Lesson 14: Greetings and Social Formulas
Unlike the productive patterns built so far, Tongan greetings and farewells are fixed formulas. This lesson teaches the most important ones, explains the grammar inside them so they are not opaque, and introduces a few new elements: the vocative particle ʻe for addressing someone by name, the tonal adverb ā used in farewells, and polite request words.
The word mālō means "worthy of praise" or "congratulations." The word e here is the definite article (the same e you know from e tohi, the book). The word lelei means "well" or "good." The literal meaning is "The being-in-good-health is worthy of praise," a much warmer greeting than a simple "hello."
Lesson 13 · All 52 lessons · Lesson 15
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