Lesson 36: Cleft Sentences and Emphatic Word Order
Every verbal sentence pattern covered so far places the verb first: naʻe kai ʻe Sione e foʻi molí (Sione ate the orange). This lesson shows how to move the subject to the front for emphasis, producing a structure similar to "It was Sione who ate the orange."
In a verbal sentence, standard Tongan word order puts the verb first. The subject follows, marked by ʻe:
Lesson 35 · All 52 lessons · Lesson 37
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