tu

tu is, at its core, an act of separation. in toki pona, if there are two of something, one is framing them as separate. you don't need to modify a word with tu in order for there to be two of it, so using tu is saying something: I am separating these two things. "kili tu" can evoke an importance between two heads of lettuce. tu is used frequently as a verb to mean "cut" or "divide." it can be used for cutting something into more than two pieces because tu doesn't specify a specific amount of times. like "mi tu e kili" could describe four separate cuts, which could be up to 16 pieces! tu can also be metaphysical, describing divorce or any type of distance between people or objects with enough context. some other good examples of tu are splitting up a class into two groups or drawing the boundaries between two subparts of a large piece of land, potentially in a colonial context.