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Ka Naiʻa Palapala Aʻo ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi - Haʻawina ʻElua
Naiʻa's writings for learning Hawaiian - lesson Two:
Sentences!
Okay, now we know letters, pronunciations, social phrases... we can get to the interesting part. Words, and words strung together into...sentences!
Vocabulary...
Nā ʻAʻano:
akamai - smart
kolohe - rascal
maikaʻi - good
nani - pretty, beautiful
nui - big
ʻono - delicious
Nā Kikino
ʻīlio – dog
inoa – name
hale – house, Building
kaʻa – car
kai – sea
kane – man
keiki – child
kumu – teacher
lā – day, sun
lani – sky
mea – thing
mele – song, poem
pilikia – trouble
pōpoki – cat
pua – flower
wahine – woman
he – a, an
ke, ka – the
kēia – this
kēnā – that (near)
kēlā – that (far)
Articles, k-words
"He" is somewhat equivalent to the english "a" or "an" (indefinite articles). You'll see it used in the examples below. This is one of a few patterns where it is used, more often "ke" and "ka" are used instead, even where in english we would say "a/an" or have nothing at all.
Ke and ka are both similar to the english "the" (they are definite articles). The difference between them is 'cosmetic', similar to the difference between a and an in english. Ke is used before words beginning with the letters a, e, o and k. (An easy way to remember those letters is the name "Kekoa" (which means "the warrior")) Ka is used everywhere else. Remember that the 'okina is considered a letter, so ka should be used before words beginning with the ʻokina.
Hawaiian nouns almost never go about without "ke", "ka" or other "k-words" in front of them. Keia, kena and kela are also k-words, and may replace "ke/ka" in front of nouns.
Kēnā & Kēlā
Kēnā and kēlā both translate as "that" in english. The difference between them is, kēnā is used when discussing something near the person being spoken to, and kēlā is used when discussing something that's not near either the listener or the speaker. (Japanese and some other languages draw the same distinction)
Nani kēia pua: Nā ʻaʻano (the stative verbs)
Hawaiian has nothing like the english verb "to be". Different patterns and word orderings are used instead. One of the most basic of these is for describing things. In english, you say that something is pretty or blue or silly or delicious or inspiring. Here's how to do it in Hawaiian:
Nani kēia pua. - This flower is pretty. (lit.Pretty this flower.)
Nui kēnā pöpoki! - That (near listener) cat is big!
Kolohe ka ʻïlio. - The dog is mischevious.
Akamai loa au. - I am very smart.
As you've certainly noticed, the describing word goes first, and then whatever it's describing. In english, most of these describing words are "adjectives", but because of how they function, in Hawaiian, they're called "stative verbs".
If you just want to tack a descriptive word onto a noun, it goes after it (kind of like in Spanish).. for example:
kēia pua nani - This pretty flower
kēnā nui pöpoki - This big cat
ka ʻīlio kolohe - The rascal dog
ʻAno and Loa
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