Commands, Requests and Politeness — Tok Pisin Grammar

Tok 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 Sie - and choosing wrong is a social mistake. Tok Pisin uses for everyone, and builds politeness out of ordinary words instead. That makes it something you can learn deliberately rather than absorb.

The Bare Command

A command is just the verb. No pronoun, no change of form.

Kam hariap!
Come quickly!
Kisim fon kam!
Bring the phone!
Go na sekim hauskuk.
Go and check the kitchen.
Kam na danis wantaim mipela.
Come and dance with us.

Adding 'plis'

can go at the front or at the end, and softens the command exactly as English "please" does.

Plis lusim rong bilong mi.
Please forgive my mistake.
Yes, plis kam insait.
Yes, please come in.
Toktok bikpela, plis.
Speak up, please.
Mi laikim bilak su plis.
I'd like the black shoes please.

'Inap yu...?' - The Polite Request

means "able", so asks literally "are you able to...?" - the same move English makes with "Could you...?" This is the normal way to ask a stranger for something.

Inap yu tok gen?
Could you say that again?
Inap yu isi liklik?
Could you slow down a little?
Inap yu daunim prais?
Could you lower the price?
Inap yu droim dispela diwai?
Could you draw this tree?
Hai, inap yu opim dua, plis?
Hi, could you open the door, please?

'Inap mi...?' - Asking Permission

Swap the pronoun and you are asking about yourself: "may I?"

Inap mi kisim sek, plis?
May I have the bill, please?
Inap mi lukim menu bilong kaikai, plis?
May I see the food menu, please?
Inap mi makim kaikai na dring bilong mi, plis?
May I order my food and drink, please?

plus a verb plus will get you politely through most of a restaurant or a shop.

Telling Someone Not To

The negative command uses , and it too can be softened with .

Noken wari.
Don't worry.
Noken sindaun tasol.
Don't just sit around.
Plis noken smok long hia.
Please don't smoke here.

'Let's' - Using 'yumi'

For a suggestion including the person you are speaking to, start with , the inclusive "we". No separate word for "let's" is needed - the pronoun already says "you and I".

Yumi go long haus.
Let's go home.
Yumi wokim olsem.
Let's do it that way.
Yumi go long haus piksa o maski?
Shall we go to the cinema, or not bother?

Here the inclusive/exclusive distinction does real work: would exclude the listener, and a suggestion that excludes the person you are making it to would be a strange thing to say.

In the course

Sentences from Lingora’s Tok Pisin course

58 of the course's 500 sentences use this, the first in lesson 46. A few of them, with the words “Commands, Requests and Politeness” is about in bold:

Yes. Yumi kaikai kuk bilong Saina.
Yes. Let's eat Chinese food.
Lesson 127
Noken kaikai dispela. Dispela em pik ya.
Don't eat that! That's pork!
Lesson 366
Inap yu salim dispela toksave gen i kam?
Can you send the message again?
Lesson 426

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