Basic Questions in Māori

In Brief

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.

Overview

Kupu pātai are question words or question expressions. They let you ask who, what, where, when, how, and why. These are essential at A1: with a few reliable patterns, you can ask someone’s name, find a place, check how someone is, and request basic information.

The biggest difference from English is that Māori does not use an extra verb like English do in “Where do you live?” Nor does it normally invert the subject and verb to make a question. Instead, the question word fits into an appropriate Māori sentence pattern. Learning whole frames such as Kei hea ...? is therefore more useful than translating one English word at a time.

Macrons matter. āhea “when” and pēhea “how” contain long vowels, shown by a macron. Write them consistently: vowel length can distinguish words in te reo Māori and is part of correct spelling.

How It Works

The core question expressions

Expression	Basic meaning	Common frame	Typical use
aha	what	He aha ...?	identity, type, or explanation
wai	who	Ko wai ...?	a person or a person’s name
hea	where / which place	Kei hea ...?	present location
āhea	when	Āhea ...?	time or occasion
pēhea	how	Pēhea ...?	condition, manner, or opinion
he aha te take	what is the reason / why	He aha te take ...?	a reason or cause

These are not always direct one-word replacements for their English equivalents. The small words before them—such as he, ko, and kei—help establish the type of sentence. A particle (a short grammatical word that signals how the phrase functions) often appears at the start.

Asking what: aha and he aha

For identifying or classifying a thing, begin with He aha ...?:

• He aha tēnei? — What is this?
• He aha tērā? — What is that?
• He aha tō mahi? — What is your work? / What do you do?

Here he introduces a category or description. It is best to memorize He aha ...? as a complete frame rather than treating he as if it were the English verb “is.” Māori does not divide these sentences into words in exactly the same way as English.

Aha can also occur in more developed sentence patterns, but He aha ...? is the safest beginner pattern for asking what something is.

Asking who: ko wai

Use Ko wai ...? when the answer is a person or a person’s name:

• Ko wai ia? — Who is he/she?
• Ko wai tō ingoa? — What is your name?
• Ko wai tō kaiako? — Who is your teacher?

Ko marks an identified or focused person or name. Notice that English asks “what is your name?”, while Māori uses wai, the question word associated with people. This is a good example of why literal word-for-word translation is unreliable.

Asking where: kei hea

For someone’s or something’s current location, use:

Kei hea + person or thing?

• Kei hea te wharepaku? — Where is the bathroom?
• Kei hea a Rangi? — Where is Rangi?
• Kei hea aku kī? — Where are my keys?

Kei introduces a present state or location, while hea supplies the unknown place. English “is” and “are” do not need separate Māori words here. The same frame works for singular and plural things.

When asking about movement or destination, a fuller verbal pattern may be required. At first, use Kei hea ...? for location and learn movement questions as complete expressions when you meet them.

Asking when: āhea

Use āhea to ask about time:

• Āhea te hui? — When is the meeting?
• Āhea te kai? — When is the meal?

Questions about when an action happens can use patterns that include tense or aspect markers (small words showing how an event relates to time), and more advanced sentences may end in ai:

• Āhea koe haere ai? — When will you go? / When do you go?

For A1, the short pattern Āhea + event? is enough for scheduled events. Treat the ... ai construction as a later pattern rather than trying to build it from English word order.

Asking how: pēhea

Use pēhea for someone’s condition, the state of something, or the way something is done:

• Pēhea koe? — How are you?
• Pēhea te kai? — How is the food?
• Pēhea tō rā? — How is your day? / How was your day?

The exact English tense can depend on the situation. Māori does not force every short question to make the same tense distinctions that English does.

A common answer to Pēhea koe? is Kei te pai ahau or Kei te pai au (“I am well”). Au and ahau both mean “I/me,” with their distribution depending on the sentence pattern and style.

Asking why: he aha te take

A clear, transparent way to request a reason is He aha te take ...?, literally “What is the reason ...?”

• He aha te take? — Why? / What is the reason?
• He aha te take i kati ai te toa? — Why did the shop close?

The longer pattern He aha te take i ... ai? links the question to an event. It is useful, but it combines several pieces of grammar and need not be mastered at the first lesson. Beginners can ask He aha te take? after the situation is already clear.

Yes-or-no questions

Māori can turn a statement into a yes-or-no question without English-style inversion:

• Kei te pai koe. — You are well.
• Kei te pai koe? — Are you well?

The spoken question has questioning intonation; writing uses a question mark. The words stay in the same order. Other sentence types behave similarly:

• Ko Hana koe? — Are you Hana?
• He kaiako ia? — Is he/she a teacher?

Do not insert an equivalent of English do, does, or did. Use the Māori sentence frame required by the statement, then make it a question through context and intonation.

Examples in Context

Māori	English	Note
He aha tēnei?	What is this?	Identifies a nearby thing
He aha tērā?	What is that?	Identifies something farther away
He aha tō mahi?	What do you do?	Literally asks about your work
Ko wai ia?	Who is he/she?	The context supplies gender
Ko wai tō ingoa?	What is your name?	Māori uses wai because a name identifies a person
Ko wai tō kaiako?	Who is your teacher?	The expected answer is a person
Kei hea te wharepaku?	Where is the bathroom?	Present-location frame
Kei hea a Mere?	Where is Mere?	a marks the personal name here
Kei hea aku kī?	Where are my keys?	No separate plural form of “is/are”
Āhea te hui?	When is the meeting?	Short scheduled-event pattern
Āhea koe haere ai?	When will you go?	More developed action-question pattern
Pēhea koe?	How are you?	Everyday greeting or genuine enquiry
Pēhea tō rā?	How is your day?	Asks about someone’s experience
He aha te take?	Why? / What is the reason?	Useful when the event is already known
Kei te hiakai koe?	Are you hungry?	Yes-or-no question; normal word order remains

Common Mistakes

Translating English do or inverting the sentence

• Wrong: trying to add a word for do in “Where do you live?” or moving words merely because English says “Are you ...?”
• Right: Kei te pai koe? — Are you well?
• Why: Māori questions normally retain the appropriate Māori sentence structure. Intonation or a question expression marks the question; English question-building rules do not transfer.

Dropping the particle from a learned frame

• Wrong: Aha tēnei?
• Right: He aha tēnei?
• Why: For the basic identity question, he aha is the complete opening. Likewise, learn ko wai for a person and kei hea for a current location.

Using aha for a person’s identity

• Wrong: He aha tō ingoa?
• Right: Ko wai tō ingoa?
• Why: The established Māori pattern treats a name as identifying a person, so it uses wai, not the English-inspired choice “what.”

Using ko wai for a place

• Wrong: Ko wai te wharepaku?
• Right: Kei hea te wharepaku?
• Why: Wai asks for a person. A present location uses kei hea.

Omitting macrons

• Wrong: Ahea te hui? Pehea koe?
• Right: Āhea te hui? Pēhea koe?
• Why: The standard spellings are āhea and pēhea. Macrons mark long vowels and should not be treated as optional decoration.

Forcing every short question into one pattern

• Wrong: using he aha before every question word
• Right: He aha tēnei?, Ko wai ia?, Kei hea te toa?
• Why: The opening changes with the kind of answer expected and the underlying sentence type. Learn several reusable frames, not one universal formula.

Usage Notes

Pēhea koe? can work as a greeting, but it can also be a real enquiry about someone’s wellbeing. As in English, the situation and tone affect how detailed an answer is. Kei te pai (“fine/good”) is a useful short response.

In natural conversation, speakers may rely on shared context and ask a shorter question such as He aha te take? rather than repeat the entire event. This is not incomplete when both speakers know what is being discussed.

Te reo Māori has regional and speaker variation, and there can be more than one natural way to ask for the same information. The patterns in this article are broad, practical starting points. Listen to fluent speakers and follow the forms used by the community in which you are learning.

Beyond the Basics / Advanced Use

You do not need to master the following details at A1, but you will encounter them later.

Question words can interact with focus, tense, aspect, and relative-style constructions. In questions about an action, ai may appear later in the clause, as in Āhea koe haere ai? The pattern is not simply “put āhea in front of an English-shaped sentence”; it belongs to Māori clause structure and is best learned through complete examples.

Reason questions may similarly use He aha te take i ... ai?:

• He aha te take i haere ai ia? — Why did he/she go?
• He aha te take i kati ai te toa? — Why did the shop close?

Here the pieces i ... ai frame the event connected to the reason. Their interpretation depends on the wider construction, so beginners should first become confident with He aha te take? and then study the longer frame as a unit.

You may also meet other ways of asking “why,” including he aha ai?, depending on sentence type, style, and context. Do not assume that every English why has one fixed Māori translation. A reliable advanced habit is to start from the Māori statement you want information about, identify the missing element—person, thing, place, time, manner, or reason—and then choose the question construction that fits that statement.

Finally, English translations can hide distinctions. Pēhea may correspond to “how,” “what ... like,” or a natural English question about someone’s opinion. Translation tells you the likely meaning, but the Māori frame tells you how the sentence actually works.

Practice Tips

1. Build six prompt cards. Put He aha ...?, Ko wai ...?, Kei hea ...?, Āhea ...?, Pēhea ...?, and He aha te take ...? on separate cards. On the back, note the answer type: thing, person, place, time, manner/condition, or reason.
2. Turn statements into yes-or-no questions. Say Kei te pai koe, then repeat it with questioning intonation: Kei te pai koe? This trains you not to apply English inversion.
3. Ask questions about your real surroundings. Point to objects and ask He aha tēnei?; hide an item and ask Kei hea ...?; ask a study partner Pēhea koe? Real context makes each frame easier to remember.

Related Concepts

• Prerequisite: Basic Sentence Structure (VSO) — helps you recognize the sentence patterns that questions preserve.