Māori Grammar

A pronoun is a word which we might use instead of using their name - for example, instead of saying "John is walking" we might say "he is walking".

In English, the pronouns are "I", "you", "he", "she", "we" and "they" when the person being referred to is the one doing an action. ("I am going", "he is singing", "they are running".) English also has pronouns for when the person being referred is the object of the sentence: "me", "him", "her", "us" and "them". ("They gave it to me", "I will sing to her", "I will pass it to him", "I will look at them" and "they will look at us".

In te reo Māori, the pronoun does not change if the person is the subject or the object of a sentence, but the object usually as an a in front of the pronoun. The exception is ahau, which does not have a preceeding a:

Kei te titiro au ki te tane.
I am looking at the man.

Kei te titiro te tane ki a au.
The man is looking at me.

Kei te titiro te tane ki ahau.
The man is looking at me.