Lingora Grammar guidesLearn Tok Pisin

Tok Pisin grammar · A1

No Grammatical Gender

Alexander StebnerCreator of Lingora · Updated 18 October 20262 min readComments

Nouns have no gender, and neither do the pronouns. One word, , does duty for he, she and it, and nothing in the sentence has to agree with it.

01

One Pronoun for Everyone

Whether means a man, a woman or a thing is left entirely to context.

Em kaikai.
He is eating.
Em wanpela sumatin.
She is a student.
Em i no hevi.
It isn't heavy.

02

Saying It When It Matters

When sex genuinely needs stating, it is done with vocabulary rather than grammar. The nouns and are added after the word they specify.

- son
- daughter
- male teacher

Pikinini man bilong mipela i nogat wok.
Our son has no job.
Em tisa man.
He is a male teacher.
Mi wanpela meri bilong kuk long restoran.
I'm a cook in a restaurant.

The same two words also mean husband and wife, and joined together as they mean people in general - men and women taken as one group.

Ol man meri i kam daun bas.
The people came down off the bus.
Em i swit long planti manmeri.
It is pleasing to many people.

In the course

Sentences from Lingora’s Tok Pisin course

165 of the course's 500 sentences use this, the first in lesson 2. A few of them, with the words “No Grammatical Gender” is about in bold:

Dispela em pren bilong mi, Anna. Em wanpela sumatin.
This is my friend, Anna. She is a student.
Lesson 2
Man ya tu slip. Meri ya i no slip.
He is also sleeping. She isn't.
Lesson 16
Meri ya gat wanpela kar i save ron isi stret, dispela kar i no bikpela mani bilong em.
She has a slow, cheap car.
Lesson 110

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