb…
20'long': The All-Purpose PrepositionTok Pisin has two prepositions. bilong handles possession and purpose; long handles everything else. It is one of the most frequent words in the…
21'bilong': Possession, Purpose, Originbilong is the second of the language's two prepositions, and it covers what belongs to what - ownership, purpose and origin. It is English "belong", and…
22'long' or 'bilong'?Both words can come out as English "for". The choice is decided by the word in front of the preposition, not by the English translation.
23The Adjective Suffix '-pela'-pela is a suffix from English "fellow". A small group of very common adjectives always carry it, and the rest of the vocabulary never does.
24The Usage of 'wanpela'wanpela is the number "one" - wan with the adjective suffix. But it does a second job far more often, and getting a feel for the difference is what makes…
25Plural with 'ol'Tok Pisin nouns have exactly one form. There is no plural ending and no irregular plurals: pikinini is "child" and "children", man is "man" and "men".…
26'dispela' and 'ya'Tok Pisin points things out with two words that sit on opposite sides of the noun. dispela goes in front, ya goes behind, and they do subtly different…
27Quantifiers: planti, sampela, olgeta, liklikQuantifiers go in front of the noun, and because they already say how many there are, the plural marker ol is normally left off. They are also where Tok…
28Question Words Stay in PlaceAsking a question in English is a surprising amount of work. "You saw what?" has to become "What did you see?" - the question word jumps to the front, a…
29Question Phrases Built on 'wanem'English has a separate word for each kind of question - why, how, when, where. Tok Pisin has almost none of them. It takes wanem, "what", and puts a…
30The Uses of 'olsem'olsem is one of the hardest-working words in Tok Pisin. It comes from English "all the same", and its core sense is likeness. From that one idea it has…
31Conditionals with 'sapos'sapos is "if". It comes from English "suppose", and it introduces the condition exactly where English puts "if".
32Time Clauses with 'taim'taim is the noun "time", from English. It is also the word for "when" - Tok Pisin simply uses the noun to join two clauses, without needing a separate…
33Relative ClausesA relative clause adds information about a noun: "the man who fixed my TV", "a shoe you want to wear". English marks these with who, which or that. Tok…
34Joining Clauses: na, tasol, oThree short words join things together: na "and", tasol "but", o "or". Two of them have a second job.
35Comparison: moa, winim, tumasTok Pisin has no comparative or superlative endings. There is no -er and no -est, and no irregular set like good/better/best to memorise. Adjectives…
36Commands, Requests and PolitenessTok Pisin has no polite pronoun. Many European languages make you choose between a familiar and a respectful "you" - French tu and vous, German du and…
37Numbers and CountingEvery number in Tok Pisin comes from English, so the whole system is already half-familiar. What has changed is the pronunciation, and the changes are…
38Ordinals with 'namba'English builds ordinals with a set of endings and three irregular forms - first, second, third, then fourth, fifth, and the awkward twelfth and…
39Telling the Time, Days and AgeDays, dates, clock time and age are all built from ordinary vocabulary rather than from a special set of forms.
40ReduplicationSaying a word twice is a piece of Tok Pisin grammar. It does two quite different things.