Māori Grammar
| Previous | Back | Next |
The particle i has many uses, one of which is to indicate movement away from a place — usually translated as “from”.
I haere mai au i te whare.
I came from the house
However, i has a range of alternative meanings. Depending on the context, i can describe a location as well as a source. With a verb of movement, this can sometimes make the meaning ambiguous: i te whare might mean “from the house” or “at/in the house”.
While i has a very large range of meanings in a variety of sentence stuctures, in this content it has ttwo meanings that are particularly relevant here: either motion away from a location ("from the house") or location somewhere ("in the house") - and the exact meaning is determined by context but might be ambiguous.
For example if the mother is angry because the children are running i te whare it probably means that they were running in the house (though not necessarily so). If the police chase a thief running i te toa it probably means he was running from the shop.
In order to be more precise, a speaker could add to the sentence:
Kei te oma ahau i roto i te whare.
I am running inside the house.
Kei te oma ahau i mua i te whare.
I am running in front of the house.
Kei te oma ahau i te taha o te whare.
I am running by the side of the house.
When expressing a journey from one place to another, the usual order is the starting point with i followed by the destination with ki.
Kei te oma ahau i te whare ki te kura.
I am running from the house to the school.
I haere mai ia i tērā taha o Te Kao.
She came from beyond Te Kao.Kāore tōku kāinga e tawhitei i te pāka.
My house is not far from the park.Ka haria ki tētahi tohunga te pounamu e tāhaetia i te whare nui.
The greenstone which was stolen from the meeting house was taken to a tohunga.Tangohia i te tēpu!
Take if off the table!Kua hoki mai koe i hea?
From where have you returned?Haere atu i roto i tēnei whare.
Go away from this house.I oma mai te kurī i raro i te tūru.
The dog ran out from under the chair.Kawea atu ahau ki tō tumuaki!
Take me to your leader!I tāhaetia te patu pounamu i te whare taonga.
The greenstone patu was stolen from the museum.He mea e hiahia ana koe i te tāone?
Do you want something from the town?Kua tīkina ngā tamariki i te kura, ka rite te whānau ki te haere ki tātahi, hararei ai.
The kids have been fetched from school, the family is ready to go to the beach for a holiday.Kua hoki mai ia i te pahi.
She has come back from the bus.Tīkina he wai i te awa!
Get some water from the river!Kua hoki mai ia i te moana.
She has returned from the sea.Kua wehe rātou i te rōpū matua.
They have separated from the parent organisation.Kua haere mai a Tame i Whakatamacr;ne.
Tame has come from Whakatamacr;ne.Kei te whakatika te ope i Heihei.
The party is setting out from Heihei.Ko tēnei kupu, ko te "mārena" mea tango mai i te reo Pākehā.
This word, "mārena", was borrowed from English.Kua hoki mai taku hoa i Amerika.
My friend has returned from America.I haere mai ia i waho tonu o Taupō.
He came here from just outside Taupō.Kua hoki mai ngā kōtiro i te toa.
The girls have returned from the shop.I te oma atu te hōiho i a Taika.
The horse was running away from Taika.Kei te heke iho a Pita i te rākau.
Pita is descending down from the tree.Kei te kohi au i ētehi pukapuka mai i te whare pukapuka.
I'm getting some books from the library.Rere atu i reira!
Get out of here!Kore rawa au i mōhio i tīmata mai te pepa i te rākau.
I didn't know that paper came from trees.