Negation

ala as an adverb

In English, you make a verb negative by adding "not" in front of the verb. Toki Pona puts its negative word, ala, after the verb.

mi lape ala.		I'm not sleeping.
mi musi ala.		I'm not having fun. / I'm bored.
mi wawa ala.		I'm not strong. / I'm weak.
mi wile ala tawa musi.		I don't want to dance.
tawa musi		dance (move entertainingly)
mi wile ala pali.		I'm lazy.

ala as an adjective

jan ala li toki.

Nobody is talking.

There's nothing wrong with putting ala after the verb (which is toki in this sentence), and in fact that's the more common way of doing it. However, you do have the option of using ala after nouns, and so I just wanted to point that out.

However, if you do that, try to remember not use ala with ijo: If not behind a verb, ala already essentially means nothing by default, and so using ijo just doesn't fit in.

ala li jaki.		Nothing is dirty.