Toki Pona: learn in 20 days

Toki Pona is a language of 137 words. This app teaches all of them, and — more importantly — how they combine, in about ten minutes a day.

THE PATH

Nineteen lessons in order. Each one opens with a short conversation between Ali and Ulya, then the grammar point in one pattern with side-by-side contrasts, the words with their origins (moku comes from Japanese mogumogu, munching), phrases to say, and three exercises to try at once. Lesson 0 says what Toki Pona is and why people learn it; lesson 19 teaches the real skill: naming anything with the words you have.

ONE BUTTON A DAY

Start the day and the app lines it up: what is due, the next lesson and its cards, a few phrases, and one short piece of practice. About ten minutes. When it is done, it stays done.

CARDS THAT REMEMBER

Every word and every phrase is a card scheduled by FSRS, the spaced-repetition algorithm behind modern flashcard apps. New words are recognised first, later typed from memory, and some are asked by ear. The app decides right or wrong; you only grade how hard it was.

PHRASES, NOT JUST WORDS

The language is spoken in compounds: tomo tawa is a car, kama sona is to learn, pona tawa sina is thank you. A deck of 250 of them opens as you meet their words, and settled ones are built from pieces.

READ, WRITE, LISTEN

31 bilingual stories and longer readings, each opening once you have met its words; tap a line for the translation, a word for its entry. A sentence checker on the Write tab tells you exactly what is wrong (mi li pona? — no li after mi alone) and keeps the sentences that stand. Every word is spoken by a real speaker, every lesson line can be heard.

GAMES THAT TEACH THE SKILL

How would you say it? Eighty pictures of things Toki Pona has no word for; build the name from chips and see what speakers actually say. Which picture? — the same game backwards. 112 grammar exercises, gated by the words you know, with the ones you missed coming back first.

THE WHOLE DICTIONARY

All 137 words with their sitelen pona glyphs, meanings, roles, usage among speakers, origins, and the sentences of the course that use them. Once you pass lesson 9 the interface itself can switch to Toki Pona.

YOUR DATA

Everything stays on the phone: progress, sentences, settings. No account, no internet, no analytics, no ads. A daily reminder is optional. Back up your progress to a file and restore it on another phone. Every lesson, card, story and game is free for everyone; an optional supporter pack unlocks three more paper-and-ink looks, two more glyph faces and alternative app icons — nothing else. Every lesson, card, story and game is free for everyone; an optional supporter pack unlocks three more paper-and-ink looks and alternative app icons — nothing else.

Interface in English and Turkish. Dictionary data from sona Linku (CC BY-SA 4.0); word recordings by kala Asi (CC BY-SA).