Words in te reo with no English parallels

Monday, 15 February 2021

COLUMN: Base (or “content”) words in te reo are words which are said to have “real meaning’ – referring to things in the world such as people, objects, actions and even thoughts. Base words are either nouns (three types) or verbs (two types).

Particles are the structural words which make a sentence grammatically correct.

Here is a simple sentence of three phrases and seven words: E mōhio ana / koe / ki a ia? (“Know / you / her?” = “Do you know her?”).

The three base words may easily be distinguished, and their meanings understood. Mōhio (“to know”) is an action verb; koe (“you” – singular) is a personal pronoun (a sub-class of personal noun) and ia (“he”, “she”, “him” or “her”) is also a personal pronoun.

**READ MORE:

* Putting te reo particles in their rightful place

* Position particles put you in prime position to lift your te reo skills

* E whai ake nei, coming up, more on particles in te reo

* Taking words from English into te reo

**

The translation of some base words may vary according to context.

The word aroha, for instance, may be used as either a verb or a noun (just as “love” may be used in English) and although it may, in some contexts be translated as “pity” or “compassion”, there will always, as with any base word, at least be some possible translation.

With particles, however, this is by no means the case. There are no translations of any of the four particles in the example sentence. The words e and ana are verb particles, attached to the verb base mōhio (“to know”). The word ki is a preposition, which in this particular context has no parallel in the English translation.

The word a is called the “personal article”, and is used preceding personal names when they are the subject of a sentence, as in: E waiata ana / a Mere. (“Mary is singing.”) and before both personal names and pronouns after any of the four location prepositions kei, i, hei or ki.

There is no parallel to this word in English.

This is certainly not to claim that particles never have translations. The particles te and ngā, for instance, may often be appropriately translated by English “the”; and in some contexts the preposition ki will be translatable as “to” or “by”.

But the example sentence here – E mōhio ana / koe / ki a ia. – may serve to illustrate why understanding the use of the particles often presents difficulties for learners. It isn’t a “meaning”, but rather a grammatical function, which needs to be learnt.

This “words without parallel” principle, it might be mentioned, is also operative in the opposite direction: there is no word in te reo parallel to the “Do” in “Do you know her?”