Section outline

  • Learning outcomes:

    Students will be able to:

    • recognise and use correct pumua for basic sentence structures (te/ngā, tētahi/ētahi, taku/tō/tana, a)
    • recognise and use sentences to describe where something is located.
    • recognise and use prepositions correctly (runga, raro, mua, muri, roto, waho, taha, taha māui, taha mātau, waenganui)

    Location Sentences

    In te reo Māori, sentences describing where something is presently located begin with kupu “Kei.” For example:

    Kei Flat Bush taku kura            My school is in Flatbush
    Kei Manukau taku kainga         My home is in Manukau


    Prepositions are words that describe the position of one object in relation to another.


    To say where something is in relation to something else in te reo Māori we use:
    Kei (preposition) te (object or noun) i te (object or noun)

    Kei runga te koha i te tēpu                 The gift is on the table
    Kei roto te ngeru i te pākete              The cat is in the bucket