The Predicate Marker 'i'

01

Subjects That Take It

If the subject is em, ol, mipela or yupela, or any noun at all, it is followed by i. This is the rule in careful speech and in writing.

• Em i no hevi.

  It isn't heavy.

• Ol man i laikim moa yet.

  The men want still more.

• Ol botol i mas klin gut.

  The bottles have to be properly clean.

• Meri ya i no slip.

  That woman isn't sleeping.

In everyday speech the marker is often left out after em and ol, and many sentences in this course do exactly that. Both versions are normal Tok Pisin and mean the same thing.

• Em kaikai.

  He is eating.

• Ol no lukim, tasol ol harim.

  They don't see it, but they hear it.

02

Subjects That Never Take It

After mi, yu and yumi the marker never appears.

• Mi no sik.

  I'm not sick.

• Yu slip?

  Are you asleep?

• Yumi mas lusim ples nau yet.

  We have to leave this place right now.

03

It Belongs to the Whole Subject

What settles the matter is the complete subject phrase, not the last word standing before the verb. The phrase bel bilong mi ends in mi, but the subject of the sentence is bel, so the marker appears exactly as it would after any other noun. bilong mi and bilong yu are extremely common at the end of a subject.

• Bel bilong mi i wari tru.

  My heart is deeply troubled.

• Pren bilong yu i go we?

  Where has your friend gone?

• Tok bilong yu i gutpela tumas.

  Your words are very good.

04

No Verb Required

An adjective can stand as the whole predicate on its own. Where English has to supply "is" or "are", Tok Pisin supplies only i, and the adjective follows it directly.

• Ples i kol.

  The weather is cold.

• Ples i hat tru.

  The weather is really hot.

• Em i bikpela tumas long hia.

  It is far too big for here.

05

Where It Stands

i comes first among the small words that gather in front of a verb. Negation, the habitual marker and the modal verbs all line up after it.

• i no - negative
• i bin - past
• i save - habitually, usually
• i ken, i mas, i inap - may, must, is able to

The future marker bai is the one that goes the other way: it stands in front of the subject or immediately after it, and always ahead of i.

• Em i save les.

  He gets tired.

• Bai em i no inap bruk.

  It won't be able to break.

• Ol bai i no inap sot.

  They will not run short.

06

One Marker for Each Predicate

The name is precise. Every predicate takes its own marker, so when two verbs share a single subject the second one is marked again.

• Em i pundaun na i dai pinis.

  He fell down and died.

• Em i opim skai na i kam daun.

  He opened the sky and came down.

The same principle clears up a pattern that otherwise looks like a flat contradiction of the rule above. A modal verb such as mas or ken takes a clause of its own, and that inner clause gets marked like any other, even when the subject is mi or yu. The i here belongs to go and stap, not to the pronoun.

• Mi mas i go.

  I have to go.

• Yu noken i stap hia.

  You can't stay here.

07

Sentences with No Subject

A sentence that simply states that something exists can open with the marker and no subject in front of it at all.

• I gat apol, banana, na orens.

  There are apples, bananas and oranges.

• I gat sampela hevi?

  Is there a problem?

Questions behave no differently from statements here. Nothing moves, and the marker stays where it was.

• Husat i singsing?

  Who is singing?

• Pusiket i stap we?

  Where is the cat?

08

How Much It Varies

How freely i is used differs sharply from one part of Papua New Guinea to another. In the New Guinea Islands it turns up in very nearly every position it could occupy; in the Highlands a speaker may leave it out of all of them. Both are ordinary Tok Pisin, and the difference reflects the local languages people already speak. Recognise i everywhere, and use it wherever the rules above call for it.