Script guide › Latin
English vs Tok Pisin
English and Tok Pisin sit in the same corner of the writing-system map — Grafle's Latin group — and players mix them up constantly. Here's the fastest way to tell them apart.
The tell
Tok Pisin looks like English spelled by ear: 'gut', 'tumas', 'yumi'. If it's almost-English but not quite, think Papua New Guinea.
Side by side
English
All human beings are born free and equal in dignity.
To be, or not to be, that is the question.
The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.
English's own tells
- Plain 26-letter text with no accents or special letters at all is usually English.
On signs in:
- United States of America
- United Kingdom
- Australia
- Canada
- New Zealand
- South Africa
- Ireland
- Jamaica
- Trinidad and Tobago
- Guyana
- Barbados
- The Bahamas
- Belize
- Nigeria
- Kenya
- Ghana
- Antigua and Barbuda
- Dominica
- Grenada
- St. Kitts and Nevis
- St. Lucia
- St. Vincent and the Grenadines
- Botswana
- Gambia
- Lesotho
- Liberia
- Malawi
- Sierra Leone
- South Sudan
- Zambia
- Zimbabwe
- Swaziland
- Fiji
- Kiribati
- Marshall Islands
- Micronesia
- Nauru
- Palau
- Samoa
- Solomon Islands
- Tonga
- Tuvalu
- Vanuatu
- Mauritius
- Seychelles
- Malta
- Uganda
- Philippines
- Rwanda
- Bermuda
- Falkland Islands
Tok Pisin
Yumi olgeta i kamap fri na wankain long digniti na raits.
Gude, yu stap gut?
Sori tumas, mi no save.
Tok Pisin's own tells
- Reads like phonetically respelled English: gut, tumas, yumi — the creole of Papua New Guinea.
On signs in:
- Papua New Guinea