At the time of the last census there were 50 000 New Zealanders who identified as Tongan. Currently, there are more Tongan people born in New Zealand than there are in Tonga, giving lea faka-Tonga (the Tonga language) and anga faka-Tonga (Tonga culture) a special place here. Tonga Language Week / Uike Kātoanga’i ‘o e lea faka-Tonga gives students of all ethnicities the chance to learn some basic lea faka-Tonga, and gives students who speak lea faka-Tonga the chance to be experts in the classroom.
So you want to count in Tongan! The basic level of counting in Tongan is easier then you think. All you have to do is learn the numbers 0-10 then you can count from 1-99. Follow these simple rules.
Counting 1-99 in Tongan
- numbers 0-9 noa, taha, ua, tolu, fā, nima, ono, fitu, valu, hiva
- the number for 10 is hongofulu (hoh-ngoh-foo-loo)
- the number for 100 is teau (teh-ah-oo)
- every other number is literally the words 0-9 combined: twenty becomes two zero – ua noa
- three exceptions to the rule 22, 55 and 99 words shortened to uo ua, nime nima, hive hiva
