Section outline

  • Wetewete Reo

    For the next few weeks we will be revising our sentence patterns that we learnt in Year 9 te reo Māori.

    Learning outcomes:

    • Students will be able to:
    • recognise and use correct pūmua for basic sentence structures (te/ngā, tētahi/ētahi, taku/tō/tana, a)
    • recognise a describing sentence pattern (He (adjective) te (noun)
    • describe objects and people
    • recognise a negative describing sentence pattern (Ehara te (noun) i te (adjective)
    • use a negative describing sentence

    Pūmua are the small, sometimes insignificant words that must be  used before a noun in te reo Māori sentences. The Māori alphabet does not have the letter ‘s’ so the word that is used before the noun is used to indicate whether or not a person is talking about one or more things.


    This week we will focus on these little words that are used before nouns.

    Pūmua

    Singular

    Plural

    Examples

    the

    te

    ngā

    te pene = the pen

    ngā pene = the pens

    a, some

    tētahi

    ētahi

    tētahi pene = a pen

    ētahi pene = some pens

    my

    taku

    aku

    taku pene = my pen

    aku pene = my pens

    your

    tō

    ō

    tō pene = your pen

    ō pene = your pens

    his/hers

    tana

    ana

    tana pene = his pen

    ana pene = his pens


    When we use someone's name in a sentence we use the word ‘a’ before the name. 

    For example: He tino mōhio a Mere                    Mere is very clever

    Describing Sentences: Saying something is …………...

    Describing sentences in te reo Māori begin with the kupu “He.”

                                       He (adjective) te (noun)
                                        He whero te pene
                                        The pen is red