Lesson 45: Verbal Nouns
A verbal noun is a verb used as a noun, a word for an action treated as a thing. Building on the basic construction Ko hoʻo ʻalu ki fē? (Where are you going?), this lesson covers what happens to subjects and objects when a verb becomes a verbal noun, and how verbal nouns build temporal clauses.
In the first sentence, the pronoun ne (he) sits between the tense marker and the verb. In the second, it has become the possessive ʻene (his). When a verb turns into a verbal noun, this kind of pronoun subject moves in front of it as a possessive. The possessive is 'e-class because the subject is the one doing the action. The pattern ʻi he + possessive + verbal noun creates a clause meaning "when" or "because."
Lesson 44 · All 52 lessons · Lesson 46
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