Learning the features of verbs in te reo
Friday, 20 August 2021
In attempting to learn another language it’s frequently the forms of verbs which present the major difficulties.
As has been observed previously in this column, this is much less of a problem with te reo Māori.
In te reo the base word used as a verb remains constant regardless of tense, person or number: I haere / au. (“I went.”) E haere ana / rātou. (“They are going.”) Kua haere / a Mere. (“Mary has gone.”)
But although the tenses of verbs in te reo are less problematic than in many languages, there are other features which need to be considered. Various prefixes and suffixes, may be added to verb base words. Some of these have been topics in previous columns, but before proceeding with fuller consideration here, the main points about verbs in te reo should perhaps be restated.
**READ MORE:
* Great simplicity when it comes to verb system in te reo
* Getting to grips with verbs in te reo
**
In te reo there are two main classes of verb: verbs of “doing” (action verbs) and verbs of “being” (stative verbs).
Action verbs may be either transitive (where the action passes from the “doer” to an object) – such as waiata (“to sing”) – or intransitive (where there is no direct object) – such as haere (“to move” or “go” – but haere mai = “move hither”/ “come”).
Transitive verbs may be either active (the action is done by the subject): E waiata ana / ngā wāhine / i te waiata. (“The women are singing the song.”), or passive: (the action is done to the subject: E waiatatia ana / te waiata / e ngā wāhine. (“The song is being sung by the women.”).
The verb base word is made passive by the addition of a passive suffix (-tia in the above example) and, in some cases, by other slight alteration.
Because the passive form varies from verb to verb it’s useful, in word-lists and dictionaries, for the specific passive form of each action verb to be shown accompanying the main entry, in something like this manner: waiata (-tia) (“sing”); noho (-ia) (“sit”); titiro (tirohia) (“look”).
It’s quite intriguing that the passive form is also used to give instructions – as in Nohoia! (“Sit down!”) – intriguing because, although such an instruction may be given with commanding intonation, intrinsically it isn’t really a strong imperative. As a sentence with a subject, this instruction could appear as: Nohoia / te tūru! (“Let the chair be sat upon!”)
Both intransitive action verbs and stative verbs can be converted into transitive action verbs by prefixing whaka-, which, because it denotes “causing (something to happen)” is appropriately named the “causative” prefix. Thus: haere (“to move”); whakahaere (“to cause to move” / “to organize”).
More on prefixes and suffixes is planned for next time.