DESCRIBING THINGS

Saying what things/people are and are not

Saying what things/people look like and do not look like

BASIC DESRIPTION 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.

WAY ONE: BEING SPECIFIC He + describing word +

te/nga/toku/tona…+ thing/person.

Examples: 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?

WAY TWO: BEING A BIT MORE GENERAL He + thing/person + description

Examples: 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

TRANSLATE1. The dog is small He iti/nangariki te

kuri2. My sister is beautiful (use tuahine) He

ataahua toku tuahine3. The birds are slow He poturi/poroire

nga manu4. A green house He whare kakariki5. Some ugly ducks He rakiraki weriweri

ASKING WHAT SOMETHING IS Questions:

He aha tenei/tena/tera?Ko te aha tenei/tena/tera?

Answer:He + thing + tenei/tena/teraKo te + thing + tenei/tena/tera

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/ENA/ERA – WHEN THERE IS MORE THAN ONE THING – DROP THE ‘T’

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)

NEGATING A “DESCRIPTION” STRUCTURE