Māori Grammar

Māori has five vowel letters (a, e, i, o, u) and ten consonants (h, k, m, n, ng, p, r, t, w, wh). Spelling is generally regular, but vowel length is essential: a macron (tohutō) marks a long vowel, and changing the length can change the word, as in keke “armpit” and kēkē “cake.” Treat ng and wh as single consonants, not as sequences of separate sounds.

Māori normally places the predicate—what is said about someone or something—before the subject, the person or thing being discussed. A basic action clause often follows tense/aspect marker + verb + subject + object: Kei te kai te tamaiti i te āporo (“The child is eating the apple”). Not every Māori sentence contains an action verb, however: he, ko, and location patterns have their own predicate-first structures.

Māori normally uses te before one definite person or thing and ngā before more than one: te whare “the house,” but ngā whare “the houses.” The noun usually stays unchanged, so the article is an important signal of number. He and tētahi are indefinite, while ko has a different job: it marks a focused or identifying phrase, especially one containing a name or pronoun.

Māori personal pronouns show not only person—I, you, or someone else—but also whether the group contains one, two, or three or more people. For “we,” you must also choose an inclusive form, which includes the person being addressed, or an exclusive form, which leaves that person out: tāua “you and I” but māua “we two, not you.”

Put kei te before a verb or verbal phrase to describe something happening now: Kei te mahi au means “I am working.” The basic order is kei te + action + subject, so Māori normally begins with the action phrase rather than the person doing it. The verb itself does not change for “I,” “you,” or “they.”

The basic Māori numbers are tahi, rua, toru, whā, rima, ono, whitu, waru, iwa, tekau. To state a quantity of two to nine things, a common pattern is e + number + ngā + noun: E rua ngā kurī means “There are two dogs.” Larger numbers are built regularly: tekau mā tahi is eleven, and e rua tekau is twenty.

Māori usually keeps the normal sentence pattern in a question: there is no English-style switch such as “you are” becoming “are you.” Choose a question expression that fits the information you need: aha for a thing, wai for a person, hea for a place, āhea for a time, pēhea for manner or condition, and he aha te take for a reason. A yes-or-no question can often have the same words as a statement and be marked by intonation in speech or a question mark in writing.

Many Māori quality words do the work that English adjectives do, but they can also behave like stative verbs—words that describe a state rather than an action. A quality can be the predicate (what is said about something), as in He nui te whare “The house is big,” or it can follow a noun, as in te whare nui “the big house.” The word itself does not change for number or person.

Māori does not make every sentence negative with one equivalent of English not. The negative opening and the particle before the action change with time: kāore … i for past actions, kāore … e … ana for ongoing or habitual actions, e kore … e for future actions, and kaua e for negative commands.

Use tēnā koe for one person, tēnā kōrua for two, and tēnā koutou for three or more. Kia ora is a flexible everyday greeting and can also express thanks or acknowledgement. For parting, ka kite means “see you,” while āe and kāo mean “yes” and “no.”

Use ki for movement toward a destination, kei for someone's or something's present location, and i for past location, time, and the object of many verbs. Mō commonly means “for” or “about,” while nō commonly marks origin or a source of belonging. These words do not match English prepositions one for one, so learn each one as part of a complete Māori pattern.

Use ināianei for “now,” inanahi for “yesterday,” and āpōpō for “tomorrow.” Phrases such as tēnei wiki mean “this week,” while weekday names run from Rāhina “Monday” to Rātapu “Sunday.” A time phrase tells you when something happens, but a complete Māori clause normally also uses a particle such as kei te, i, or ka to frame the event in time.

Use he at the start of a noun-based sentence to say what kind of thing something is or to give an indefinite description: He kurī tēnā means “That is a dog.” Use kei + location + person or thing for present location: Kei te tēpu te pukapuka means “The book is on the table.” Ask “where?” with Kei hea …?

Whānau means family, often with a wider sense than the English word family. Core terms include māmā or whaea for mother, pāpā or matua for father, tamaiti for one child, tamariki for children, kuia for a grandmother or respected older woman, and koroua for a grandfather or respected older man. Māori also names sibling relationships precisely: tuakana is an older sibling of the same sex as the person whose relationship is being described.

Common Māori body-part words include māhunga or ūpoko “head”, kanohi “face; eye”, waha “mouth”, ringaringa “hand/arm”, waewae “foot/leg”, and puku “stomach”. Learn them in useful patterns: tōku māhunga “my head”, ō ringaringa “your hands”, and Kei te mamae tōku puku “My stomach hurts.” Māori normally shows number and possession with words before the noun rather than by adding an ending like English -s.

Use kai for “food” and “eat,” and inu for “drink” as an action. Everyday nouns include ika (fish), parāoa (bread), wai (water), and miraka (milk). A few flexible patterns let you say what someone is consuming, describe food, and offer it: Kei te kai ika au (“I am eating fish”), He reka te parāoa (“The bread is delicious”), and He wai māu? (“Some water for you?”).

Māori verbs keep the same basic form regardless of who acts: haere remains haere in “I go,” “she goes,” and “they go.” Time and the way an action unfolds are usually shown by particles placed around or before the verb: Kei te haere au “I am going,” I haere au “I went,” and Ka haere au “I will go.”

Use ki for movement toward a place: Kei te haere au ki te toa (“I am going to the shop”). For a present location, use kei: Kei te kura ia (“He or she is at school”). More exact positions use kei + location word + i, as in kei roto i te whare (“inside the house”) and kei runga i te tēpu (“on top of the table”).

Use kei te before an action to describe weather in progress: Kei te ua means “It is raining,” and Kei te pupuhi te hau means “The wind is blowing.” Use he to make a simple description, as in He nui te maunga (“The mountain is big”). Māori does not need a dummy word corresponding to English “it” in weather expressions.

Common Māori color words include whero (red), kōwhai (yellow), kākāriki (green), kikorangi (blue), mā (white), and mangu (black). A color normally follows the noun it describes—te pua whero means “the red flower”—and it can also be the main description in a sentence: He whero te pua, “The flower is red.”

To describe an activity happening now, put kei te before the action word: Kei te mahi au means “I am working.” Māori normally places the action phrase first and the person doing it afterward. The action word itself does not change for “I,” “she,” or “they.”

Use me to join people or things, engari to introduce a contrast, rānei after an alternative in a question, and kātahi ka to introduce the next event. These words overlap with English “and,” “but,” “or,” and “then,” but they do not always occupy the same position or connect the same kinds of material.

Māori animal nouns do not usually change form for singular and plural: kurī can mean “dog” or “dogs.” Words around the noun show the difference: te kurī is “the dog,” ngā kurī is “the dogs,” and he kurī is “a dog” or “some dogs.” You can then build useful sentences such as He nui te kurī (“The dog is big”) and Kei te oma te kurī (“The dog is running”).

Use Kei te hiahia + person + ki te + action for “want to”: Kei te hiahia au ki te kai (“I want to eat”). Put me before an action to express “should,” “must,” or “need to”: Me haere tātou (“We should/must go”). Hunger and thirst also have set expressions with mate, such as Kei te mate au i te hiakai (“I am hungry”).

A simple Māori introduction can be built from three patterns: Ko [name] tōku ingoa (“My name is [name]”), Nō [place] au (“I am from [place]”), and He [role] au (“I am a [role]”). These are complete sentences: Māori does not require a direct equivalent of English “am” in them. Longer introductions may locate a person through whakapapa (genealogical relationships) and connections to people and place, but those connections must be stated truthfully.

Māori nouns usually do not change for grammatical gender, and most have the same form whether they refer to one or more than one. Words placed before the noun show how it is being used: he tangata means “a person” or classifies someone as a person, te tangata means “the person,” and ngā tāngata means “the people.” A few very common human nouns have special plural forms, so learn tangata → tāngata, wahine → wāhine, and tamaiti → tamariki as pairs.

Māori ordinal numbers normally use tua- with a number: tuatahi (first), tuarua (second), tuatoru (third), and tuawhā (fourth). They usually follow the thing they number: te pukapuka tuarua means “the second book.” Use whakamutunga for “last,” and i mua i and i muri i for “before” and “after.”

Use e hia to ask “how many?” about things: E hia ngā pukapuka? “How many books?” When counting people, use tokohia: Tokohia ngā tāngata? “How many people?” Answers normally use e + number for things, but toko- + number for small numbers of people: E whā ngā rā “four days”; Tokorima ngā tamariki “five children.”

Use words such as kura (school), kaiako (teacher), ākonga (student), mahi (work) and kaiwhakahaere (manager) in a few reusable patterns. Kei te + verb describes an action in progress, ko identifies a particular person or role, he classifies someone, and ki te can introduce a destination: Kei te haere au ki te kura means “I am going to school.”

Ask one person Kei te pēhea koe? (“How are you?”). A useful answer follows Kei te + state + person: Kei te pai au (“I am well”), Kei te māuiui ia (“They are sick”), or Kei te ngenge au (“I am tired”). Māori normally needs no separate equivalent of English “am,” “is,” or “are” in this pattern.

Put i before an unchanged verb to describe a past event: I haere au means “I went.” The usual order is i + verb + subject + other details, not the English subject-first order. A second i may appear before an object: I kai rātou i te ika means “They ate the fish.”

Put kua before a verb or state to show that something has happened and that the resulting situation matters now: Kua tae mai ia means “He or she has arrived” — and is here now. It also marks a change into a new state: Kua makariri te rangi means “The weather has become cold.”

Māori possessives belong to either the A category or the O category. As a beginner rule, use A forms such as tāku and āku for relationships you initiate, produce, or can control, and O forms such as tōku and ōku for relationships you are born into, receive, depend on, inhabit, wear, or travel in. The category belongs to the relationship between possessor and possession, so English “my” can correspond to either tāku or tōku.

Use me to join people or things, engari to introduce a contrast, rānei after an alternative in a question, and nō reira to introduce a result: “therefore” or “so.” To order events, ka often moves a narrative to the next action, while i mua i and i muri i place something before or after a time or event. These words do not map one-for-one onto English, so learn the pattern around each connector as well as its translation.

Māori commonly distinguishes three spatial viewpoints: tēnei means “this, near me,” tēnā means “that, near you,” and tērā means “that, away from both of us.” The matching location words are konei “here,” konā “there by you,” and korā “over there.” With actions, mai points toward the speaker or another reference point, while atu points away from it.

The Māori pattern e + verb + ana presents an action or state as continuing, repeated, or generally current: E whakaaro ana au means “I am thinking,” while E haere ana au ki te kura can mean “I go to school regularly.” Put e before the action and ana after it; the subject normally follows: E + verb + ana + subject. Compared with kei te, e...ana is often less narrowly focused on what is happening at this exact moment.

Māori object nouns do not normally change form for singular and plural: te pukapuka means “the book,” while ngā pukapuka means “the books.” Learn each noun inside a useful phrase, then place that phrase in patterns such as He pukapuka tēnei (“This is a book”), Kei te tēpu te pukapuka (“The book is on the table”), and Kei hea tōku waea? (“Where is my phone?”).

Māori usually shows number through words around a noun rather than by adding a plural ending: te whare means “the house,” while ngā whare means “the houses.” Use nui for “many/much,” iti for “few/little,” katoa after a noun phrase for “all,” and ētahi for “some.” The noun itself usually stays unchanged.

Māori does not use one verb that matches every English use of can. Use ka taea e + person + te + verb for ability or possibility, e kore e taea for impossibility, ka pai kia + verb to ask or grant permission, and me + verb + subject for “should” or “must.” Keep these as separate sentence patterns rather than translating English modal verbs word for word.

Use tētahi before a singular noun when you mean “a certain,” “one,” or “some particular” person or thing; use ētahi before a plural noun for “some” people or things. Use he instead when you are simply classifying or introducing something generally: He tangata tēnei means “This is a person,” while tētahi tangata points to one particular, though not necessarily identified, person.

Use e + verb + ana with a time phrase to describe many regular or repeated actions: E haere ana au ki te kura i ia rā means “I go to school every day.” Māori also uses ka for general patterns and things that characteristically happen, especially in statements such as I ētahi wā ka ua (“Sometimes it rains”). The time phrase often makes the habitual meaning clear.

To say that you like something, Māori often describes it as good to you: He pai ki a au te waiata (“I like the song”). Another useful pattern is E rata ana au ki... (“I like...”), whose negative is Kāore au e rata ki... (“I do not like...”). If you are simply evaluating something rather than naming the person who likes it, use expressions such as He tino pai te kai (“The food is very good”) or He rawe! (“Awesome!”).

The particle ka comes before a verb or predicate and often presents an event as future, about to begin, or as the next event in a sequence: Ka haere au āpōpō means “I will go tomorrow.” It does not correspond to English will in every context: in a past story, repeated ka can mean “then … and then …,” while expressions such as Ka pai! are best learned as whole, context-sensitive phrases.

Māori commonly uses e + verb for a direct command: E tū! means “Stand up!” Add koa to make a polite request, use me for advice or obligation, kia for encouragement and desired actions or states, and kaua e for a negative command: Kaua e haere! “Don’t go!” The verb does not change for one person or several people; context shows who is being addressed.

Māori uses the passive voice frequently, often to place the person or thing affected by an action at the centre of the sentence: I patua te kurī e Hēmi means “The dog was hit by Hēmi.” The core pattern is tense/aspect particle + verb with a passive suffix + affected participant + e + agent. The suffix—such as -a, -hia, -tia, -ina, -na, or -ria—must usually be learned with each verb.

A Māori relative clause normally comes after the noun phrase it describes: te pukapuka i tuhia e ia means “the book that he or she wrote.” Māori does not need a direct equivalent of English who, which, or that. Instead, the shape of the clause—often including a passive verb or the particle ai—shows how the described noun fits into the action.

Māori commonly places atu or ake after a stative verb (a word that describes a state or quality) to express a higher degree: nui atu or nui ake, “bigger.” The item used as the standard of comparison follows i. Use rawa for an extreme degree, rite ki for equality, and pērā i for likeness.

Māori commonly introduces a dependent idea with nō te mea “because,” ahakoa “although,” kia “so that/when/until,” ki te “if/when,” or mehemea “if.” The subordinate clause often comes first, followed by a main clause with its own tense or aspect marker: Ki te haere koe, ka kite koe “If you go, you will see.”

The particle ai points back from a clause to something already mentioned, often a reason, time, place, means, or other missing circumstance: te take i haere ai au means “the reason I went.” It normally follows the verb or predicate phrase, while the tense marker stays before the verb. English usually expresses the same link with “why,” “when,” “where,” or a preposition such as “about”; Māori can use ai instead.

Māori often adds nuance with short particles placed close to the word or phrase they modify. Tino and āta usually come before the main word, while rawa, tonu, anō, and noa commonly follow it: he tino pai “very good,” haere tonu “keep going,” and mahi anō “do it again.” Position matters, and an English adverb does not always map to one Māori word in every context.

Māori transfer verbs often show direction as well as the act itself. Homai brings something toward the speaker (“give it here/to me”), hoatu moves it away (“give it to someone over there”), tuku covers sending, releasing, submitting, and allowing, while riro focuses on the outcome: someone gets something, or something passes out of another person's control.

Māori can make a complete statement of belonging with nā or nō plus a possessor: Nāku tēnei pukapuka means “This book is mine,” while Nōku tēnei whare means “This house is mine.” Choose nā for an A-category relationship and nō for an O-category relationship. Ask “Whose?” with Nā wai...? or Nō wai...?.

The productive prefix whaka- often adds the idea “make, cause to be, turn into, or treat as”: pai “good” becomes whakapai “improve; put right,” and tū “stand” becomes whakatū “set up; establish.” It also occurs in many established words whose meaning is more specific, such as whakanui “honour; celebrate.” Learn the pattern, but learn each common whaka- verb as a complete word too.

Māori forms the passive by adding a suffix to the verb, but the suffix is not predictable from the verb's modern shape: patu → patua, tuhi → tuhia, kite → kitea, and rongo → rongohia. Learn the active and passive forms together as a pair. The person carrying out the action, if stated, is introduced by e.

Māori can identify the agent (the person or thing that carries out an action) in several ways. Use e before the agent in a passive clause: I patua te kurī e Hēmi “The dog was hit by Hēmi.” Use nā + agent + i + verb to highlight who performed a completed action, and mā + agent + e + verb to assign or predict responsibility for a future action.

The productive prefix whaka- often adds the idea “make,” “cause to become,” “treat as,” or “act in the manner of” to a Māori base: pai “good” becomes whakapai “make good, improve,” and Māori becomes whakamāori “put into Māori, translate into Māori.” The resulting form behaves as a verb, but its meaning is not always predictable word for word, so learn each common whaka- word in context.

Māori can quote someone's exact words after mea or kī, or report the message without quoting it. Commands and requests are commonly reported with kī ki a [person] kia ..., while hei tā- means “according to ...”. Unlike English, Māori does not apply a fixed “backshift” of tense: the particles inside the reported message are chosen for the intended time and viewpoint.

Māori normally builds a conditional from a condition clause (the “if” part) followed by a result clause (what happens if the condition is met). Use ki te for practical or likely possibilities, mehemea or mēnā for open or imagined possibilities, and me i for an unreal past condition. The result commonly begins with ka for an expected outcome or kua for an outcome viewed as already completed.

Māori commonly places a short directional particle after a verb: mai points toward the speaker, atu away from the speaker, ake upward, and iho downward. A related three-way system—nei near the speaker, nā near the listener, and rā away from both—anchors people and things in the shared situation. English often folds these meanings into verbs such as “come,” “go,” “bring,” and “take”; Māori makes the direction explicit.

Māori can turn a verb or a word describing a quality into a noun (a word that names an action, thing, or idea), often with a suffix such as -anga, -tanga, or -manga: haere “go” becomes haerenga “journey; act of going.” The exact form is not always predictable from spelling alone, so learn common nominalizations as complete words and notice how they behave inside noun phrases such as te haerenga ki Rotorua.

Māori connectors such as heoi anō, otirā, arā, nā reira, i te mea, and ahakoa show how one idea relates to another. They let you mark a contrast, add or refine a point, clarify a meaning, draw a conclusion, give a reason, or acknowledge an obstacle. Learn each connector by its discourse job rather than by memorising one English equivalent.

Māori commonly places anō after a pronoun phrase to mean “self,” “selves,” or, with a dual or plural pronoun, “each other”: ko au anō (“I myself”), i a ia anō (“himself/herself”), and i a rāua anō (“themselves/each other”). The pronoun still has to match the number and, for “we,” whether the listener is included. Context tells you whether a non-singular form is reflexive or reciprocal.

Māori builds vocabulary by combining existing words, repeating a base or part of it, and adding productive elements such as whaka-, kai-, and nominalising endings. Compare wharepukapuka “library,” waka rererangi “airplane,” kanikani “dance repeatedly,” and whakaakoranga “teaching or education.” The meaning is often understandable from the parts, but spacing, vowel length, and the established dictionary form still matter.

Māori can place one message inside another clause without mechanically changing its tense. Use mēnā or mehemea for an embedded yes/no question, retain a question expression such as kei hea for an embedded information question, and use kia after verbs such as kī when reporting an instruction: I kī ia ki a au kia haere (“They told me to go”).

Māori can create a simile—an explicit comparison—using pērā i “like,” rite ki “the same as/like,” me he “as though it were,” or the more vivid anō ko “as if it were.” These expressions do not all have the same force: rite ki stresses resemblance or equality, while me he and anō ko often invite the listener to picture one thing as another.

Whaikōrero is formal Māori speechmaking shaped by tikanga (cultural protocol), especially on the marae. Its language often acknowledges the dead, the land, the living, and the purpose of the gathering through direct address, repetition, imagery, and established expressions. There is no single universal script: learners should recognise the patterns first and learn performance from the people whose marae and traditions are involved.

Complex Māori sentences grow by combining short, well-marked clauses rather than by copying English word order. Relative patterns, action phrases used like nouns, hei purpose phrases, and time frames such as i te wā ... ai show how one event relates to another; tense-aspect particles such as i, e ... ana, ka, and kua keep the sequence clear.

Whakataukī are compact Māori proverbs that carry knowledge, values, and guidance through metaphor, repetition, and carefully balanced language. Their grammar is often compressed: words that would be stated in ordinary conversation may be understood from the pattern or context. Advanced learners should learn a whakataukī together with its meaning, background, and appropriate setting rather than treating it as a decorative quotation.

Kupu tawhito (“old words”) include older vocabulary, inherited formulas, and elevated patterns heard in waiata (songs), karakia (ritual chants or prayers), whakapapa (genealogies), and formal oratory. Much of this language is still alive in traditional settings, so “archaic” does not necessarily mean obsolete. The main skill is to recognise the setting and interpret the whole line rather than replacing each word mechanically with an everyday English equivalent.

Māori waiata (songs) and karakia (ritual recitations, prayers, or incantations) often organise meaning through repetition, balanced lines, direct address, compressed syntax, and elevated or older vocabulary. Understanding them requires more than replacing each Māori word with an English one: attend to who is speaking, what is being addressed, how the lines are performed, and the tikanga (customary practice) surrounding the composition.

Māori place names are not merely labels: they may identify a landform, preserve an event or ancestor, and express relationships between people and place. Recognising elements such as wai “water,” awa “river,” roto “lake,” and maunga “mountain” helps you read a name, but a word-by-word gloss is only a starting point. The established name, its pronunciation, and the account held by the people connected with it matter more than a learner’s guess.

Reo tikanga is language shaped by cultural protocol: who may speak, to whom, at what stage of an event, and with what relationship to the people and place. Its recognisable features include direct address with e, formulaic welcomes and farewells, meaningful repetition, and an ordered acknowledgement of the dead, the living, and the purpose of gathering. Correct words alone are not enough: local tikanga and guidance from the hosts determine what is appropriate.

Academic and technical Māori is not simply English terminology placed inside a Māori sentence. It combines established specialist vocabulary with ordinary Māori grammar: particles still mark relationships, definitions often use ko ... te ..., and processes are commonly expressed with verb-based phrases. The key skill is to learn each term together with the sentence pattern used by its field.

Māori can build related words by adding kai- for a person associated with an activity, whaka- for causation or bringing about a state, and nominalising endings such as -anga, -tanga, and -ranga to create nouns. These patterns are productive, but they are not mechanical: established usage determines which ending a particular base takes, and the meaning of the whole word may become more specialised than the meanings of its parts.

Reo ā-rohe is regional Māori associated with particular iwi (tribes), hapū (subtribes), and communities. Differences may involve pronunciation, preferred words, spelling, idiom, and occasionally grammatical patterns, but they do not form a simple list of interchangeable “dialect words.” At C2, the goal is to recognise variation, locate it socially and geographically when the evidence allows, and follow the usage of the community whose reo you are using.

Legal and administrative Māori (reo ture) is a highly formal register used in legislation, courts, policy, public administration, and Treaty-related work. Its difficulty lies not in one special grammar rule but in the precise combination of defined terms, nominalized actions, passive clauses, attribution formulas, and institutional conventions. In legal settings, a familiar Māori word may carry a meaning fixed by a particular document, statute, or judgment, so context and the authoritative text always matter.

Contemporary Māori combines a strong inherited grammatical system with new vocabulary, informal conversational habits, and—among bilingual speakers—selective use of English. Fluent usage is not simply “formal Māori plus slang”: it involves choosing among a Māori term, an established borrowing, and an English switch according to audience, setting, identity, and purpose.

Māori genealogical language presents relationships as an ordered network: ko identifies people, nō locates origins, and repeated clauses such as ka puta ko ... move a line of descent or a narrative forward. These patterns are not merely lists of names; in whakapapa and kōrero tuku iho, they connect people with ancestors, communities, places, and inherited knowledge.

Reo pāpāho is the Māori used in news, radio, television, public information, and digital media. It combines clear sentence structure and careful delivery with compact headlines, explicit attribution, time markers, and modern terms such as pāpāho pāpori “social media.” It is formal enough for public communication, but usually aims to sound direct and accessible rather than ceremonial or bureaucratic.