Grammar

The Tongan ko pattern: saying what something is

Ko e hele ʻeni means "this is a knife". There is no verb in it and no tense marker either, which makes it a different animal from every sentence built on ʻoku and naʻe. Ko does the work English gives to "is" when the job is naming something rather than reporting what it did.

Ko e hele ʻeni.
This is a knife.

Ko e fala ʻeni.
This is a mat.

Ko e hele ē.
That is a knife.

The shape is ko e, then the noun, then a pointing word if you want one. That pattern answers "what is this?", "who are you?" and "where is it?", it has its own set of question words, and it can be turned round to put the emphasis somewhere else. This page takes those in order.

The basic shape

The e after ko is the definite article you already know from e tohi (the book). Together, ko e works as a unit meaning "it is a" or "this is a".

Ko e tohi ʻeni.
This is a book.

Ko e kato ē.
That is a basket.

Ko e vaka.
It is a boat.

A ko sentence says what something is, so there is no action to place in time and no tense marker to place it with.

Pointing at things: ʻeni, ʻena, ē

Three pointing words attach to the end of a ko sentence, and they sort themselves by distance the way heni, hena and hē do for places.

Word	Meaning	Distance
ʻeni	this	near me
ʻena	that	near you
ē	that	over there, or general pointing

On their own with ko, they make the short statements you say while actually pointing at something.

Koʻeni.
Here it is. (Literally "it-is this-here")

Ko ē!
There it is!

Koʻena.
There it is (near you).

In everyday speech ē often covers all three jobs, especially in quick exchanges.

Asking what something is

Ko e hā ē? is "what is that?", and the answer comes back in the same pattern it was asked in. Hā is the word for "what".

Ko e hā ē?
What is that?

Ko e kiʻi kato.
It is a small basket.

Ko e hā ʻeni?
What is this?

Ko e kato.
It is a basket.

Saying who someone is

Ko e faiako ʻa Lisiate is "Lisiate is the teacher". The name goes at the end with ʻa in front of it, the same focus marker that introduces a noun subject in an ordinary verb sentence.

Ko e faiako ʻa Lisiate.
Lisiate is the teacher.

Ko e taʻahine mālohi ʻa Seini.
Seini is a strong girl.

Ko e tangata ngāue ʻa Mafi?
Is Mafi a worker?

Swap the name for a pronoun and the ʻa goes away. The pronoun follows the thing being said about it.

Ko e tangata ngāue au.
I am a worker.

Ko e tōketā koe?
Are you a doctor?

Ko e taʻahine mālohi ia.
She is a strong girl.

The third-person pronoun here is ia, not the ne used in verb sentences. ʻOkú ne kai is "he eats", with ne in front of the verb; Ko e faiako ia is "he is a teacher", with ia after the noun.

With a name	With a pronoun
Ko e tangata ngāue ʻa Mafi. Mafi is a worker.	Ko e tangata ngāue au. I am a worker.
Ko e taʻahine mālohi ʻa Seini. Seini is a strong girl.	Ko e taʻahine mālohi ia. She is a strong girl.

Turning it round for emphasis

Ko Lisiate ko e faiako is the same statement with the person put first, and it spotlights him: Lisiate, and nobody else. The pattern uses ko twice, once to introduce the subject and once to introduce what is said about him.

Normal order	Subject first
Ko e faiako ʻa Lisiate.	Ko Lisiate ko e faiako.
Ko e tangata mālohi ʻa Peau.	Ko Peau ko e tangata mālohi.

Both English translations read "Lisiate is the teacher" and "Peau is a strong man", so the difference lives in the Tongan rather than in the translation. In speech it is carried by context and stress.

Saying it is not

A positive ko sentence has no tense marker, and negating it brings one in. ʻOku ʻikai goes in front of the ko, wrapping the whole identification.

ʻOku ʻikai ko e hele ʻeni.
This is not a knife.

ʻOku ʻikai ko e faiako ia.
He or she is not a teacher.

Naʻe ʻikai ko e faiako ʻa Fehoko.
Fehoko was not a teacher.

The four questions built on ko

Where a tense-marker question asks about an action, a ko question asks about an identity: who someone is, what a thing is, which one, and why.

Question	Meaning	Example
Ko hai ...?	Who?	Ko hai ʻoku hiva? Who is singing?
Ko e hā ...?	What?	Ko e hā ʻa e meʻa ʻokú ke fiemaʻu? What do you want?
Ko fē ...?	Where? Which?	Ko fē ʻa e kato? Where is the basket?
Ko e hā ... ai?	Why?	Ko e hā naʻá ke ʻalu ai ki Nukuʻalofa? Why did you go to Nukuʻalofa?

The answer to a ko hai question comes back on ko as well: Ko au (me), Ko e faiako (the teacher), Ko Sione (Sione).

Both ʻoku ʻi fē and ko fē translate as "where", and they differ in what the speaker assumes. ʻOku ʻi fē is used when the thing may be far off; ko fē is used when you suppose it is somewhere within sight.

ko in front of a verb sentence

Ko Tēvita naʻá ne kai e foʻi niú means "it was Tēvita who ate the coconut". The plain version, Naʻe kai ʻe Tēvita e foʻi niú, puts the weight on the eating. Moving the subject to the front with ko puts it on the person, and a pronoun stays behind after the tense marker to hold his place.

Naʻe kai ʻe Tēvita e foʻi niú.
Tēvita ate the coconut.

Ko Tēvita naʻá ne kai e foʻi niú.
It was Tēvita who ate the coconut.

Ko Mele naʻá ne fufulu ʻa e valá.
It was Mele who washed the clothes.

When the verb takes no object, no pronoun is needed and the tense marker connects straight to the verb.

Ko Pita ʻoku ngāue heni.
It is Pita who works here.

Ko e fānau naʻe hiva.
It was the children who sang.

ko for what someone is doing right now

Ko hoʻo ngāue? asks "are you working?", and it is the polite thing to say to someone you find at work. The pattern is ko plus a possessive plus a verb used as a noun, so it says, near enough, "it is your working?"

Ko hoʻo ngāue?
Are you working?

Ko hoʻo lālanga?
Are you weaving?

Ko ʻeku ʻalu ki Nukuʻalofa.
I am going to Nukuʻalofa. (Literally "it is my going to Nukuʻalofa.")

With ko, the action is happening at this moment. With ʻoku, the same words usually read as something more general: Ko e fai ʻeku huo is "I am hoeing, right now", and ʻOku fai ʻeku huo is closer to "I hoe", as an activity in general.

Hear it at the start of a sentence

The useful habit is hearing ko at the front and knowing at once which kind of sentence has started, so you are not waiting for a tense marker that is not coming. The drills below train exactly that.

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