Editing Tuvaluan language (section)

== Verbs, nouns, adjectives and adverbs ==

Tuvaluan tends to favour using verbs over nouns. Nouns can be formed from many verbs by adding the suffix {{lang|tvl|–ga}}. In the Southern dialect, the addition of {{lang|tvl|–ga}} lengthens the final vowel of the verb root of the new noun. Many nouns can also be used as verbs.<ref name="Jack"/>
 
Tuvaluan relies heavily on the use of verbs. There are many ‘state of being’ words which are verbs in Tuvaluan, which would be classified as adjectives in English. Generally, verbs can be identified by the tense marker which precedes them (usually immediately, but occasionally separated by adverbs). Verbs do not change form because of tense, and only occasionally undergo gemination in the plural. Passive and reciprocal verbs undergo some changes by the use of affixes, but these forms are used infrequently and usually apply to loan words from Samoan.<ref name="Jack"/>

The distinction between verb and adjective is often only indicated by the use of verb/tense [[marker (linguistics)|markers]] and the position of the word in the sentence. Adjectives always follow the noun they reference. Adjectives regularly change in the plural form (by gemination) where nouns do not. Many adjectives can become abstract nouns by adding the definite article te, or a pronoun, before the adjective. This is similar to English adjectives adding the suffix -ness to an adjective to form a noun.<ref name="Jack"/>

Adverbs usually follow the verb they apply to, although there are some notable exceptions to this rule.<ref name="Jack"/>