Agent Markers *na* and *e* in Hawaiian

In Brief

Hawaiian can foreground a doer with na + agent + i + verb: Na Keola i kūkulu i ka hale means “Keola built the house,” with a sense like “It was Keola who built the house.” In a passive sentence, e + agent identifies who carried out the action: Ua kūkulu ʻia ka hale e Keola (“The house was built by Keola”). The same written particle e also introduces someone being addressed—E Keola, e hele!—but that is a vocative use, not a passive agent.

Overview

An agent is the doer: the person or thing that intentionally or causally carries out an action. In “Keola built the house,” Keola is the agent and “the house” is the patient (the person or thing affected by the action). English usually identifies these roles through word order and, in passive sentences, the word “by.” Hawaiian relies heavily on small grammatical particles.

At B1, the important task is to distinguish three patterns that can look similar in translation. Na puts special focus on the person responsible for an event. E marks the agent after a passive verb. A second e introduces a vocative—the person being spoken to directly—especially before a command. These patterns are useful in answers, questions about responsibility, narratives, instructions, and formal writing.

The accent marks matter. The agent marker in this construction is na, without a kahakō. Nā, with a kahakō, is normally the plural definite article “the”: nā haumāna (“the students”). Do not treat them as interchangeable.

How It Works

1. Foregrounding the doer with na

The central pattern is:

Na + agent + i + verb (+ object or other complements)

Part	Function	Example
na	introduces the foregrounded agent	Na Keola...
agent	the doer being identified	Keola
i	introduces the following completed-event clause	i kūkulu...
verb phrase	states what that agent did	kūkulu i ka hale

Thus, Na Keola i kūkulu i ka hale identifies Keola as the responsible doer. A natural English translation is simply “Keola built the house,” but “It was Keola who built the house” better preserves the focus. The construction is especially natural when answering “who?”, correcting an assumption, assigning credit, or identifying responsibility.

Compare the neutral and foregrounded versions:

Pattern	Hawaiian	Natural force
ordinary verbal clause	Ua kūkulu ʻo Keola i ka hale.	Keola built the house.
foregrounded agent	Na Keola i kūkulu i ka hale.	Keola was the one who built the house.

The i after the agent is part of this construction; it is not the object marker before ka hale. In the full sentence there may therefore be two instances of i, each doing a different job: Na Keola i kūkulu i ka hale. The first links the foregrounded agent to the action clause; the second marks ka hale as the object of kūkulu.

With a common noun, keep its article: Na ke aliʻi i ʻōlelo (“The chief was the one who spoke”). With a name, use the name directly: Na Keola..., not na ʻo Keola....

Asking and answering “who did it?”

Use Na wai...? when the unknown information is the doer:

• Na wai i hana kēia? — “Who made this?”
• Na Lani i hana. — “Lani did.”

Here wai means “who.” Notice that this is not the equational question ʻO wai...? (“Who is...?”). The marker changes because the question asks for an agent in an action, not someone’s identity in an equation.

Pronoun forms commonly fuse the agentive na with the pronoun. Useful forms include naʻu (“by me / I was the one”), nāu (“by you / you were the one”), and nāna (“by him or her / he or she was the one”). Because these forms include meaningful vowel length and glottal stops, learn them as complete forms rather than constructing them by spelling guesswork.

2. Marking an agent in a passive sentence with e

A passive sentence presents the affected participant first rather than the doer. Hawaiian commonly forms a passive verb with - ʻia (whose spelling may attach according to the verb), and an expressed agent follows e:

aspect marker + passive verb + patient + e + agent

Ua kūkulu ʻia ka hale e Keola.
“The house was built by Keola.”

The phrase e Keola corresponds to English “by Keola.” The agent can be omitted when it is unknown or unimportant:

Ua kūkulu ʻia ka hale.
“The house was built.”

This passive e does not introduce the object. It specifically identifies the doer in a passive construction. With a common noun phrase, retain the article: e ke kumu (“by the teacher”), e nā haumāna (“by the students”).

3. Addressing someone with vocative e

Hawaiian also places e before a person or group being addressed directly. “Vocative” simply means a name or title used to call or speak to someone:

E + addressee, e + verb!

E Keola, e hele!
“Keola, go!”

The first e introduces Keola, the addressee. The second e introduces the command hele. They are separate grammatical uses. With a title or common noun, include its article:

• E ke kumu, e kōkua mai! — “Teacher, please help!”
• E nā haumāna, e heluhelu! — “Students, read!”

Number matters: E ka haumāna, e heluhelu! addresses one student; E nā haumāna... addresses more than one.

The three patterns at a glance

Marker and position	Role of following noun phrase	Basic meaning
na before a foregrounded doer	agent in an emphatic/focused construction	“X was the one who...”
e after a passive predicate	agent of the passive action	“by X”
e before a directly addressed person	addressee, not a passive agent	“O X / X, ...”

English can hide these distinctions. “Keola, build the house” and “the house was built by Keola” both mention Keola, but Hawaiian chooses the construction according to Keola’s role in the sentence.

Examples in Context

Hawaiian	English	Note
Na Keola i kūkulu i ka hale.	Keola built the house.	Foregrounds Keola as the builder.
Na wai i hana kēia?	Who made this?	Asks for the responsible agent.
Na ke aliʻi i ʻōlelo.	The chief spoke.	The common noun keeps ke.
Na Lani i kākau i ka leka.	Lani wrote the letter.	Natural when identifying who wrote it.
Naʻu i hana.	I did it.	Fused first-person form; emphatic responsibility.
Nāna i wehe ka puka.	He or she opened the door.	Fused third-person form.
Ua kūkulu ʻia ka hale e Keola.	The house was built by Keola.	e Keola is the passive agent.
Ua kākau ʻia ka leka e Lani.	The letter was written by Lani.	The affected item is presented first.
Ua hoʻomākaukau ʻia ka ʻai e nā haumāna.	The food was prepared by the students.	Plural article nā follows passive e.
Ua ʻōlelo ʻia kēlā moʻolelo.	That story was told.	No agent is expressed.
E Keola, e hele!	Keola, go!	First e: address; second e: command.
E ka haumāna, e heluhelu!	Student, read!	Singular addressee.
E nā haumāna, e hoʻolohe mai!	Students, listen!	Plural addressee with nā.
E ke kumu, e kōkua mai iā mākou.	Teacher, please help us.	A title used in direct address.

Common Mistakes

Confusing na with plural nā

• Wrong: Nā Keola i kūkulu i ka hale.
• Right: Na Keola i kūkulu i ka hale.
• Why: Agentive na has no kahakō. Nā is the plural article and cannot mark one named person as the foregrounded doer.

Adding ʻo after agentive na

• Wrong: Na ʻo Keola i hana.
• Right: Na Keola i hana.
• Why: Although ʻo often marks a name as the subject of an ordinary verbal clause, the na construction already licenses the foregrounded agent.

Dropping the first i in the na pattern

• Wrong: Na Keola kūkulu i ka hale.
• Right: Na Keola i kūkulu i ka hale.
• Why: The focused agent is followed by an i-clause. Do not confuse this i with the later object marker.

Using agentive na as if every ordinary subject required it

• Awkward when no focus is intended: Na Keola i hele i ke kula.
• Neutral: Ua hele ʻo Keola i ke kula.
• Why: The na pattern identifies or emphasizes the doer. For a plain report of an event, an ordinary verb-first clause is often the better choice.

Using passive e in an active sentence

• Wrong: Ua kūkulu e Keola i ka hale.
• Right, active: Ua kūkulu ʻo Keola i ka hale.
• Right, passive: Ua kūkulu ʻia ka hale e Keola.
• Why: Agentive e belongs with a passive predicate. An ordinary active subject uses the appropriate subject marking and word order.

Mixing up a command and its addressee

• Wrong: E ka haumāna, heluhelu!
• Right: E ka haumāna, e heluhelu!
• Why: The first e calls the student; the second marks the command. One does not replace the other.

Usage Notes

The foregrounded na construction carries discourse focus: it answers the question “who was responsible?” English speakers often translate every Hawaiian sentence into the same subject–verb–object order and miss this added emphasis. When reading, ask what information the speaker is contrasting. Na Lani i hana may imply “Lani did it—not someone else.”

Passive e is most useful when the result or affected participant is already the topic. In Ua kākau ʻia ka leka e Lani, attention begins with the letter and only then names Lani. If the doer is the main news, an active clause or foregrounded na construction may communicate that more directly.

Punctuation helps readers see direct address, so modern writing normally sets a vocative off with a comma: E Keola, e hele! In speech, intonation does the same work. Also distinguish grammatical e from ē, a form with a kahakō encountered in calls and expressions. Accurate Hawaiian spelling is not decorative: na/nā and e/ē should be copied carefully from reliable sources.

Beyond the Basics / Advanced Use

The na construction belongs to a wider possessive-looking system. Its fused pronoun forms resemble possessive forms because Hawaiian uses related a-class morphology to represent responsibility or control. That connection helps explain forms such as naʻu, nāu, and nāna, but it does not mean that every possessive phrase can be turned into an agent phrase mechanically. At a higher level, learn the complete singular, dual, and plural paradigms with a trusted Hawaiian grammar or instructor.

Agent focus also appears inside larger noun phrases and relative constructions. For example, ke kanaka nāna i kūkulu i ka hale means “the person who built the house.” Here nāna i... identifies the person as the agent of the relative clause. This is a major bridge from the present topic to Hawaiian relative clauses.

Finally, do not assume that English active and passive choices map one-to-one onto Hawaiian. Hawaiian often packages information through particles, aspect, stative or passive morphology, and the order of discourse topics. A polished translation may therefore change the English voice while preserving the Hawaiian emphasis. First identify the marker and role; only then choose natural English.

Practice Tips

1. Build three versions of one event. Start with Ua kākau ʻo Lani i ka leka. Then foreground the doer (Na Lani i kākau i ka leka) and make the patient central (Ua kākau ʻia ka leka e Lani). Say what changes in emphasis.
2. Drill questions and short answers. Ask Na wai i hana kēia? and answer with different names or with Naʻu i hana. This makes agentive na feel like a meaningful choice rather than a translation formula.
3. Mark every e while reading. Label it “passive agent,” “addressee,” or “command.” In E Keola, e heluhelu i ka puke i kākau ʻia e Lani, all three relevant environments are visible.

Related Concepts

• Prerequisite: Complex Sentence Patterns — provides the clause structure and particles needed to understand the na...i pattern.
• Next step: Relative Clauses — develops agent forms such as nāna i... inside noun-modifying clauses.
• Next step: Passive and Stative Constructions — gives a fuller treatment of passive verbs and agents introduced by e.