Reference · Read in any order

Topics

Seven pages that answer one common question each, outside the lesson order. Read one on its own, and it ends by pointing into the lessons that cover it. Not started yet? Read the questions about learning Tongan.

Grammar charts

• Alphabet & Pronunciation

  17 letters, how each one sounds, and where the stress falls.

• Greetings

  Mālō e lelei and what it means, how to answer it, and which of the two goodbyes to use.

• Tense Markers

  One word in front of the verb marks tense. The four markers, and how the negative works.

• Word Order

  The tense marker and the verb come first, and the subject follows. Where a pronoun goes instead.

• The Negative

  ʻikai sits between the tense marker and what follows, with te before a pronoun and ke before a verb.

• Possessives

  Two sets, chosen by your relationship to the thing rather than by the thing itself.

• The Ko Pattern

  Ko e hele ʻeni, a sentence with no verb and no tense marker, for saying what something is.