A brief review on basic grammar differences in te reo and English

Friday, 3 September 2021

If you want to master te reo you need to get to grips with passive verbs and sentences - as they are more commonly used in te reo than in English.

The last column – “Learning the Features of Verbs” – was concerned with how prefixes and suffixes, particularly passive suffixes, modify the function of verbs in te reo Māori.

In further clarifying exactly what is involved it may be useful to review briefly some basic differences in grammar between te reo and the English language.

I waiata / te kotiro / i te waiata. (“The girl sang the song.”)

This is a simple statement in a standard te reo sentence-pattern of verb / subject / object – that is, a VSO sequence in contrast to the English sequence of SVO.

Our central bank has some hard mahi ahead of it if it really wants to embrace the Māori values it espouses, Damien Grant says.

* Putting prepositions in their place

* Particle theory in te reo Māori sometimes has no English equivalent

But, apart from difference in phrase-sequence, there are two other differences between the English and Māori sentences.

Firstly, the Maori verb phrase consists of two words: the verb base waiata (“sing”) is preceded by the verb particle – i – which marks the verb as past tense.

Secondly, a preposition – i – connects the object phrase – te waiata (“the song”) – to the rest of the sentence.

It should be recognised that these two uses of i represent two quite distinct and separate words, neither of which has any parallel in English.

In the English sentence, because no preposition precedes it, “the song”, is here regarded as a “direct” object.

This contrasts with an object which does require a preposition, as in “The girl went to the house.” and the house is here regarded as an “indirect” object. A translation into te reo would be I haere / te kotiro / ki te whare.

In English, again, a verb such as “sing” which may take a direct object is termed “transitive” (the action passes directly from the actor to the object) whilst a verb such as “go” which does not take a direct object is termed “intransitive”.

Since a preposition is required in both the above examples of te reo – I waiata / te kotiro / i te waiata and I haere / te kotiro / ki te whare – a distinction between direct and indirect objects isn’t defined as it is in English.

Distinction between transitive and intransitive verbs, however, is important in te reo, because only transitive verbs take passive suffixes.

A passive suffix changes a verb from an active “voice”, in which the emphasis is upon someone or something doing an action, into the passive “voice”, in which the emphasis is upon the action being done to someone or something: I waiatatia / te waiata / e te kotiro. (“The song was sung by the girl.”).

A good understanding of passive constructions is important in learning te reo because this “voice” is used much more frequently in te reo than in English.

More next time.