I will be covering more on pronouns and other grammar in this edition of the Tongan Pocket Dictionary series! Feel free to check out the German version here.
ARTICLES:
The definite article [the] is [ko] e
The indefinite article [a, an] is ha
PLURALS:
Plurals have their own classes in Tongan. They are as follows:
Ngaahi is the general plural for basically any noun. It can sometimes be used synonymously with other plural classes.
book - tohi
books - ngaahi tohi
Kau is the general plural for personal nouns (girls, boys, men, women, children, etc.)
king/queen - tu'i1
kings/queens - kau tu'i
girl - ta'ahine
girls - kau ta'ahine
seaman - tamavaka
seamen - kauvaka
children - tamaiiki
children - kau tamaiiki2
Fanga is the general plural for animals [beasts, fish, fowls, and creeping things].
dog - kuuli
dogs - fanga kuuli
dogs - ngaahi kuuli
dogs - kau3 kuuli
turtle - fonu
turtles - ngaahi fonu4
Fuifui is the general plural for things like a school of fish[es], or a flock of birds, or the waves of the sea, or nuggets of gold, or pebbles of rock, etc.
school of fish - fuifui ika
schools of fish - ngaahi fuifui ika
Tu'unga is normally used for groups of people [men, women], but also for other collective nouns.
a Jewish person - ko ha Jiu
the Jewish people - ko e tu'unga Jiu
book - tohi
books - ngaahi tohi
books5 - tu'unga tohi
woman - fefine
women - kau fefine6
women7 - tu'unga fefine
'Otu is normally used for island chains, archipelagos, island groups, coral reefs, etc.
star - fetu'u
stars - ngaahi fetu'u
a row of stars - 'otu fetu'u8
island - motu
Hawaiian Islands - 'otu motu Havaihi
'U is used for like a list of songs, pages of a book, etc.
page - peesi
pages - ngaahi9 peesi
pages - 'u peesi
song - fasi
songs - 'u fasi
spindle - hui
spindles on a spinning or bicycle wheel - 'u huiva'e
INTERROGATIVES:
Who? - ko hai?
What? - ko e ha?
When? - afe?
Why? - ke ha?
How? - fefe?
Where? 'i fe?
From where? mei fe?
Where to? ki fe?
- 1. Like most nouns in Tongan, "tu'i" is genderless, hence 'queen' or 'king'.
- 2. "kau" can be used with or without "tamaiiki" [children]
- 3. when referring to people as dogs, i.e. 'what a bunch of dogs!'
- 4. Fanga is bound to certain phonetic rules in Tongan; like you cannot say fanga fonu. Therefore, the general plural ngaahi is used instead.
- 5. as in a row of books
- 6. 'kau' is used when referring to women in general
- 7. in the collective sense, i.e. 'The National Organization for Women'
- 8. used poetically. You'd normally would say 'pupunga fetu'u' to describe a row of stars or a constellation of stars.
- 9. can be used interchangeably
