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Pleasantries and filler

Courtesy in Pikotika runs on three short roots — pam, mersi and perton — plus pona in front of whatever you are wishing someone. There are no polite verb forms and no honorifics: you are polite by saying the courteous word, not by changing the grammar.

Please

pam goes in front of the verb, where an ordinary command would start.

It can also stand alone at the end, after a comma — an afterthought tacked onto something that was not a full sentence.

pam softens a request, not a statement. Pikotika has no polite would: say what you want plainly with vori, and nobody hears it as brusque. See Can, want, must.

Thanks, and answering it

Nem marumkosa answers thanks and an apology both — it says there was nothing wrong to begin with.

Sorry and excuse me

One word covers the whole range, from bumping someone's elbow to a real apology. Said alone it is light; put it in a sentence for deeper feeling.

The same root gives both goodbyes: pertonire sorry-go and pertoneksire sorry-out-go — you are sorry to be leaving.

Goodbye

The hellos live with the rest of a first encounter, on Meeting people.

Well-wishing

A very general courtesy pattern is pona (good) plus whatever you want to wish goes or went well. It is an ordinary modifier on an ordinary noun, so you can build one on the spot for anything.

Pona plus the general time of day may be used both when greeting someone, and when parting.

Reacting

Half of a conversation is showing that you are still in it. These are short on purpose; say them between the other person's sentences.

Encouraging someone

Filling a pause

If you need a moment to think but do not want to give up your turn, fill the gap with e… — the vowel of English feather, held. It does the work of English um and ah, and it is close to what most languages already use, so nobody has to be taught it.

To buy a longer moment, say something:

Steering the conversation

Four words move it along. Each opens a sentence, and the rest of the sentence is ordinary.

For what goes between the greeting and the goodbye, see Small talk.

A whole conversation

Alice walks into someone on the street.

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