Learning te reo is more than just a passing phrase

It has frequently been stressed in these columns that a main principle of the ‘‘entirely different’’ – and much simpler – system for understanding the grammar of te reo Māori, proposed by Bruce Biggs in his 1969 book Let’s Learn Maori, consists of a five-fold classification of base words. This principle (with minor modifications in terminology) is fundamental to the information offered here.

The last column focused on particular features of the three types of noun. The other two types (of the five classes) are verbs.

Before proceeding with discussion of the difference between the two classes of verb, however, it might be useful to notice again that many, but certainly not all, base words may function as either noun or verb.

Kai, for instance, may serve as a noun (‘‘food’’) or as a verb (‘‘to eat’’); ko¯rero may be either ‘‘speech’’ or ‘‘to speak’’; waiata may be ‘‘song’’ or ‘‘to sing’’.

This means that the classification of many words depends upon the phrasing in which they are being used.

Other base words are restricted in their use. Whare (‘‘house’’) and ika (‘‘fish’’), for instance, function only as nouns. It might be noted in passing that in English, also, many words may serve as noun or verb – ‘‘fish’’ being an example.

Te reo Māori, however, is very different from English in its verb system.

In English, a verb is often described as a ‘‘doing word’’ (a word denoting an action) – but there is also what is sometimes called a ‘‘linking verb’’. This is the verb ‘‘to be’’, with its forms of ‘‘am’’, ‘‘are’’, ‘‘is’’, ‘‘was’’, ‘‘will be’’ and many others.

In te reo, there is no parallel to the English verb ‘‘to be’’. Instead, there are simply two quite distinct classes of verbs: action verbs and stative verbs.

Action verbs, such as haere (‘‘to move’’ or ‘‘to go’’), ko¯rero (‘‘to speak’’) and oma (‘‘to run’’), might well be described as ‘‘doing words’’.

Stative verbs, contrastingly, might be called ‘‘being words’’. They denote ‘‘states of being’’. Pai, for instance, means ‘‘to be good’’; mutu means ‘‘to be finished’’.

Verbs of either the action type or the stative type may be used with the same verb particles: Eoma ana/te kurı¯ (‘‘The dog is running’’); E pai ana/te kurı¯ (‘‘The dog is good’’); Kua haere/nga¯ manuhiri (‘‘The visitors have gone’’); Kua mutu/te ko¯rero (‘‘The talk has finished’’).

On its own terms, the verb system of te reo is much simpler, and more consistent, than that of English.

David Ka¯rena-Holmes is a New Zealand-born writer currently living in Nelson. A tutor of grammar since the 1980s, his third book on the subject is Te Reo Ma¯ori – the Basics Explained (Oratia Books, 2020). He is examining te reo grammar in a series of fortnightly articles.