It’s kind of a joke that when you learn Toki Pona, you are not happy with its overly simple number system and you create another one. Usually for fun. One number system has got quite a bit of adoption: nasin nanpa pona.
However, as the language went from just being a toy to essentially being used between people to fully communicate, people have problems with numbers. Even for most the people that are fluent. I’ve seen it many times in conferences and other gatherings.
This is a proposal that can solve your problems. I’m a mathematician and thus I like things as simple as they can be. And writing negative numbers. Big numbers. Small numbers. All the numbers. This can be done. Hear me out. I’ve got two variants.
nasin nanpa Wan and nasin nanpa Pi
A) List the number’s digits. The two variants below use different choices for the digits.
B) If ABCDEFGHI are digits, you can say ABCDE pi FGHI for A.BCDE $\cdot 10^\text{FGHI}$ (examples below).
C) weka= minus sign in front of a list of digits. It can go both before pi and after pi.
These are my two variants for the digits. Mnemonic: The digits with 
are in Toki Pona and those with 
use the number of segments drawn in sitelen pona.
| $0$ | $1$ | $2$ | $3$ | $4$ | $5$ | $6$ | $7$ | $8$ | $9$ | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| nanpa Wan | ala | wan | tu | sin | lipu | luka | pan | sona | mama | suli |
| sitelen pona |  |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
| choice reason | |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
looks like an $8$ | largest digit |
| nanpa Pi | ala | wan | tu | tu wan | tu tu | luka | luka wan | luka tu | luka tu wan | luka tu tu |
Examples for nasin nanpa Wan:
jan pi mute sona sin li lon tomo pali ni. In these offices there are $73$ people. Or just
jan sona sin li lon tomo pali ni. if context removes the ambiguity.
lipu pi mute seme li lon supa mi? luka lipu. How many books in my shelf? Fifty four.
Feel free to still say tu tu etc for small numbers.
Feel free to have pi digit to mark it’s a number: jan pi mama = 8 people (so you do not get confused with jan mama).
| $10$ | wan ala |
|---|---|
| $15$ | wan luka |
| $73$ | sona sin |
| $984$ | suli mama lipu |
| $100$ | wan ala ala = wan pi tu |
| $6.022 \cdot 10^{23}$ Avogadro's constant |
pan ala tu tu pi tu sin |
| $1.79\ (\cdot 10^0)$ My height in cm |
wan sona suli pi ala |
| $-66$ | weka pan pan |
| $0.075$ | sona luka pi weka tu |
| $6.62 \cdot 10^{-34}$ Planck's constant |
pan pan tu pi weka sin lipu |
| $-0.001$ | weka wan pi weka sin |
| $10^{80}$ atoms in the universe |
wan pi mama ala |
Examples for nasin nanpa Pi.
Use commas to separate the digits (pauses or a when speaking), if necessary, since sometimes you may not be sure whether luka tu was 7 or 52. See it below.
| $22$ | tu, tu = tu a tu |
|---|---|
| $37$ | tu wan, luka tu |
| $352$ | tu wan, luka, tu = tu wan, luka a tu |
| $121$ | wan, tu, wan |
| $1500$ | wan, luka, ala, ala |
| $1500$ | wan luka pi tu wan |
| $1{,}400{,}000{,}000{,}000$ $1.4$ trillion |
wan, tu tu pi wan, tu |
| $6.022 \cdot 10^{23}$ Avogadro's constant |
luka wan, ala, tu, tu pi tu, tu wan |
| $1.79\ (\cdot 10^0)$ My height in cm |
wan, luka tu, luka tu tu pi ala |
| $50.3$ | luka, ala, tu wan pi wan |
| $-27$ | weka tu, luka tu |
| $-100$ | weka wan pi tu |
| $-4.71$ | weka tu tu, luka tu, wan pi ala |
| $0.0082$ | luka tu wan, tu pi weka tu wan |
| $10^{-12}$ | wan pi weka wan, tu |
| $-0.033$ | weka tu wan tu wan pi weka tu |
Notes: The word pi is used because if you say “two thousand” = 2 pi 3, then you are saying two of the third (power of ten).
I made nasin nanpa Pi in 2021, and nasin nanpa Wan was devised in 2023.