Māori Grammar

In te reo Māori, ki can mean "to" and i can mean "from". However, these two small words are also used often to undicate the object of a sentence. This is the thing that a person does something to or a person that has something done to them. For example, in the sentence "I am reading a book", the subject of the sentence is "I" - I am the one doig the action. The verb is "reading". But the object of the sentence is "a book". This is the thing being read.

In English we do not say "I am reading to to the book" - this would make no sense - but this is what we need to say in te reo. The object of a sentence (the book being read, or the song being sung, or the tree being planted, or the baby being fed) must always have an i or a ki. Very often, people miss this out because there is no English equivalent for this.

For example we do not say: "kei te pānui au te pukapuka" but:

Kei te pānui au i te pukapuka.
I am reading the book.

The i is a "particle" (a small word) that indicates the thing that is being read, and without it the sentence makes no sense.

Similarly, we do not say: "kei te waiata ia te waiata" but:

Kei te waiata ia i te waiata.
She is singing the song.

Again, the i is an essential part of the sentence and must be included to indicate the thing being sung - the song, which is the object of the sentence.