Apupiwe

Lesson 5: Pronouns§
to I, me
me you (anyone, any number)
pen we, including you
din we, not including you
wan he or she (the person being talked about)
yi the other one (someone who isn't the person being talked about)
bu it (the thing being talked about)
ben that one (a different thing), and also "that" for something said or done: ben gun upe "that's good"
tan this, for something just said or here now: gi tan "so"
wan la they
nen self: to miya nen "I look at myself"
sun he or she in reported speech: the person whose words are reported
go anyone, people in general

Watch out for me. It means "you", and for a while you'll trip over it, both reading it and saying it. It only ever means the person you're talking to. When English uses "you" for people in general, as in "you never know", the word is go.

For "my" and "your", use pi "of" after the noun: "my house" is guyi pi to (house of me), and "your house" is guyi pi me. There's more on pi in lesson 7.

English "we" hides whether the listener is included. Here you have to choose between pen and din: so pen isi "let's go (you and I)" or din isi "we're going (without you)".

wan and yi do the work of English "he" and "she", but they sort people by focus. wan is the person the conversation is about and yi is someone else, whatever their gender. In a story with two people, they keep the two apart without names: wan nagu yi "she saw him". Someone new stays yi, or gets named, until you make them the topic. Name someone again whenever it could be unclear.

A pronoun never refers to the subject of its own clause. For that you use nen: to miya nen "I look at myself". Saying to miya to would be wrong. After a noun or pronoun, nen means "in person": wan nen obu. "He came himself."

sun is for reporting what someone said or thought: wan oyi wun sun kusa. "She said that she (herself) was leaving."

An unknown person is ewo bo "someone": ewo bo yidu bu. "Someone took it."

When the listener already knows who or what you mean, you can leave it out. Casual English does this too, but this language does it more: wuma, nagu me. "See you tomorrow." (wuma "tomorrow"). Asked me momu yu., you can answer with just osa. "Water." Say it in full when leaving it out could confuse.

A clause that starts with gun and has no subject means "there is" (lesson 3). So to say "it's money", keep the subject: bu gun nimo. If you drop gun as well, a bare state is fine: bi upe. "Very good."