Family Terms in Māori

In Brief

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.

Overview

Family words are among the first Māori words you need at A1. They let you introduce people, ask about someone else's family, and understand everyday conversations about home and community. They also open a window onto whakapapa—genealogy and the relationships that connect people to one another, their ancestors, and their communities.

Māori and English do not divide family relationships in exactly the same way. English normally uses brother and sister, with older or younger added when needed. Māori sibling terms can build age, sex, and point of view into the word itself. Likewise, kuia and koroua are not limited to biological grandparents: in the right context they can refer respectfully to older people.

The beginner task is simple: learn the main nouns (words for people or things) and use them in patterns such as Ko Mere tōku māmā (“Mere is my mother”). A fuller understanding also requires Māori possessives—the forms corresponding roughly to English my, your, and his/her. This article introduces only what you need to use family vocabulary safely, then separates the more advanced details.

How It Works

The core family words

Māori	Basic English meaning	Important detail
whānau	family; extended family	Can include a broad network of close relations; also used for a family group
māmā	mother; mum	An everyday form ultimately borrowed from English
whaea	mother; aunt; respected adult woman	Meaning depends on family and social context; also used in respectful address
pāpā	father; dad	An everyday form ultimately borrowed from English
matua	parent; father; uncle; respected adult man	Context determines the exact relationship; also appears in respectful address
tamaiti	child	Singular: one child
tamariki	children	Common plural form; do not form it by simply adding an ending to tamaiti
tama	son; boy	Context may give the more precise meaning “son”
tamāhine	daughter; girl	Context may give the more precise meaning “daughter”
kuia	grandmother; elderly or respected older woman	Not always a literal grandmother
koroua	grandfather; elderly or respected older man	Not always a literal grandfather

Macrons matter. A macron is the line over a long vowel, as in ā. It can distinguish words and helps you pronounce them correctly, so write māmā, pāpā, and tamāhine, not mama, papa, and tamahine when macrons are available.

Sibling terms depend on viewpoint

The English question “Is that your brother or sister?” is not enough to choose every Māori sibling word. First ask whose relationship you are describing, then consider the siblings' sexes and relative ages.

Māori	Relationship
tuakana	older sibling of the same sex; also an older same-sex cousin in some kinship usage
teina	younger sibling of the same sex; also a younger same-sex cousin in some kinship usage
tungāne	a female person's brother
tuahine	a male person's sister

For example, a woman may call her older sister tuakana and her younger sister teina. A man uses those same age-based terms for his brothers. A woman refers to her brother as tungāne, while a man refers to his sister as tuahine. The word therefore describes a relationship from someone's point of view, not just the person in isolation.

At A1, master tuakana first because it belongs to this concept's core vocabulary. Learn the other three as a set when you are ready; seeing the contrast prevents the common mistake of treating tuakana as a general word for any older sibling.

Identifying a family member with ko

A common identifying pattern is:

Ko + name/person + possessive + family term.

• Ko Mere tōku māmā. — Mere is my mother.
• Ko ia tōku koroua. — He is my grandfather. / That person is my grandfather.

Here ko marks the person being identified. It does not translate neatly as English is. Māori does not need to insert a separate present-tense verb meaning be in this pattern.

To ask who someone is, use Ko wai ...?:

• Ko wai tō tuakana? — Who is your older same-sex sibling?
• Ko wai tōna whaea? — Who is his or her mother?

Saying “my,” “your,” and “his/her”

Possessives show a relationship between a possessor and someone or something possessed. English mostly changes the person—my, your, his, her. Māori also distinguishes A-category and O-category relationships.

For one family member, these common singular forms are useful:

Possessor	O-category	A-category	Approximate English
first person	tōku	tāku	my
second person	tō	tāu	your (one person's)
third person	tōna	tāna	his/her/their (one person's)

A practical beginner guide is:

• Use O-category forms for relationships above you or not under your authority, especially parents, grandparents, and older siblings: tōku māmā, tō koroua, tōna tuakana.
• Use A-category forms for children and descendants: tāku tamaiti, tāna tamāhine.

The distinction reflects how Māori conceptualizes the relationship, not whether you love someone more or whether the person literally belongs to you. It also cannot always be predicted from an English translation.

When the family noun is plural, forms such as āku and ōku occur. With children, the A-category is expected:

• E rua āku tamariki. — I have two children. Literally, the construction presents “two of my children.”

Notice that English uses have, but Māori need not copy the English “I have” structure. The number expression E rua ... is the natural starting point here.

Singular and plural family nouns

Māori does not normally make every noun plural by changing its ending. Number is often shown by a word before the noun, such as te for one definite person and ngā for definite plural people. However, tamaiti/tamariki is an important lexical singular–plural pair—a pair you learn as separate forms.

• te tamaiti — the child
• ngā tamariki — the children
• tāku tamaiti — my child
• āku tamariki — my children

Do not assume that every family noun changes internally like this. You can say te kuia for one older woman and ngā kuia for more than one.

Examples in Context

Māori	English	Note
Ko Mere tōku māmā.	Mere is my mother.	Identification with ko; O-category possessive
Ko Hemi tōku pāpā.	Hemi is my father.	Everyday word pāpā
Ko wai tō tuakana?	Who is your older same-sex sibling?	The sex and viewpoint are built into tuakana
Ko ia tōku koroua.	He is my grandfather.	Ia does not itself distinguish “he” from “she”
Ko Ani tōku kuia.	Ani is my grandmother.	In another context, kuia may mean an older woman
E rua āku tamariki.	I have two children.	A-category plural possessive with children
Ko Rangi tāku tamaiti.	Rangi is my child.	A-category because the relationship is to one's child
Ko Maia tāna tamāhine.	Maia is his or her daughter.	Tāna can mean “his” or “her”
Ko Tane tāu tama.	Tane is your son.	A-category relationship to a child
Ko wai tōna whaea?	Who is his or her mother?	Tōna does not mark the possessor's gender
He nui tōku whānau.	My family is large.	Whānau refers to the family group
Ko Hana tōna tuakana.	Hana is his or her older same-sex sibling.	The intended possessor must be known from context
Ko Pita tōku tungāne.	Pita is my brother.	Appropriate when the speaker or person whose relationship is meant is female
Ko Rui tōku tuahine.	Rui is my sister.	Appropriate when the speaker or person whose relationship is meant is male

English translations sometimes have to choose information that Māori leaves to context. Ia may be translated as he or she, and tōna/tāna as his or her. Conversely, the Māori sibling term may express a relationship that the short English translation fails to show fully.

Common Mistakes

Treating tuakana as “older sibling” in every situation

• Wrong: Ko Mere tōku tuakana when a man means “Mere is my older sister.”
• Right: Ko Mere tōku tuahine.
• Why: Tuakana is for an older sibling of the same sex. A male person's sister is tuahine, regardless of whether she is older or younger.

Using an O-category possessive for your child

• Wrong: Ko Rangi tōku tamaiti.
• Right: Ko Rangi tāku tamaiti.
• Why: Children and descendants are normally A-category relationships, so use tāku for one child and āku for children. O-category tōku is normal with a parent or grandparent.

Copying English “have” word for word

• Wrong: Building a sentence around an imagined direct equivalent of English I have in I have two children.
• Right: E rua āku tamariki.
• Why: Māori commonly begins this quantity pattern with e + number, followed by the possessive phrase.

Making the plural of tamaiti mechanically

• Wrong: āku tamaiti for “my children,” or an invented plural ending.
• Right: āku tamariki.
• Why: Learn tamaiti “child” and tamariki “children” as a pair.

Assuming kuia and koroua always mean biological grandparents

• Wrong: Translating every kuia as “my grandmother” without checking the context.
• Right: Choose “grandmother,” “older woman,” or “woman elder” according to the relationship and situation.
• Why: Both terms can function more broadly as respectful kin and age terms.

Dropping macrons

• Wrong: Ko Maia taku tamahine.
• Right: Ko Maia tāku tamāhine.
• Why: Long vowels belong to standard spelling and pronunciation. Omitting macrons can obscure the intended form.

Usage Notes

Māmā and pāpā are familiar everyday terms comparable to mum/mom and dad. Whaea and matua have broader uses. They may describe family relationships, and they also occur in respectful ways of addressing adults. A title such as Whaea Mere or Matua Hemi is therefore not automatically a claim that the person is the speaker's biological parent.

Kinship vocabulary varies with family, community, and context. English may force a narrow translation where Māori keeps a broader relationship visible. Before translating whaea, matua, kuia, or koroua, ask whether the sentence is about genealogy, respectful address, age, or a community role.

Names and people are commonly introduced with ko, but do not turn ko into a universal translation of is. It belongs to particular sentence types. For a beginner, it is safer to memorize useful whole frames—Ko wai ...?, Ko Mere ..., Ko ia ...—than to insert ko wherever English has a form of be.

Beyond the Basics / Advanced Use

You do not need to master all of this at A1, but later you will see that Māori kinship language is closely tied to whakapapa. A person's place in a network of relationships can matter more than a single English-style label. Terms may cover relatives whom English calls cousins, aunts, or uncles, and usage can reflect generation, relative age, sex, and the perspective from which the relationship is described.

The A/O possessive system also extends far beyond family words. The beginner shortcut—older generations tend toward O, descendants toward A—is useful, but it is not the whole grammar. A and O categories concern the nature of a relationship, including ideas such as control, origin, and association. They occur with homes, vehicles, actions, food, body parts, and many other nouns. Learn family expressions as complete chunks now, then study the wider system rather than trying to derive every choice from English ownership.

Possessives also mark number on both sides of the relationship: Māori distinguishes one, two, or three-or-more possessors, as well as one or more possessed people or things. The forms in this article focus on one possessor because that is enough for the core examples. Later forms let you say “our” while specifying whether we means two people or a larger group, and whether the listener is included.

Finally, whānau is productive in modern Māori and New Zealand English. Depending on context, it can refer to biological family, extended family, or a close supportive group. Avoid flattening every occurrence into a narrow nuclear-family meaning. The surrounding conversation tells you which circle of belonging is intended.

Practice Tips

1. Draw a small family map. Label one parent, one grandparent, one child, and two siblings in Māori. For each sibling label, state whose viewpoint you are using before choosing tuakana, teina, tungāne, or tuahine.
2. Learn nouns inside possessive chunks. Say tōku māmā, tōku koroua, tāku tamaiti, and āku tamariki aloud. This builds the A/O choice into the phrase instead of leaving it as an abstract rule.
3. Practice two sentence frames. Substitute names and family terms in Ko ___ tōku/tāku ___ and ask Ko wai tō ___? Check both the family word and the possessive before moving on.

Related Concepts

No prerequisite or downstream concepts are linked for this item in the current Māori grammar map. Useful next topics to study alongside it are A- and O-category possessives, personal pronouns, numbers and quantity expressions, and identifying sentences with ko.