Lesson 1: Letters and Sounds

Toki Pona uses only 14 letters of the alphabet.

a e i j k l m n o p s t u w

Vowels

There are five vowels, similar to Spanish, Japanese, and Esperanto.

Consonants

Toki Pona has nine consonants. The letters p t k m n s l w sound exactly as in English. The Toki Pona letter j sounds like an English ‘y’. For example, the word jelo sounds like ‘yellow’.

Stress falls on the first syllable of a word. Pronounce it a bit louder, longer or higher-pitched. For example, toki is pronounced ‘TO-kee’ and not ‘to-KEE’.

Toki Pona words are written in lowercase, even at the beginning of a sentence.