English Translation
Tom died Monday.
- “tenpo suno” means “day”
- The word “pi” separates a noun (“tenpo suno” or “day”) from its modifier (“nanpa wan” or “one”). “pi” is used before a modifier that has more than one word. This means the phrase “tenpo suno pi nanpa wan” can be literally translated as “day of number one”, which means “the first day”.
- “la” separates a context on the left from its main sentence on the right. Context might be time, condition, cause, etc. So “tenpo suno pi nanpa wan la” sets up the context as “on the first day.”
- “jan” means “person”, and “Ton” is a person’s name. So “jan Ton” translates as “person Tom”, or simply “Tom”.
- “li” separates the subject of the main sentence from its predicate. Here, “jan Ton” is the subject separated from the predicate “moli”, which means “die.”
So, altogether, “tenpo suno pi nanpa wan la jan Ton li moli.” translates to “On the first day, Tom dies.” in English.