Basic sentence structure
Every Pikotika sentence has the same basic shape, and nothing ever changes that — not forming a question, not for emphasis, not inside a clause buried three levels deep.
| subject | ri | what it does or is | a | object |
| eko | vite | nino | ||
| I | see | the child |
I see the child.
Eko ri vite a nino.The two common particles
| Particle | What it marks |
|---|---|
| ri | the end of the subject. Everything after it says something about the subject. |
| a | the start of the direct object. |
They are not words you translate; they are like punctuation you say out loud. A listener who hears ri knows the subject just ended, however long it was, and never has to guess where one part of the sentence stops and the next begins.
ri is never left out. If a sentence has a subject, that subject is followed by ri, every time. (A sentence with no subject at all is a different matter — see Commands and indefinite subjects.)
a appears only when there is a direct object. Plenty of sentences have none:
I'm going.
Eko ri ire.Where everything else goes
A prepositional phrase normally sits at the end, after the object; one that frames the whole sentence in time or place may open it instead.
I see the fish in the water.
Eko ri vite a akupeste in aku.Yesterday I saw the dog.
Yanyer, eko ri vite a kanis.Modifiers — adjectives, adverbs, possessives — go immediately before the word they modify, wherever that word happens to be. They do not disturb the frame. See Modifiers.
I see a small fish.
Eko ri vite a piko akupeste.Try it yourself
Can you translate these sentences from and to Pikotika?
- Nino ri vori a aku.
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‘The child wants water.’ ri closes the subject, a opens the object.
- Eko vemapari ri vake a pona komi.
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‘My mother makes good food.’ The subject is two words long — Me mother-parent — and ri is what tells you where it ends. And the direct object here is also two words (good food), and a tells you where it begins.
- I see the dog.
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Eko ri vite a kanis. — a classic three-part sentence.
- I see.
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Eko ri vite. — drop the object and a goes with it.