Appendix:Toki Pona/la

Toki Pona

Glyph origin

sitelen pona
[[File:{{{sp2}}}|48x48px]]
sitelen sitelen

• sitelen pona: Likely a closing parenthesis, as used to mark a numbered list or end an aside.

Etymology

Reportedly from Esperanto la (“the”). Also speculated to be from Acadian French -la (“proximal and topical suffix”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /la/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Rhymes: -a

Particle

la

1. follows a context phrase or clause
   1. used to form conditionals; so; therefore

      mi ken ala toki pona e ijo la mi sona ala e ijo.

      If I can't express a thing in Toki Pona, I don't understand that thing.

   2. used to express tense-like or adverb-like information

      tenpo kama la… ― In the coming time…

      ken la… ― Maybe…

      pona la… ― Happily…

   3. moves a prepositional phrase to the start of a sentence, either preserving or replacing the preposition

      (lon) tenpo lili la… ― In a short time…

      (tawa) mi la… ― To me…

      (tan) seme la… ― For what reason…

Usage notes

• In the Latin script, la is often preceded or followed by a comma to increase legibility.
• As conjunctions, kin and taso are often used without la, despite also being sentence-initial.