Family Terms in Hawaiian

In Brief

Use ʻohana for “family,” makuahine for “mother,” makuakāne for “father,” keiki for “child or children,” and tūtū for “grandparent.” Family words often appear with possessives: koʻu makuahine means “my mother,” while aʻu keiki in He ʻelua aʻu keiki means “I have two children.” Hawaiian sibling terms can also show relative age and, in traditional precise usage, the genders of the siblings.

Overview

Family vocabulary is useful from the beginning of Hawaiian study. It lets you introduce people, ask about someone’s family, and understand everyday descriptions. It also opens a window onto a kinship system that does not divide relationships in exactly the same way as English. An English word such as “sibling” is deliberately broad; a Hawaiian term may tell you whether that person is older or younger and may also depend on the genders of the people involved.

At A1, your first goal is to recognize a practical set of nouns (naming words): ʻohana, makuahine, makuakāne, keiki, kaikamahine, keikikāne, and tūtū. Learn each word as part of a phrase rather than as an isolated dictionary entry. For example, learn koʻu makuakāne as a unit, not only makuakāne.

Family terms also introduce two wider features of Hawaiian. First, a noun normally keeps the same form whether it refers to one person or several: keiki can mean “child” or “children.” Second, possession is divided into a-class and o-class relationships. The beginner patterns below are enough for everyday use; the fuller distinction is separated into the advanced section.

How It Works

Essential words

Hawaiian	Main English meaning	What to notice
ʻohana	family	Can include a wider family network, not only a household.
makuahine	mother	Keep the vowels distinct: ma-ku-a-hi-ne.
makuakāne	father	The kahakō in kāne marks a long vowel.
mākua	parent, parents; parental generation	Context determines whether it is singular or plural.
keiki	child, children	The word itself does not add a plural ending.
kaikamahine	girl; daughter	The family context often supplies the meaning “daughter.”
keikikāne	boy; son	The family context often supplies the meaning “son.”
tūtū	grandparent; respected older relative	Gender can be added when it matters.
tūtū wahine	grandmother	Literally distinguishes a female grandparent.
tūtū kāne	grandfather	Literally distinguishes a male grandparent.
kaikuaʻana	older same-gender sibling	Often glossed more broadly as “older sibling” in beginner material.
kaikaina	younger same-gender sibling	Age is relative to the person whose relationship is described.
kaikuahine	a male’s sister	Traditionally used from a brother’s point of view.
kaikunāne	a female’s brother	Traditionally used from a sister’s point of view.

The marks in Hawaiian spelling belong to the words. The ʻokina (ʻ) represents a glottal stop, the brief catch heard between the two parts of English “uh-oh.” The kahakō is the line over a vowel, as in ā or ū, and shows vowel length. Write ʻohana, kaikuaʻana, makuakāne, and tūtū with their marks.

Saying “my family member”

For parents, grandparents, older relatives, and siblings, the common beginner forms use the o-class series. “Class” here simply means the set of possessive words chosen for a particular relationship.

Person	Form	Example	Meaning
my	koʻu	koʻu makuahine	my mother
your (one person)	kou	kou kaikuaʻana	your older sibling
his or her	kona	kona tūtū kāne	his or her grandfather
our	ko kākou / ko mākou	ko kākou ʻohana	our family, including the listener

Hawaiian kona does not reveal whether the possessor is male or female. Therefore kona makuahine can mean either “his mother” or “her mother.” English forces a choice between his and her; Hawaiian does not in this form.

The phrase ʻO ia koʻu makuahine follows an identifying pattern:

ʻO ia + koʻu makuahine she/he + my mother “She is my mother.”

The pronoun ʻo ia can mean either “he” or “she.” Context, not grammatical gender, identifies the person.

Talking about children you have

Hawaiian does not need a direct equivalent of English have in these basic family statements. A common pattern begins with he, followed by the number or noun phrase, and then a possessive form:

Pattern	Hawaiian	Natural English
He + family noun + kaʻu/kāu/kāna	He keiki kaʻu.	I have a child.
He + number + aʻu/āu/āna + noun	He ʻelua aʻu keiki.	I have two children.
He + number + āna + noun	He ʻekolu āna keiki.	He/She has three children.

In He ʻelua aʻu keiki, aʻu identifies the possessor as “me/mine.” Do not translate each piece in English order. Learn the complete sentence pattern as “I have two children.”

Singular and plural

Family nouns do not take an ending comparable to English -s. Other words make the number clear:

Hawaiian	English
ke keiki	the child
nā keiki	the children
he keiki	a child
he mau keiki	some children
ʻelua keiki	two children

After a number, the unchanged noun is enough: ʻelua keiki, not a specially plural form. In the source pattern He ʻelua aʻu keiki, the number already makes plurality explicit.

Asking who someone is

Use ʻO wai ...? when asking “Who ...?” The word wai means “who,” and ʻO introduces the identity being asked about.

• ʻO wai kou kaikuaʻana? — Who is your older sibling?
• ʻO wai kona makuahine? — Who is his/her mother?
• ʻO wai kēlā? — Who is that?

To answer, identify the person with an ʻO pattern: ʻO Malia koʻu kaikuaʻana — “Malia is my older sibling.”

Examples in Context

Hawaiian	English	Note
ʻO ia koʻu makuahine.	She is my mother.	ʻo ia can also mean “he”; context decides.
ʻO Kimo koʻu makuakāne.	Kimo is my father.	Identifies a named person.
He ʻelua aʻu keiki.	I have two children.	A number plus an a-class possessive pattern.
ʻO wai kou kaikuaʻana?	Who is your older sibling?	kou means “your” here.
Aloha koʻu tūtū wahine.	My grandmother is beloved.	tūtū wahine specifies grandmother.
ʻO Leilani kona kaikamahine.	Leilani is his/her daughter.	kona can mean “his” or “her.”
He keikikāne kāna.	He/She has a son.	Literally uses a possessive construction rather than “have.”
Aia koʻu mau mākua ma Hilo.	My parents are in Hilo.	mau helps mark plurality.
ʻO Pua koʻu kaikuahine.	Pua is my sister.	Traditionally said by a male speaker.
ʻO Noa koʻu kaikunāne.	Noa is my brother.	Traditionally said by a female speaker.
Nui ko kākou ʻohana.	Our family is large.	kākou includes the person addressed.
Aloha au i koʻu ʻohana.	I love my family.	i marks what is loved.

Common Mistakes

Dropping the ʻokina or kahakō

• Wrong: ohana, tutu, makuakane
• Right: ʻohana, tūtū, makuakāne
• Why: These are letters and pronunciation marks, not optional decoration. Leaving them out hides correct pronunciation and can create ambiguity.

Adding an English plural ending

• Wrong: nā keikis
• Right: nā keiki
• Why: Hawaiian nouns do not take English -s. The article nā, a number, or another quantity expression signals plural meaning.

Treating ʻo ia as only “he”

• Wrong idea: ʻO ia koʻu makuahine cannot mean “She is my mother.”
• Right: ʻO ia koʻu makuahine.
• Why: ʻo ia is gender-neutral and can refer to “he,” “she,” or a singular “they” according to context.

Using one sibling word as an exact match for English “brother” or “sister”

• Imprecise: Using kaikuaʻana for every brother or sister.
• Better: Choose kaikuaʻana for an older same-gender sibling, kaikaina for a younger same-gender sibling, kaikuahine for a male’s sister, or kaikunāne for a female’s brother when traditional precision matters.
• Why: Hawaiian kin terms can encode age and the relationship between the genders of the two siblings. A short English translation often leaves that information out.

Using koʻu for every “my” phrase

• Wrong: Assuming English my always equals koʻu.
• Right: koʻu makuahine, but kaʻu keiki in the usual relationship pattern.
• Why: Hawaiian divides possession into o-class and a-class. Close family relations do not all belong to one class; the direction between generations matters.

Usage Notes

ʻOhana is broader in use than a narrow English idea of “the parents and children in one home.” Depending on context, it can include extended and socially recognized family relationships. Still, avoid treating it as a vague label for any friendly group without attention to the relationship and community using the word.

Tūtū is an affectionate and respectful family term. When gender is relevant, tūtū wahine and tūtū kāne make it explicit. Actual families may use their own preferred terms, shortened forms, or names, just as English-speaking families differ between grandmother, grandma, gran, and personal nicknames.

The traditional sibling distinctions are valuable for understanding precise Hawaiian. Contemporary speakers and families may vary in how broadly they use a term. When speaking about a real person, follow the usage of that family or community rather than correcting someone’s own family language from a vocabulary chart.

Beyond the Basics / Advanced Use

You do not need to master the full possession system at A1, but family vocabulary makes its logic especially visible. In broad terms, o-class possession commonly covers relationships not initiated or controlled by the possessor: parents, grandparents, older generations, and siblings are normally expressed with forms such as koʻu. A-class possession commonly covers a relationship directed toward one’s children and younger descendants: kaʻu keiki “my child.” This is not simply a difference between “people” and “things.”

The same contrast appears in longer forms:

Relationship	Typical phrase	English
upward toward a parent	koʻu makuahine	my mother
sideways toward a sibling	koʻu kaikuaʻana	my older sibling
downward toward a child	kaʻu keiki	my child

Kinship can also be expressed through hānai relationships. Hānai literally relates to feeding or raising and is used in family contexts for a child raised by people other than the birth parents, or for the corresponding family relationship. It should not be flattened automatically into one English legal category: “adopted,” “foster,” and “raised by relatives” may overlap with a particular situation but do not define every hānai relationship. When the distinction matters, listen to how the people involved describe it.

Finally, English translations can conceal viewpoint. A Hawaiian sibling term may require you to know who is speaking, that person’s gender, the sibling’s gender, and who is older. When reading a story, these terms can therefore reveal relationships that the English translation states only as “brother,” “sister,” or “sibling.”

Practice Tips

1. Build a small family map. Label five real or fictional people with phrases such as koʻu makuahine, koʻu makuakāne, kaʻu keiki, and koʻu tūtū wahine. Say each phrase aloud with the ʻokina and long vowels.
2. Practice three sentence frames. Substitute new names and family terms in ʻO ___ koʻu ___, ʻO wai kou ___?, and He ___ aʻu keiki. Keeping the frame stable reduces the temptation to copy English word order.
3. Test relationships, not isolated translations. For sibling words, draw two people and mark their age and gender before choosing the Hawaiian term. For keiki, add ke, nā, or a number so that singular or plural meaning is clear.

Related Concepts

• Useful foundation: Articles and Markers — helps with ke keiki, nā keiki, and identifying patterns with ʻO.
• Useful foundation: Personal Pronouns — explains au, ʻoe, and gender-neutral ʻo ia.
• Next step: Basic Possessive Sentences — develops patterns such as He keiki kaʻu.
• Next step: Possessive Classes (A-class and O-class) — gives the full system behind koʻu makuahine and kaʻu keiki.
• Next step: Plurals and Quantity — explains nā, mau, and number phrases with family nouns.