ona li jan poka pi mi mute.

Sentence Discussions Toki Pona
#1
English Translation

She’s our neighbour.

  1. “ona”: This means “it, he, she, they”. In this context, it means “they”.

  2. “li”: This is a particle that separates the subject from the predicate in the sentence, similar to the verb “to be” or “is” in English.

  3. “jan”: This means “person”.

  4. “poka”: This means “adjacent, side, nearby, with”.

  5. “pi”: This is a particle that groups the following words together, similar to “of” in English.

  6. “mi mute”: This means “we” or “us”. “mi” means “I” and “mute” is an adjective that means “many”. When paired together they express the concept of “we” or “us”.

So “ona li jan poka pi mi mute” translates word for word to “They are person beside of us many”, or more naturally into English, “They are one of us” or “They are a part of our group”.