Lesson 41: Word Class Flexibility
This lesson covers a broad pattern in Tongan: the same word can serve as a noun, a verb, an adjective, or an adverb depending on how it is used in a sentence.
English keeps its word classes fairly separate. The word "rain" is a noun, and "to rain" needs a different form ("it rained"). In Tongan, the word ʻuha means both "rain" (the thing) and "to rain" (the event), with no change to the word itself. The sentence structure tells you which role the word is playing.
Lesson 40 · All 52 lessons · Lesson 42
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