This page is not complete! Some content is still being migrated and re-formatted from the old site, so there may be some missing links or content below.
The simplest type of questions are made by replacing a noun with ā meaning "what".
o le tusi lea
»
this is a book
o le a lea?
»
what is this?
o le a lau tala?
»
what are you saying?
Along similar lines, we can use ai1, meaning "who", if we are expecting a name as an answer.
At the start of a question, po is used before 'o (ie, before nouns and adverbs), whilst pe is used before any other type of word. They don't have an English equivalent when used like this:
pe aisea?
»
Why? (as a standalone sentence)
In the middle of sentences, they mean "whether" or "or", and do not necessarily need to be part of a question:
Typically, a question will use the article se1 (a, any) and its plural ni (some), whilst the answers will use the definite article le, if the thing exists. For example:
'ua ta se fia
»
what is the time? (lit. it has struck a what?)
'ua ta le lua
»
it's two (lit. it has struck the two).
If articles are translated too literally from English, this can be confusing. The following would be taken as a question, not a statement:
e iai se saimigi
»
are there noodles?
To state that there is a packet of noodles, you would need to say:
e iai le saimigi
»
There is a packet of noodles
But to state that it doesn't exist, you would use:
e leai se saimigi
»
There is no packet of noodles
Questions and possessive pronouns
The same rules as above apply with possessive pronouns in questions. The question is indefinite:
e iai sau ta'avale?
»
The reply is definite, if the object exists:
e iai la'u ta'avale
»
But if it doesn't exist, then the reply is indefinite:
e leai si a'u ta'avale
»
I don't have a car.
And likewise for a plain statement outside of a question-answer context:
meaning "what".