Saying what things/people are and are not
Saying what things/people look like and do
not look like
 He
is the basic sentence starter for a
description sentence. It is used when saying
what something is or describing a quality of
something or someone. – e.g. A big house.
 He
+ describing word + te/nga/toku/tona…+
thing/person.

Examples:
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
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He nui te whare – The house is big
He papura nga putiputi – The flowers are purple
He poto toku whaea – My mum is short
 QUESTION
= He pehea te/nga/toku/tona….+
thing/person – What is the/my/your….like?
 He

Examples:




+ thing/person + description
He whare nui – Some/A big house/s
He wahine momona – Some/ A fat woman/women
He tamariki iti – Some/A small child/children
IN THIS STRUCTURE YOU HAVE TO LOOK AT THE
CONTEXT TO KNOW IF IT IS ONE OR MORE THAN
ONE THING/PERSON BEING SPOKEN ABOUT
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
The dog is small He iti/nangariki te kuri
My sister is beautiful (use tuahine) He
ataahua toku tuahine
The birds are slow He poturi/poroire nga
manu
A green house He whare kakariki
Some ugly ducks He rakiraki weriweri
 Questions:


He aha tenei/tena/tera?
Ko te aha tenei/tena/tera?
 Answer:


He + thing + tenei/tena/tera
Ko te + thing + tenei/tena/tera
 Tenei
= this (by me the speaker)
 Tena = that (by you the listener)
 Tera = that (over there away from both
listener and speaker)
 These
words can be split up and sandwiched
around the object:



te pukapuka nei = tenei pukapuka (this book by
me)
te wahine na = tena wahine (that woman by you)
Te rapeti ra = tera rapeti (that rabbit over there)
enei = these(by me the speaker)
 ena = those(by you the listener)
 era = those(over there away from both listener
and speaker)


These words can be split up and sandwiched
around the object:
 nga pukapuka nei = enei pukapuka (these books by
me)
nga wahine na = ena wahine (those women by you)
 nga rapeti ra = era rapeti (those rabbits over there)
