Tok Pisin for Beginners

Tok Pisin is a creole language spoken in the northern mainland of Papua New Guinea and surrounding islands. It is one of the official
languages of Papua New Guinea and the most widely used language in use there, spoken by over 4 million people. Tok Pisin is also more
commonly called in English "New Guinea Pidgin".

The name "Tok Pisin" itself comes from the language, with "tok" meaning "talk" and "pisin" meaning "pidgin". A pidgin language is one
that is created to facilitate communications between two different groups which share no common language. Since its formation,
however, it has been steadily developing a more complex and distinctive grammar, and it is now considered a creole (a pidgin language
that now has native speakers). The vocabulary is 5/6 Indo-European (mostly English, with some German, Portuguese, and Latin), 1/7
Malayo-Polynesian, and the rest is from Trans-New-Guinea and other languages.

Part one of this course is only intended for absolute beginners.

Contents

Lesson 1: Pronunciation
Pronunciation • Exercises

Lesson 2: Personal Pronouns, Inclusive / Exclusive

Personal Pronouns • Inclusive / Exclusive • Vocabulary • Exercises

Lesson 3: Verbs, Modals, & Plural Nouns

Verbs • Modals • Plural Nouns • Vocabulary • Exercises

Lesson 4: Days, Months, Greetings, Adjectives, and Possesive Pronouns

Days of the Week • Months • Greetings • Adjectives • Possessive Pronouns • Vocabulary • Exercises

Lesson 5: Prepositions, Comparisons, & Numbers

Prepositions • Comparisons • Numbers • Vocabulary • Exercises

Part One - The Basics

Lesson 1: Pronunciation
Pronunciation
Tok Pisin has an interesting way of writing because its uses natural sounds. Unlike English, Tok Pisin does not contain a difficult
spelling system. Instead, words are written as how they are said. Many sounds with consonants that are not pronounced in English are
written without those consonants in Tok Pisin. For example: "work" (if you say it with a British or Australian accent, the "r" isn't
pronounced) would be written "wok". Tok Pisin also has an absence of the "sh", "j" and "ch" sounds. These are replaced with an "s", and
the "f" sound is replaced by the "p".

The Tok Pisin word for "fish" would then be "pis" and the word for finger would be "pinga" (remember, the "r" wouldn't be pronounced).
For all those Spanish speakers out there, this is really how "finger" is written.

There are twenty-two letters in the alphabet.

Vowels
Letter Sampa IPA Equivalence
Aa [a] [a] as a in "father"
Ee [e] [e] as e in "example"
Ii [i] [i] as i in "issue"
Oo [o] [o] as o in "code"
Uu [u] [u] as u in "clue"
 Consonants
Letter Sampa IPA Equivalence
Bb [b] [b] as b in "baby"
Dd [d] [c] as d in "doctor"
Ff [f] [f] as f in "feet" (used in some words)
Gg [g] [g] as g in "ghost"
Hh [h] [h] as h in "help"
Jj [ dZ ] [ʤ] as j in "jew" (used in some words)
Kk [k] [k] as k in "kill"
Ll [l] [l] as l in "law"
Mm [m] [m] as m in "month"
Nn [n] [n] as n in "name"
Pp [p] [p] as p in "palm"
Rr [r] [r] as in Spanish r or dd in "ladder"
Ss [s] [s] as s in "sail"
Tt [t] [t] as t in "top"
Vv [v] [v] as v in "vibe"
Ww [w] [w] as w in "weigh"
Yy [y] [j] as y in "yes"

Dipthongs
Letter Sampa IPA Equivalence
ai [ ai ] [ ai ] as i in "time"
au [ au ] [ au ] as ow in "cow"

Note that that C, Q, X, and Z of the English alphabet have been removed. Their sounds are replaced by K or S, KW, KIS, and S
respectively.

Exercises
Exercise A: Read aloud:
1) pikinini
2) grin
3) meri
4) buk
5) pas
6) wok
7) pusi
8) haus
9) hat
10) nogut
11) pupol
12) kar
13) man
14) mamapapa
15) wait
16) gras
17) dok
18) skul
 Lesson 2: Personal Pronouns, Inclusive / Exclusive
Personal Pronouns
A pronoun is a word that takes the place of a noun. For example: he, herself, it, and this. If we replaced the nouns in the sentence "Please
give the book to John" it would read "Please give it to him.". There are different types of pronouns. For now, we will look at the
personal pronouns.

In Tok Pisin the pronouns are as follows, according to the simpler common pronoun chart, which has only singular and plural:

Singular Plural
1st person mi I, me mipela we
2nd person yu you yupela you (all)
3rd person em he,she, it ol they, them

To make a pronoun plural, you add "-pela". -pela is also used in adjectives. *em and ol are not part of this rule*

Tok Pisin extends the distinction between you (singular) and you (plural). You would use yutu, when addressing two people, or yutri,
when there are three people. Four or more people would be yupela.

Inclusive / Exclusive
Tok Pisin has what is called an inclusive and exclusive rule. In English, when you say something like "we are friends" in English, you
wouldn't know whether that person meant you or someone else. Tok Pisin, however, has a rule for making that distinction.

Example:

we (excluding you) are kids mipela stap pikinini

we (including you) are kids yumi stap pikinini

we (inclusive) = yumi
we (exclusive) = mipela

Now we will look again at the personal pronoun table, expanded to include the extensions we discussed.

Singular Dual Triple Plural

1st both of them all of them
mi I, me mitupela he/she and I mitripela mipela
excl. and I and I
1st you (familiar) both of you all of you
-- -- yumitupela yumitripela yumipela
incl. and I and I and I
you
2nd yu you (familiar) yutupela you two yutripela you three yupela
(four or more)
they
3rd em he,she, it tupela they two tripela they three ol
(four or more)

More Examples:

I am a kid mi stap wanpela pikinini

You are a kid yu stap wanpela pikinini
He is a kid em i stap wanpela pikinini man
She is a kid em i stap wanpela pikinini meri
It is a dog em i stap wanpela dok
They are kids ol i stap pikinini

There are a few things in the above examples which you haven't seen. First is the present progressive form "stap". It's the equivalent of
the English "to be" with the "-ing" ending. It's used in this case like "to be", and is normally used with a verb. We will look at more of
these tense markers in the next lesson.

The word "wanpela" means "one", and when needed, acts as the indefinite article "a/an".

The word "i" that appears before the verb is called a predicate marker, and it must occur in a sentence when the subject is em, "ol, or a
noun. The creation of such an device in the language might be caused by the misinterpretation of "he" when used in reduplication. In
simpler terms, a person might say "John, he is a fool", with "he" referring back to "John". With "i" sounding like "ee", this seems a
logical explanation.

Lastly, note that nouns do not change form when used as plurals. The plural is inferred mainly from the context. We will discuss this
more in the next lesson.
Vocabulary
man man
meri woman
pikinini kid, child
dok dog
pikinini man boy
pikinini meri girl
buk book
studen student
tisa teacher
kar car
Jon John
Tom Tom

Exercises
Exercise A: Translate to English:
1) Em i stap wanpela man.
2) Em i stap wanpela pikinini meri.
3) Em i stap wanpela tisa.
4) Mipela stap studen.
5) Em i stap wanpela kar.

Exercise B: Translate to Tok Pisin:

1) They are books.
2) It is a dog.
3) John is a boy.
4) Tom is a teacher.
5) She is a woman.

Solutions
Solution of Exercise A:
1) He is a man.
2) She is a girl.
3) He is a teacher.
4) We are students.
5) It is a car.

Solution of Exercise B:
1) Ol i stap buk.
2) Em i stap wanpela dok.
3) Jon i stap wanpela pikinini man.
4) Tom i stap wanpela tisa.
5) Em i stap wanpela meri.
 Lesson 3: Verbs, Modals, & Plural Nouns
Verbs
In this lesson we will cover some verbs and their forms. In Tok Pisin, verbs don't change from person to person (1st person, 2nd person,
etc..). Also, you don't have to add any "ed" or "ing" suffixes to show tenses. Ex: mi wok nau (I'm working now) mi wok asde (I worked
yesterday).

Most Tok Pisin verbs come from a root verb in English or a local language, like "kat" ("cut"), "giv" ("give"), "rit" ("read"). To make
these verbs transitive (acting upon a object), the ending "-im" is added.

Intransitive Transitive
I cut Mi kat I cut fruit Mi katim frut.
I give Mi giv I give money Mi givim mani.
I read Mi rit I read books Mi ritim buk.

There are some verbs that have slightly different forms when going from intransitive to transitive:

lukluk => lukim (see)

toktok => tokim (talk)

Some verbs do not get changed for transivity at all, however, such as "kaikai" ("eat"). "kaikai" also means "food" when used as a noun.

We are going to look at 4 tenses here: the present ("I do"), the present progressive ("I am doing"), the past ("I did"), and the future ("I
will do"). Each of these is shown by an auxillary verb (or lack of). The present tense uses no auxillary verb, being the most basic of
tenses. The present progressive tense is shown by "stap", as we learned in the previous lesson. The past tense is marked with "bin",
which comes from English "been". The future tense is shown with "bai", which is a short form of "baimbai", which in turn comes from
the English "by and by". There is also an immediate future tense shown by "laik". Be careful not to confuse this with the modal "laik"
which will be shown later.

kat = cut giv = give

Present
Mi kat. I cut. Mi giv. I give.
(intransitive)
Present Mi katim frut. I cut fruit. Mi givim mani. I give money.
Present
Mi stap katim frut. I am cutting fruit. Mi stap givim mani. I am giving money.
progressive
Past Mi bin katim frut. I have/had cut fruit. Mi bin givim mani. I have given money.
Future Bai mi katim frut. I will cut fruit. Bai mi givim mani. I will give money.
Future
Mi laik katim frut. I am about to cut fruit. Mi laik givim mani. I am about to give money.
(immediate)

These tense markers interact with the predicate marker "i" in different ways.

Jon i bin wok asde John worked yesterday

Jon bai i wok tumora John will work tomorrow

In the first sentence, you can see that it works pretty much like you would expect, with the verb tense marker bin coming after the i.
However, in the second sentence, the i comes after the tense marker bai. This is probably because of the way such phrases would be said
in English. We would say (in a simplified way) "John he worked yesterday" and "John, by and by, he works tomorrow". Now note an
even bigger change in the next sentence.

Jon i wok i stap nau John is working now

In the above example, the verb (wok) goes before the auxillary verb (stap>), and an extra i is added.

Lastly, we have pinis, which equates to the English "finish" and always goes after the verb.

Jon i wok pinis John is finished working

Modals
Modal verbs are special verbs which behave very differently from normal verbs. The work with normal verbs to further define them. We
will look at five of them here: laik, save, ken. mas, and inap.
 Modal Usage From Tok Pisin English
laik desired English "like" Jon i laik wok John likes to work.
save habitual Portuguese "saber" (know) Jon i save wok long tunde John works on Tuesday.
ken permission, ability English "can" Jon i ken wok John can work.
mas obligation English "must" Jon i mas wok John must work.
inap able Jon inap wok John is able to work.

Note that "inap" has no i before it. This is because it has already been combined ("inap").

Plural Nouns
In Tok Pisin, nouns are pluralized by putting "ol" before the word.

Example:
man = man
ol man = men

I saw a man mi bin lukim wanpela man

I saw men mi bin lukim ol man

Note: If pluralization is implied, as in "triplea dok (three dogs), don't use "ol".

I saw three men mi bin lukim tripela man

Vocabulary
tete today
asde yesterday
tumora tomorrow
nau now
frut fruit
mani money
pas letter
wok to work, job (also used as "to do")
rait to write
kat to cut
giv to give
rit to read
kaikai to eat, food
toktok talk, speak
lukluk see, look
tripela three

Exercises
Exercise A: Translate to English:
1) Yupela bai i ritim tripela buk.
2) Em i katim i stap tete.
3) Mipela givim mani.
4) Mi bai i raitim tripela pas.
5) Em inap ritim wanpela buk.
6) Ol i wok i stap tete.

Exercise B: Translate to Tok Pisin:

1) You (sing) will give money.
2) She cut fruit yesterday.
3) He must read a book now.
4) I will cut fruit today.
5) We will see John tomorrow.
6) They (plural) read the letters.

Solutions
Solution of Exercise A:
1) You (plural) will read three books.
2) He cut frut today.
3) We give money.
4) I will write three letters.
5) She can (is able) read a book.
6) They (plural) work today.

Solution of Exercise B:
1) Yu bai i givim mani
2) Em i bin katim frut asde.
3) Em i mas ritim wanpela buk nau.
4) Mi bai i katim frut tete.
5) Mipela bai i lukim Jon tumora.
6) Ol ritim pas.
 Lesson 4: Days, Months, Greetings, Adjectives, and Possesive Pronouns
Days of the Week
Now you can learn a few basic word groups, like days of the week.

Days of the Week

Monday Mande
Tuesday Tunde
Wednesday Trinde
Thursday Fonde
Friday Fraide
Saturday Sarere
Sunday Sande

Months
Months
January Jenueri
February Februeri
March Mars
April Epril
May Mei
June Jun
July Julai
August Ogas
September Septemba
October Oktoba
November Novemba
December Disemba

Greetings
Greetings
Welcome Welkam
Good morning Monin tru, Gutpela monin
Good afternoon Avinun tru, Gutpela avinun
Good evening Gutpela nait
Hello Gude, Halo

Daily Expressions and Phrases

What is your name? Husat nem bilong yu?
please plis
sorry sori
Thank you Tenkiu
Thank you very much Tenkiu tru, Tenkiu tumas
Do you know Tok Pisin? Yu save Tok Pisin?
I speak English Mi save tok Inglis
Enjoy! Hamamas!
What do you think? Yu ting wanem?
How much does this cost? Em hao mas?
today tete
tomorrow tumora
yesterday asde

Adjectives
In Tok Pisin, adjectives are made by adding the suffix "-pela" to the end of some words. Adjectives come before the noun they define, as
in English.

Example:
noun = red, adjective = redpela

tisa i save i laik yusim redpela buk the teacher likes to use the red book
em i save istap naispela olgeta taim she is always beautiful
em i gat bikpela haus he has a big house
Some adjectives don't include "-pela"

em i nogut he's bad

liklik buk little book

Possessive Pronouns
In Tok Pisin, you show possession by putting the word "bilong" after the object that someone or something possesses.

Examples:

mama graun bilong mi my home land

mamapapa bilong mi my parents
haus bilong waswas the bathroom/ shower room

Note: "waswas" comes from "wash"

Vocabulary
braun brown
red red
grin green
yelo yellow
pink pink
pupol purple
blak black
wait white
haus house
buk book
kar car
mamapapa parents
nais beautiful
hat hard, hot, hat (be careful how you use it)
nogut bad
gat have
piksa boks television
blu blue
gras hair

Exercises
Exercise A: Translate to Tok Pisin:
1) The boy has a brown book.
2) The woman is beautiful.
3) I have a red TV.
4) She likes green cars.
5) The teacher has blue hair.

Solutions
Solution of Exercise A:
1) Pikinini man i gat braunpela buk.
2) Meri i naispela.
3) Mi gat redpela piksa boks.
4) Em i save i laikim grinpela kar.
5) Tisa i gat blupela gras.
 Lesson 5: Prepositions, Comparisons, & Numbers
Prepositions
Prepositions are short words that describe a relationship between other words in a sentence. Most prepositions tell where or when, or
show possession. Some common prepositions in English are "on" ("on the table"), "in" ("in the house"), "at" ("at the store"), and "over"
("over time").

Tok Pisin only has two prepositions. The first one we saw in the previous lesson to show possession: "bilong" meaning "belong". It also
can be used to mean "of" or "for". The other preposition is "long", and it is used for basically everything else (at, in, on, to, with, until
etc.). "long" also means "tall, long", so don't confuse them.

Comparisons
As we learned in the previous lesson, adjectives are formed by adding "-pela" to certain words. Now we will show you how to compare
things using those adjectives.

First, we have need the adjective to show the comparison, like "longpela" meaning "tall, long". In English, we might say that someone is
"taller", but since Tok Pisin doesn't change the form of the adjective to show comparison, we need to use a qualifer instead. So instead of
saying "taller", we would say "more tall". In Tok Pisin, "more" is shown by "moa". This would go after the adjective.

Em i longpela moa long papa bilong em. She is taller than her father.

Note:
"papa bilong em" = "her father". This is using the method of showing possession you learned in the previous lesson.
"long" = "than". This is the other preposition that you learned in this lesson.

We can show that a comparison is greater using reduplication of "moa" into "moa moa". This is like saying "much more".

Em i longpela moa moa long papa bilong em. She is much taller than her father.

A comparison to show that some is "even" more of something is achieved by adding another modifer: "yet", which equates to English
"even, yet". This is placed after "moa".

Em i longpela moa yet long brata bilong em. She is even taller than her brother.

Note: brata bilong em" = "her brother".

Beyond a comparison, we have the superlative, which says that something is the most. In English, for example, comparing two heights
would be "taller", but the among all heights, only one is "tallest". This is shown in Tok Pisin with the contruction "long ol".

Em i longpela long ol. She is tallest.

Mama bilong em i sotpela long ol. Her mother is shortest.

Note: "mama bilong em" = "her mother". "sotpela" = "short".

Numbers
The numbers 1-10 in Tok Pisin have two forms. The first form is used in forming other numbers and in numerical situations, like telling
time. The second form is when they take on the ending "-pela" and act as adjectives. "siro" (zero) has no such adjective form.

Numbers (0-10)
0 siro
1 wan wanpela
2 tu tupela
3 tri tripela
4 foa fopela
5 faiv faipela
6 sikis sikispela
7 seven sevenpela
8 et etpela
9 nain nainpela
10 ten tenpela

To form the other numbers, a sort of math is involved. The adjective form is used to describe number forms, like saying 11 = one ten
plus one = wanpela ten wan. Some numbers also have single words to describe them.
 Numbers (continued)
11 wanpela ten wan eleven
12 wanpela ten tu twelv
13 wanpela ten tri tetin
14 wanpela ten foa fotin
15 wanpela ten faiv fiftin
16 wanpela ten sikis sikistin
17 wanpela ten seven seventin
18 wanpela ten et etin
19 wanpela ten nain naintin
20 tupela ten twenti
21 tupela ten wan twentiwan
22 tupela ten tu twentitu
23 tupela ten tri twentitri
30 tripela ten teti
40 fopela ten foti
50 faipela ten fifti
60 sikispela ten sikisti
70 sevenpela ten seventi
80 etpela ten eti
90 nainpela ten nainti
100 wan handet
200 tu handet
300 tri handet
1000 tausen
2000 tu tausen
1,000,000 one milien

Vocabulary
Some of these words you've learned already.

Vocabulary
bikpela big, superior, older
longpela tall, long
liklik(pela) little, small
gutpela good
sotpela short
dok dog
pusi cat
mama mother
papa father
brata brother
susa sister
pikinini meri girl
skul school
wok work

Exercises
Exercise A: Translate to Tok Pisin:
1) The dog is bigger than the cat.
2) The girl is even bigger than her mother.
3) My mom is shorter than me.
4) I am smaller than my mom.
5) The girl is even smaller than her sister.
6) School is even more important than work.

Solutions
Solution of Exercise A:
1) Dok i longpela moa long pusi.
2) Pikinini meri i longpela moa yet long mama bilong em.
3) Mama bilong mi i sotpela moa long mi.
4) Mi liklik moa long mama bilong mi.
5) Pikinini meri i liklik moa yet long susa bilong em.
6) Skul i bikpela moa yet long wok.
End Of Part One
This is the end of part one.

Thanks for your interest in this course! If you discovered any mistakes or you just want to say something then please let us know . We do
need feedback!

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