kama

kama describes arrivals, both at locations (to come) and at states of being (to become). For example, kama can refer to arriving home to eat dinner, arriving at school, or the moment you become an akesi because an evil prescriptivist wizard cursed you for using too many nimisin. This, of course, describes kama's use as a preverb, in which its meaning is close to "become." This can imply the start, body, or end of this process. It's easy to describe the reverse of whatever process kama preverb is representing by negating the word that follows it, i.e. "kama X ala."

kama is also used to talk about the future a lot. This is usually because the future is framed as something that is coming, but because Toki Pona is tenseless, kama can also refer to things that came in the past. Nevertheless, kama is used to specify future a lot of the time. Often one will see people modifying words with it to make them future-y, like "soweli kama" for "the animal that will arrive" or "tenpo kama" for "the time that is to come."

kama used transitively is best translated as "summon," "conjure," or "bring about." It's the closest thing Toki Pona has to a deticated causative. Often something like "I make you build a house" is translated as "mi kama e ni: sina pali e tomo." But for causatives, one should think about the actual act of making someone do something. Are you telling them to do something, using consequences as a means of motivation? Are you controlling them in some way? Sometimes breaking down a causative into an actual action that describes what's going on is really fun and novel, instead of just using kama.