Emphasising and understanding te reo imperatives

Giving an instruction or command involves using a verb phrase in what is termed the ‘‘imperative mood’’. An imperative may have a varying degree of emphasis, and there are several different ways of expressing this in te reo Māori.

A verb base word may simply be used, alone, with imperative intonation: Haere (‘‘Go’’).

If the verb has no more than two short vowels, or one long one, however, it is preceded by the particle e: E noho (‘‘Sit down’’), E tū (‘‘Stand up’’). Greater emphasis in intonation is commonly indicated in print by an exclamation mark:

Haere! (‘‘Go!’’); E tū! (‘‘Stand up!’’)

The verb particles kia and me, preceding verb bases, also create imperatives: Me waiata/koe (‘‘You should sing’’); Kia ora (‘‘Be well’’); Kia tūpato (‘‘Be careful’’). The imperative with me is considered mild, but with kia the intonation may vary: Kia tūpato! (‘‘Be careful!’’)

In another form of imperative, the verb base word may be followed by a direction particle: Haere mai! (‘‘Come here!’’); Haere atu! (‘‘Go away!’’) These examples show that the word haere can mean movement in any direction. Unless followed by mai, however, it commonly means ‘‘go’’.

Sometimes the direction particle may not signify actual physical movement, but rather a direction of thought: Aroha mai (‘‘Forgive me’’).

Among the few irregularities of te reo are the action verbs hōmai (‘‘give to me’’) and hoatu (‘‘give away, to someone else’’). These words are exceptions in that the direction particles mai and atu are joined to the syllable ho- to form single base words. The same is true for the verb hoake (‘‘to move onward’’). All three of these words are used passively without any alteration.

The passive of other action verbs is formed by addition of a passive suffix (of which there are several different forms, but all end with -a), and sometimes other small changes. These words may then be used as imperatives: Whāia/te maramatanga (‘‘Pursue enlightenment’’). Again, intonation is used to give strength to the imperative. Nohoia! (‘‘Sit down!’’) will usually be taken as a stronger command than E noho (‘‘Take a seat’’).

One aspect of this form of imperative is that the emphasis is upon the action rather than the actor. Whāia/te maramatanga, for instance, might properly be translated as ‘‘May enlightenment be pursued’’. A translation of Nohoia! could be ‘‘Let (a chair, say) be sat upon!’’.

The passive of tuku (‘‘to release’’) may be seen in the instructions on the solar-powered litter bins now found in Nelson’s Trafalgar St: Tukuna/tō para/ki kōnei (‘‘Let be put/your litter/ here.’’)

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.