Lesson 2: Tense Markers and Pronouns
Building on Lesson 1, this lesson expands the tense marker + pronoun + verb pattern by introducing the remaining three tense markers and the full set of preposed pronoun forms.
So far, the only tense marker you have seen is naʻa, which marks the past tense in the pattern: tense marker + pronoun + verb. Tongan has three more tense markers. Each one fills the same opening slot in this pattern. Swap in a different marker and the tense changes; the pronoun and verb stay the same. Later, you will see tense markers appear in other positions within longer sentences, but this core pattern remains the foundation.
Lesson 1 · All 52 lessons · Lesson 3
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