Demonstratives
Demonstratives are important to learn so that we can create grammatically correct sentences in Māori. For example if we wanted to say "This is a book" then we need the following formula:
HE + NOUN + DEMONSTRATIVE
He pukapuka tēnei.
This is a book.
Demonstratives specify a particular 'thing'. In some instances they specify the 'location' of a particular 'thing'.
|
One thing |
More than one |
|
|---|---|---|
|
this/these by me |
tēnei |
ēnei |
|
this/these by you |
tēnā |
ēnā |
|
that/those over there |
tērā |
ērā |
Note that we simply remove the 't' to make the demonstrative plural.
nei, nā and rā (known as deitic or locative particles) refer to a specific location: nei = here (by me), nā = by you, rā = over there/ at a distance. Te is the Māori word for the (singular), and if we look at the demonstratives we can see that all the singular forms have te + nei/nā or rā.
