Lesson 16: Equational Sentences
Building on the ko identification pattern, this lesson adds deeper structures: using ʻa with noun subjects in equational sentences, postposed pronouns as subjects, subject-first emphasis, and diminutives for expressing smallness.
In the previous lesson, ʻa appeared as the marker before noun subjects in verb-first sentences: ʻE ʻalu ʻa Sione (Sione will go). The same marker works in equational sentences. When the subject is a proper noun, ʻa introduces it at the end of the equational sentence:
Lesson 15 · All 52 lessons · Lesson 17
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