Lesson 3: Descriptive Words
This lesson expands the tense marker + pronoun + verb pattern by showing that the verb slot can hold more than action words. Descriptive words like fiefia (happy) and helaʻia (tired) fit that slot, modifiers like lelei (well) and ʻaupito (very) extend them, and verb-object compounds like kai mā (eat bread) form a single unit.
Both sentences follow the same pattern as ʻOku ou kai (I eat): tense marker + pronoun + verb. But fiefia (happy) and helaʻia (tired) are not actions. They are adjectives: words that describe a quality or state. In English, adjectives typically describe nouns ("a happy child," "a strong person"). In Tongan, adjectives can also fill the verb position, which is the pattern taught in this lesson. Happy, tired, hungry, strong, angry are all adjectives.
Lesson 2 · All 52 lessons · Lesson 4
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