Modal Verbs: ken, inap, mas, laik — Tok Pisin Grammar

Four short words carry permission, ability, obligation and intention. They stand in front of the main verb, which keeps its ordinary form, and they can be strung together with the other pre-verb markers without any of them changing shape.

The Four

- may, can (permission and possibility)
- can, is able to (capability)
- must, have to (obligation)
- want to, intend to

Mi ken helpim yu olsem wanem?
How can I help you?
Mi ken stap liklik moa.
I can stay a little longer.
Mi mas i go.
I have to go.
Mi laik go long haus nau.
I want to go home now.

'inap' and Asking Politely

is about being capable of something. Placed at the front of a question it becomes the standard polite request, literally "are you able to...?"

Inap yu opim dispela botol?
Can you open this bottle?
Inap yu tok gen?
Could you speak again?

After a noun, means "enough to": there is enough of the thing for what follows.

Mi gat mani inap long baim wanpela kar.
I have enough money to buy a car.

The Negatives

Each pairs with . Two of them are commonly written as one word - and - and as two words elsewhere. Both spellings are current.

Mi no inap go yet.
I can't go yet.
Mi nonap lukim yu.
I can't see you.
Noken wari.
Don't worry.
Yu noken i stap hia.
You can't stay here.

'laik' Is Not 'laikim'

before a verb means to want to do something. Add the transitive suffix and means to like or love a thing. The two are close in English but quite separate here.

Mi laik go long haus nau.
I want to go home now.
Mi laikim ol na ol i laikim mi.
I like them and they like me.

A Second 'mas'

has the same double life as English "must". Besides obligation it expresses a confident inference - not that something is required, but that it surely is the case.

Han klok bilong mi mas bruk.
My watch must be broken.
Em mas liklik tumas.
It must be much too small.

'ken' for Permission

Where is about being able, is about being allowed.

Orait, yu ken pilai wanpela moa taim.
All right, you can play one more time.
Yu noken i stap hia.
You may not stay here.

Stacking

Modals combine with the tense markers in a fixed order: first, then the predicate marker, then the negative, then the modal, then the verb.

Bai em i no inap bruk.
It won't be able to break.
Ol bai i no inap sot.
They will not run short.

In the course

Sentences from Lingora’s Tok Pisin course

96 of the course's 500 sentences use this, the first in lesson 8. A few of them, with the words “Modal Verbs: ken, inap, mas, laik” is about in bold:

Mi laik go long haus nau.
I want to go home now.
Lesson 71
Mi mas kalap long baisikol inap mi kisim nupela kar.
I have to ride my bike until I get a new car.
Lesson 301
Mi laikim tru olsem yu mas lukautim gut mani.
I wish you were more frugal.
Lesson 328

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