Common Action Verbs in Hawaiian

In Brief

Hawaiian verbs do not change their endings for I, you, or they. In a basic action sentence, put the verb first and the subject after it: Hele au means “I go,” while Hele ʻoe means “You go.” Learn makemake and hiki as complete patterns: makemake + subject + e + verb and hiki + iā + person + ke + verb.

Overview

A small set of action verbs lets you say a great deal in Hawaiian. The ten core verbs in this lesson cover movement, food and drink, posture, work, perception, desire, and ability: hele (go), ʻai (eat), inu (drink), noho (sit, stay, or live), kū (stand), hana (do or work), ʻike (see or know), lohe (hear), makemake (want or like), and hiki (be able, can).

This is an A1 topic, but it introduces a feature that remains important at every level: Hawaiian commonly places the predicate first (the part that says what happens or what is true). In a simple action sentence, that predicate is the verb. English normally says “I drink”; Hawaiian can say Inu au—literally, “Drink I.” This verb–subject order is the beginner pattern to make automatic.

Hawaiian does not conjugate a verb by changing its ending. Hele remains hele whether the person going is au (I), ʻoe (you), or ʻo ia (he or she). Separate particles placed around the verb later express such meanings as completed, current, or ongoing action. At first, concentrate on the unchanged verb and the basic sentence frame.

How It Works

The ten core verbs

Hawaiian verb	Core meaning	Useful beginner example
hele	go, walk, travel	Hele au. — I go.
ʻai	eat; food	ʻAi ke keiki. — The child eats.
inu	drink	Inu ʻo ia. — He/She drinks.
noho	sit, stay, reside, live	Noho au ma Hilo. — I live in Hilo.
kū	stand, stop, be situated	Kū ʻo ia. — He/She stands.
hana	do, make, work	Hana lākou. — They work.
ʻike	see, know, recognize, understand	ʻIke au. — I see/I know.
lohe	hear	Lohe ʻoe. — You hear.
makemake	want, desire; like	Makemake au i ke kope. — I want/like the coffee.
hiki	be possible, be able; arrive	Hiki iaʻu ke hana. — I can work.

Several Hawaiian words can serve more than one role. ʻAi can refer to eating or to food; hana can mean “do,” “make,” “work,” or “task/work,” depending on its place in a sentence. Context and the surrounding particles usually make the intended meaning clear.

Basic verb-first sentences

The simplest useful frame is:

verb + subject + optional complement

A subject is the person or thing doing the action. A complement completes the idea—for example, the thing eaten or the place where someone lives.

Pattern	Hawaiian	English
verb + subject	Hele au.	I go.
verb + subject + object	ʻAi ʻo ia i ka poi.	He/She eats the poi.
verb + subject + location	Noho mākou ma ka hale.	We live/stay at the house.

The subject follows the verb. With common pronouns, use au “I,” ʻoe “you,” and ʻo ia “he/she.” Notice that ʻo ia includes ʻo; do not insert ʻo before au or ʻoe in these ordinary action sentences.

English speakers often expect the verb itself to reveal time. A bare Hawaiian verb does not map neatly to one English tense. In a suitable context, a short sentence such as Hana au may describe what someone does or works at. More exact time and aspect—the way an action is viewed as complete or ongoing—are expressed by separate markers covered later.

Putting an object after the verb

An object is the person or thing affected by the action. With many everyday objects, place i before the noun phrase:

• ʻAi au i ka poi. — I eat the poi.
• Inu ʻo ia i ka wai. — He/She drinks the water.
• Lohe mākou i ka mele. — We hear the song.
• ʻIke ʻoe i ka hale. — You see the house.

Before personal names and personal pronouns used as objects, the marker is generally iā:

• ʻIke au iā Malia. — I see Malia.
• ʻIke ʻoe iā ia? — Do you see him/her?

English uses word order alone in “I see the house.” Hawaiian overtly marks the object with i or iā, so dropping that small word is a common English-speaker error. The full object-marker system is a later topic; at A1, remember the practical contrast i ka mea for a thing and iā + person for a person.

Wanting something and wanting to act

Makemake has two especially useful frames.

For a wanted or liked thing:

makemake + subject + i + noun phrase

• Makemake au i ka wai. — I want water/I like the water.
• Makemake ʻo ia i ka poi. — He/She wants or likes poi.

For an action someone wants to perform:

makemake + subject + e + verb

• Makemake au e hele. — I want to go.
• Makemake lākou e ʻai. — They want to eat.

Do not copy English to mechanically. Hawaiian uses e before the following verb, but i before the thing wanted. Context decides whether makemake i is best translated as “want” or “like.”

Expressing ability with hiki

Ability uses a different frame:

hiki + iā + person + ke + verb

• Hiki iaʻu ke hana. — I can work/do it.
• Hiki iā ʻoe ke hele? — Can you go?
• Hiki iā ia ke kū. — He/She can stand.

The forms iaʻu (to me), iā ʻoe (to you), and iā ia (to him/her) identify the person for whom the action is possible. This is not a word-for-word copy of English “I can.” Treat the whole Hawaiian frame as one unit. In careful modern spelling, iaʻu is conventionally written without a kahakō on the first a, while iā ʻoe and iā ia show the long vowel in iā.

Orthography is part of the word

The ʻokina (the letter ʻ, representing a glottal stop) and the kahakō (the macron showing a long vowel) are not decoration. Write ʻai, ʻike, and kū, not ai, ike, and ku. Omitting these marks can change pronunciation and may produce another word.

Examples in Context

Hawaiian	English	Note
Hele au i ke kula.	I go to school.	i marks the destination.
ʻAi ke keiki i ka maiʻa.	The child eats the banana.	Verb first; subject second.
Inu ʻo ia i ka wai.	He/She drinks the water.	ʻo ia is the subject.
Noho au ma Honolulu.	I live in Honolulu.	ma marks a location.
Kū ʻo Malia ma ka puka.	Malia stands at the door.	A personal name as subject follows ʻo.
Hana mākou ma ka hale.	We work at home.	mākou means “we” excluding the listener.
ʻIke au i ka hōkū.	I see the star.	A thing-object follows i.
ʻIke ʻoe iā ia?	Do you see him/her?	Intonation and the question mark signal a yes/no question.
Lohe au i ka mele.	I hear the song.	i ka mele is the object.
Makemake au i ke kope.	I want/like the coffee.	makemake i takes a noun phrase.
Makemake au e hele.	I want to go.	e introduces the wanted action.
Makemake nā keiki e ʻai.	The children want to eat.	The subject follows makemake.
Hiki iaʻu ke hana.	I can work.	Learn hiki … ke as a frame.
Hiki iā ʻoe ke kū?	Can you stand?	The able person follows iā.
ʻAʻole hiki iaʻu ke hele.	I cannot go.	ʻaʻole makes the ability statement negative.

Common Mistakes

Copying English subject–verb order

• Wrong: Au hele i ke kula.
• Right: Hele au i ke kula.
• Why: The beginner action pattern places the verb before its subject. English “I go” becomes Hawaiian Hele au.

Changing a verb to match the subject

• Wrong idea: Looking for separate forms of hele equivalent to English “go” and “goes.”
• Right: Hele au; hele ʻoe; hele ʻo ia.
• Why: Hawaiian verbs do not take person endings. Change the subject, not the verb.

Dropping the object marker

• Wrong: Inu au ka wai.
• Right: Inu au i ka wai.
• Why: The object “the water” needs i. English does not use an equivalent word here, so this marker is easy to overlook.

Using i rather than e before a wanted action

• Wrong: Makemake au i hele.
• Right: Makemake au e hele.
• Why: Use makemake … i before a thing, but makemake … e before another verb.

Translating “can” one word at a time

• Wrong: Hiki au hana.
• Right: Hiki iaʻu ke hana.
• Why: Ability is expressed with hiki + iā-person + ke + verb. The Hawaiian person is not an ordinary subject in this construction.

Ignoring ʻokina and kahakō

• Wrong: Ai au. Ku oe.
• Right: ʻAi au. Kū ʻoe.
• Why: ʻ, ū, and ʻoe have meaningful spelling and pronunciation. Learn the marks with the word rather than adding them later.

Usage Notes

One verb may need several English translations

Translation depends on context. Noho may mean “sit,” “stay,” “reside,” or “live.” ʻIke covers direct sight but also knowledge, recognition, and understanding. Hana can be “do,” “make,” or “work.” Do not force one English gloss into every sentence; learn a core meaning and observe how the surrounding words narrow it.

Yes/no questions may keep statement order

A sentence such as ʻIke ʻoe iā ia? keeps the same verb-first order as a statement. Rising intonation in speech, or a question mark in writing, can make it a yes/no question. Hawaiian can also use question particles in fuller patterns, but beginners do not need to rearrange the words as English does with “do you…?”

Bare verbs and time

The short forms in this article are useful for learning vocabulary and sentence order, but natural Hawaiian frequently uses preverbal and postverbal particles to locate an event in time or show its state. For example, ua commonly presents an action as completed, while ke … nei presents it as happening now. These markers do not alter the verb itself.

Beyond the Basics / Advanced Use

You do not need to master the following points yet, but they explain forms you will soon encounter.

Hawaiian builds tense, aspect, and mood around an unchanged verb stem. Compare the same verb in several frames:

Hawaiian	Approximate English meaning	Main signal
Ua ʻai au.	I ate/I have eaten.	ua presents the event as completed.
Ke ʻai nei au.	I am eating now.	ke … nei presents current action.
E ʻai ana au.	I will be eating/I am going to eat.	e … ana presents projected or ongoing action.
E ʻai!	Eat!	e can introduce a command.

The English translations are only approximations. Hawaiian aspect markers describe how an event is viewed, and they do not line up perfectly with English tense labels.

Directional particles add a viewpoint to movement and many other actions. Mai points toward the speaker or reference point, while aku points away: E hele mai! means “Come here!” and E hele aku! means “Go away/onward!” With other directionals, kū aʻe can express standing up, and noho iho can express sitting down. These particles are small, but they create distinctions that English often puts inside the verb.

Finally, hiki does not always mean ability. In other patterns it can mean “arrive,” “reach,” or “be possible,” as in Ua hiki mai ʻo ia (“He/She arrived”). The directional mai and the surrounding construction prevent confusion with Hiki iā ia ke … (“He/She can …”). Likewise, advanced use of ʻike distinguishes seeing, knowing, and understanding through context rather than through separate verb forms.

Practice Tips

1. Build substitution chains. Keep the verb first and replace only the subject: Hele au → Hele ʻoe → Hele ʻo ia. Repeat with ʻai, inu, noho, and hana until verb-first order feels natural.
2. Learn frames, not isolated words. Make three cards for each structure: makemake i + thing, makemake e + action, and hiki iā + person + ke + action. Say a new example aloud each day.
3. Protect the spelling. Type or handwrite ʻai, ʻike, kū, and ʻoe several times. Then listen for the ʻokina and long vowel. Accurate spelling supports accurate listening and pronunciation.

Related Concepts

• Prerequisite: Basic Sentence Structure (VSO) — establishes the predicate-first order used in action sentences.
• Next step: Daily Activities — expands these patterns with verbs for routines such as waking, washing, reading, and resting.
• Next step: Come and Go (Hele mai/aku) — adds viewpoint and direction to movement verbs.