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Idioms

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Proverbs

Loan words

Historical loan words

Filters

Idioms

Phrases

Proverbs

Loan words

Historical loan words

te

1. (determiner) the (singular) - used when referring to a particular individual or thing.

(Te Kākano Textbook (Ed. 2): 13-14, 44;)

Anei te ongaonga. / Here is the stinging nettle.

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2. (determiner) the - when referring to a whole class of things or people designated by the noun that follows.

(Te Kākano Textbook (Ed. 2): 48; Te Pihinga Textbook (Ed. 2): 125;)

Kī tonu te wharenui i te tamariki. / The meeting house was full of children.

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3. (determiner) Mr, mister, sir - used before people's names to show respect. When used this way it begins with a capital letter.

(Te Māhuri Textbook (Ed. 2): 190-191;)

Kei Te Wharehuia, tēnei te mihi atu mō tō āwhina mai. / Wharehuia sir, thank you most sincerely for your help.

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4. (determiner) Used in front of another verb following a stative.

(Te Kākano Textbook (Ed. 2): 58, 99-100;)

Kua oti i a au tāku pukapuka te tuhi. / I have finished writing my book.

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5. (determiner) Used in front of another verb following taea.

(Te Kākano Textbook (Ed. 2): 75-76;)

Ka taea e ia tēnei waiata te whakamāori. / She will be able to interpret this song.

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6. (determiner) Used before the names for the days of the week.

(Te Kākano Textbook (Ed. 2): 30;)

Ā te Rātapu mātou haere ai ki Poihākena. / We go to Sydney on Saturday.

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7. (determiner) Sometimes used before numbers with a following noun.

I tāwāhi a Pita mō te rima tau. / Peter was overseas for five years.

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8. (determiner) Used before ordinal numbers including those using tua-.

(Te Māhuri Study Guide (Ed. 1): 12;)

I piki a Tāne-nui-a-rangi ki te tuangahuru mā rua o ngā rangi. / Tāne-nui-a-rangi climbed to the twelfth realm.

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9. .

1. (verb) to make a sharp explosive sound, break wind, fart.

Ka te rākau, meāke e whati (W 1971:409). / The tree made a sharp noise and soon it will snap.

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2. (stative) crack, fart.

1. (negative) not, no, none - a negative placed before the verb it negates, used most commonly in formal speech in modern Māori.

taea hoki te pēwhea. / Nothing can be done.
Inā ko te pura o te kanohi kia āta tirohia, ā kāti tirohia, kore noa iho ai i konā kore noa iho ai. / If you’re going to look them in the eye, look them in the eye, but don’t just sit there doing nothing.

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2. (particle) instead of - used with . Sometimes ai is also added.

Kei te haere ia ki te kēmu, mahi ai i ana mahi. / She is going to the game instead of doing her work.

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1. (particle) used before verbs to make an emphatic statement.

Kei āpōpō te teretere nei ū mai (NM 1928:163). / Tomorrow the party is certain to arrive (W 1971:409).

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1. (stative) be exhausted.

Te whakairinga o te kupu te whakapiringa o te tangata

1. The place where words are suspended te place where people come together: the wharenui or ancestral house (the words are suspended or hung in the carvings and kōwhaiwhai).

Nau mai e ngā iwi kia noho pūāhuru tātou i te pūmahana o te whakairinga o te kupu o te whakapiringa o te tangata / come hither people so we may sit close together in the warmth of the ancestral house.

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Rangihiwinui, Te Keepa Te

1. (personal name) (?-1898) Muaūpoko; leader, militarist and land assessor, he was a government supporter who fought in the Wanganui, south Taranaki and Ōpōtiki campaigns against Tītokowaru and Te Kooti.

te hanga a te

1. there were lots of, many - an idiom used to comment on the abundance of something.

I reira te hanga a te wahine e purei poka ana. / There were lots of women there playing poker.

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te mahi a te ...

1. abundance of, lots of, many, heaps of, in droves - an idiom to comment on an abundance of people or things.

Hoki rawa mai, kua pau ngā hua te kai i te mahi a te tamariki. / When they eventually returned, the many children had eaten all the fruit.
Ānini ana tērā, te pīnati, i te mahi a te kōhimuhimu, te taiaroa e rērere haere nei. / I've got a headache from so much gossip flying around the place.
I hora te mahi a te kai. / Food was in abundance.
Nā konā i mimiti haere ai te kōrerohia o te reo Māori, kātahi ka pā mai Te Pakanga Tuarua o te Ao, me te aha, ka riro te mahi a te tāne me ō rātou reo tangatanga ki te reo Māori i te māra a Tū-mata-uenga (Rewi 2005:51). / As a consequence, the speaking of the Māori language declined, and then the Second World War occurred and as a result many men, along with their fluent language, were lost on the killing fields of war.

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kua tē te koito

1. run out of oomph, exhausted, used up, not working - an idiom used to indicate that a person has run out of energy or something no longer works.

Kātahi rā te wiki roa. Kua tē te koito! / What a long week. I’m buggered!

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Taniwha, Te Horetā Te

1. (personal name) (?-1853) Ngāti Whanaunga; leader who, as a boy, met Captain Cook at Whitianga.

(Te Kōhure Textbook (Ed. 2): 134;)

Horetā, Te Taniwha, Te

1. (personal name) (?-1853) Ngāti Whanaunga; leader who, as a boy, met Captain Cook at Whitianga.

(Te Kōhure Textbook (Ed. 2): 134;)

Kura Te Au, Te

1. (location) Tory Channel - the channel that separates Arapaoa island from the mainland in the Marlborough Sounds.

... te tī, ... te tā

1. all directions, all over the place, hither and thither.

I taetae mai rātou i te tī, i te tā. / They arrived from all directions.

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tē taea te aha

1. nothing could be done, nothing can be done, nothing can be done about it - an idiom to say that a problem is insurmountable, unavoidable or can't be rectified.

Ka mania a ia ki roto i te wai. Ka whakamātau tōna hoa a Rāhera ki te hopu i a ia; tē taea te aha (Te Ara 2017). / She slipped into the water. Her friend Rāhera tried to grab her, but nothing could be done.

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Atairangikaahu, Te Arikinui Dame Te

1. (personal name) ONZ, DBE (1931-2006) Ngāti Mahuta; leader of the Tainui tribes and the Kīngitanga, she succeeded her father, Korokī, when he died in 1966. Before being anointed as queen, she was known as Piki Mahuta and Piki Paki when she married Whatumoana Paki. Made the first Māori Dame in 1970 and was awarded the Order of New Zealand in 1987. Awarded an honorary doctorate from The University of Waikato in 1973 and an Honorary Doctor of Laws from Victoria University of Wellington in 1999.

(Te Kōhure Textbook (Ed. 2): 26-28, 31-33; Te Kōhure Video Tapes (Ed. 1): ;)

Tari o te Ora, Te

1. (loan) Department of Social Welfare.

Kōpakatanga ki te Tonga, Te

1. (location) Antarctica.

Rua o te Moko, Te

1. (location) mountains between the Waiau River and the fiords.

Panekiretanga o te Reo, Te

1. Institute of Excellence in the Māori Language.

See also Temara, Pou

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