Question Words Stay in Place — Tok Pisin Grammar

Asking 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 helper verb "did" appears from nowhere, and the main verb changes form. Tok Pisin does none of this.

Yes-or-No Questions

A yes/no question has exactly the same shape as the statement. Nothing moves, nothing is added; in speech the voice rises, and in writing there is a question mark.

Yu slip?
Are you asleep?
Yu stap orait?
Are you well?
Yu pilim sik?
Do you feel sick?
Yu lukim mi tu?
Do you see me too?
Yupela i op?
Are you open?
Yu laikim sampela samting?
Would you like something?

Compare what English needs for the same six: are you, are you, do you, do you, are you, would you. Tok Pisin adds nothing at all.

Question Words Stay Where the Answer Goes

A question word occupies the exact position that the answer would occupy. It does not move to the front.

Pusiket i stap we?
Where is the cat?
Kaikai stap long we?
Where is the food?
Plet bilong mi i stap we?
Where is my plate?
Pikinini meri bilong yumi stap we?
Where is our daughter?
Yu laik go long we?
Where do you want to go?

Read the first literally: "the cat is where?" The answer would be - and sits precisely where goes. Every one of these questions puts it last for the same reason.

English can do this too, but only as an echo of surprise - "You went where?" In Tok Pisin it is simply the neutral way to ask.

The Same for Objects

Yu wokim wanem long aste?
What did you do yesterday?
Yutupela wokim wanem nau?
What are you two doing now?

is the object of , so it stands after the verb, exactly where a noun object would. The English translation has to haul "what" to the front and insert "did"; the Tok Pisin does not disturb a thing.

When It Looks Like English

Subject questions come out in the same order as English - but for a different reason. The question word is the subject, and subjects come first anyway.

Husat i singsing?
Who is singing?
Husat bai kisim ples bilong yu long wok ples?
Who will take your place at work?

Note that is still there in the first. The question word is the subject of a real predicate, so the predicate marker behaves normally.

Question Words in a Noun Phrase

can also modify a noun, meaning "which" or "what". It sits in front, and the whole phrase stays where it belongs.

Wanem nem bilong yu?
What is your name?
Wanem wok bilong yu?
What is your job?
Wanem de em tude?
What day is it today?
Em wanem taim nau?
What time is it now?
Wanem samting kamap?
What happened?

The Short List

- what, which
- who
- where
- how much, how many

That is nearly the whole set. "Why", "how" and "when" are not separate words at all - they are built out of these.

In the course

Sentences from Lingora’s Tok Pisin course

61 of the course's 500 sentences use this, the first in lesson 4. A few of them, with the words “Question Words Stay in Place” is about in bold:

Yu pilim olsem wanem? Yu pilim orait o nogut?
How are you feeling? Good or bad?
Lesson 61
Pikinini meri bilong yumi stap we? - Em stap long skul.
Where is our daughter? - She's at school.
Lesson 242
Yu gat tupela naispela pikinini stret. Hamas krismas bilong ol?
You have two very beautiful children. How old are they?
Lesson 264

Comments

Loading comments…