ngele who / er – / someone; anyone

Part of Speech	interrogative
Phonetic Form	ŋele
Tanema Equivalent	ngela
Lovono Equivalent	enge

1. • who

   Syntactic Restriction	in questions
   (Part of) Antonym (for)	nganae

   • • Example 468:
       

       Buluko ie ngele ponu?

       Whose flashlight is that?

     • Example 1963:
       

       Ngele? Sintia pe Niteni?

       Who? Sintia from Santa Cruz?

     • Example 1964:
       

       Ngele i-wablei kupa?

       Who is teasing us?

     • Example 1965:
       

       Enga eo ngele?

       What [lit. who] is your name?

2. • er –

   Syntactic Restriction	when hesitating on s.o.'s name
   Sense Comment	freq

   • • Example 1966:
       

       Ka dapa ka li-odo ngele, Laperusi.

       So they went to search for, er, Lapérouse.

3. • someone; anyone

   Syntactic Restriction

   indefinite

   • • Example 1967:
       

       N-i, ia ni-lengi ngele i-laiaini tae.

       I called out, but I didn't heard anybody reply.

Related entries

• Is Part of:
  • ngele ngele whoever
• See also:
  • ngele nga whoever; anyone who / anyone, whoever
  • nganae¹ what