jan sama mama mije mi li kama jo lon esun e ilo sitelen sin tawa mi mute.

English Translation

My uncle brought a new TV set for us.

  1. “jan sama mama mije mi”: In Toki Pona, “jan sama” means sibling or someone related, “mama” means parent, “mije” means man, and “mi” means ‘mine’ or ‘my’. So “jan sama mama mije mi” means “my male sibling from the same mother”, or simply “my brother”.

  2. “li kama jo lon esun”: The “li” is a separator used after the subject in a sentence. “Kama jo” means to get or to become, “lon” means ‘at’ or ‘in’, and “esun” means market. Thus, “li kama jo lon esun” means “came to get or buy at the market”.

  3. “e ilo sitelen sin”: The “e” is used to mark the direct object, “ilo” means tool, “sitelen” means to write or draw, and “sin” means new. So “e ilo sitelen sin” refers to “new writing or drawing tools”.

  4. “tawa mi mute”: “tawa” means for, “mi” means ‘I’ or ‘me’, and “mute” means many or much. When combined, “mi mute” represents ‘we’ or ‘us’. So “tawa mi mute” means “for us”.

Therefore, the whole sentence “jan sama mama mije mi li kama jo lon esun e ilo sitelen sin tawa mi mute” literally translates to, “My brother came to the market and got new drawing tools for us”.