ʻa before a name?

This is a practice drill from the free 52-lesson Tongan course. The course reaches for it in lesson 16, equational sentences, where it runs inside the lesson as well as on this page.

In "X is a Y," ʻa appears before a name but drops before a pronoun.

Every item asks the same thing: With ʻa or without? Each item shows a line of Tongan and a short row of answers to tap. Right or wrong, the drill then says why that answer is the one the grammar wants.

Read lesson 16 · Take the lesson 16 quiz · All practice drills

The Tongan alphabet and pronunciation · Tongan greetings and what they mean · Tongan tense markers explained · Tongan word order · Saying "not" in Tongan · Tongan possessives · The Tongan ko pattern