Forming the plural and the dual number of the Tongan nouns
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Tongan is a most analytical language. This means that the words don't go through many changes about their form. Actually in Tongan the words don't change at all except for their stress. For example in the European languages words change to form their plurals (English house - houses, Spanish casa - casas etc). In Tongan the word remains invariable. In order to show its plural form we must add a specific word before it. These words are Ngaahi, 'Ū, Fanga and Kau. More specifically:
The plural form for things and abstract nouns is formed with "ngaahi":
'Api (house) - Ngaahi 'api (houses)
Fakakaukau (theory) - Ngaahi fakakaukau (theories)
Also ngaahi is used for words denoting relatives, friends, enemies and titles:
Fa'Ä“ (mother) - Ngaahi fa'Ä“ (mothers)
Kaume'a (friend) - Ngaahi kaume'a (friends)
'Otua (God) - Ngaahi 'Otua (Gods)
Tu'i (King) - Ngaahi Tu'i (Kings)
'Ū is used for things and it is interchangeable with ngaahi. 'Ū usually denotes small numbers of things though.
Fanga is used for animals. Also words preceded by ki'i ("small"). Usually it is used with tamaiki (children). Finally sometimes it is used with nouns denoting relatives although ngaahi is more common in this case (fanga just shows more affection):
Puaka (pig) - Fanga puaka (pigs)
Ki'i 'api (little house) - Fanga ki'i 'api (little houses)
Tamaiki (children) - Fanga tamaiki (children)
Kau is used with human beings, except for the already described cases that nouns denoting human beings take some of the previous (ngaahi, fanga):
Faiako (teacher) - Kau faiako (teachers)
The Dual number of any kind of noun is denoted with Ongo:
Vaka (ship) - Ongo vaka (two ships)
These are the general rules. There are few words that form irregular plurals and duals. These are:
Fefine (woman) - Fafine or kau fefine
Motu'a (parent) - MÄ?tu'a
Tamasi'i (child) - Tamaiki
Mokopuna (grandchild) - Makapuna
'Afio (Majesty) - 'Ä€fifio
Motu'a (old) - MÄ?tutu'a (for persons) or motu'a (for things, animals)
Lahi (big) - Lalahi
Si'i (small) - Iiki
LÅ?loa (long) - Loloa
Nounou (short in length) - Nonou
Pukupuku (short in height) - Pupuku or pukupuku
The word 'Eiki (chief) is used unchanged for the dual, but its plural is Hou'eiki
Finally words qualified by kotoa (all) usually don't take the number sign as well as words qualified by a cardinal number.
All the above are based upon the book "Tongan Grammar" by C.M. Churchward
