He Papa Kuhikuhi Pilina‘ōlelo

Reference Grammar of the Hawaiian Language

E ʻonipaʻa kākou i ka ʻimi naʻauao

This document is available for download at https://hawaiian-grammar.org

Reference Grammar of the Hawaiian Language

Table of Contents

Tables

Introduction

Who is This Book For?

This grammar of the Hawaiian language is primarily intended for the English-speaking student at an institute of higher learning. It provides a quick reference to most grammatical constructs that an undergraduate student of the Hawaiian language will encounter, while also offering examples and further discussion of many topics. The project to create the book was born of the experience of the authors in studying Hawaiian Language years one through four at the University of Hawaii Maui College and the University of Hawaii at Mānoa. A reference grammar of this type would have come to great use!

Who Are We?

Anita Bardwell
Joe Bardwell
Lopaka Weltman
Hoaloha Westcott

This book is a compilation of notes and handouts from 4 years of Hawaiian language courses, as well as an incorporation of previously published materials brought together as an on-line student reference.  We have endeavored to provide copious citations and none of the contents are our original research or opinion.  This work was produced on a 100% volunteer basis as a labor of love and respect for the Hawaiian language, and as a way to give back to the language revitalization effort.  The book will always remain free of charge.  None of the authors are kanaka maoli, but all of us have Hawaiian hearts and continually stand for and support native Hawaiian causes.  With deepest respect and aloha we hope you find this book useful.

You can reach us at hawaiian-grammar-grp@hawaii.edu.

We would like to thank the following for valuable suggestions, review and encouragement:

Kaliko Trapp (UH Hilo)

Kī‘ope Raymond (UHMC)

Kepano Trussel (UH Mānoa)

Dr. Albert Schütz (UH Mānoa)

Dr. Thomas Kettig (UH Mānoa)

We also want to express our love and appreciation for our many instructors at UH and other language teachers who gave us the motivation and tools to take on this project:

Dr. Kaliko Baker

Dr. Leilani Basham

Leomana Crozier

Dr. Kahikina de Silva

Kahele Dukelow

Kaluhialoha Eldridge

Kaleikoa Ka‘eo

Dr. Papaikani‘au Kai‘anui

Leinoa Kong

Dr. Kapā Olivera

Kī‘ope Raymond

Dr. Kekeha Solis

Dr. Laiana Wong

Version Information

This is version 1.5, completed in 2022 and made available to the public in August, 2022. Release notes are at https://bit.ly/hawgr-relnotes.

Conventions and Notation

Notations and Conventions

Kimo, Keola and Pualani are fictional characters and bear no relationship to any real persons, living or dead.  These 3 characters are used in examples throughout this book.

When translating the Hawaiian third party singular pronoun ʻo ia into English, we may use "he", "she" or "it" depending on the context.

"ABC" is used in patterns with the meaning "kikino (word phrase)". kikino is explained below.

Overview of Hawaiian Language

Origin

The first Western visitors to Hawaii towards the end of the 18th century were surprised to find that the local language was very similar to that of New Zealand and Tahiti. The Polynesian languages are spoken in an area of over 2,000,000 square miles - the Polynesian triangle.

Image from (Wikipedia-Polynesian languages).

Study of the phonetic and grammatical differences between the languages suggests the following historical derivation (Schütz 1994:334).

Examples of common words in representative Polynesian languages (Wikipedia-Polynesian

languages), (Wikipedia-Tongan language):

See (Pollex 2011) for interactive resources to explore etymology of Polynesian words

Orthography and Pronunciation

The Hawaiian alphabet was defined through a vote by a committee of missionaries in 1826, using letters from the Latin alphabet. History and other traditional knowledge had been maintained through the centuries with oral tradition, including complex compilations such as the Kumulipo. The missionaries, who had arrived in 1820, were anxious to provide the means to convert the population to Christianity, including the reading of the Bible in Hawaiian.

The definition of the alphabet was to build on the work done earlier to establish alphabets for Tahitian and Māori. One of the goals was for the Hawaiian alphabet to be as similar to the Tahitian alphabet as possible. However, there were clear differences between the languages as perceived by the missionaries and there were also areas where their understanding was incomplete.

Besides the five vowels and seven consonants decided on for the alphabet (see below in this section), the missionaries and other Westerners visiting Hawaii heard Hawaiians use the sounds b, d, r, t and v. That was the source of much debate among the missionaries and the focus of the vote in 1826. There is ample evidence that those additional sounds were used by native speakers, but the committee voted to remove them from the alphabet because they formed pairs or triplets with other letters which could be used interchangeably with no impact on the meaning or on the ability of native speakers to comprehend. (Schütz 1994:111) illustrates the problem with an exchange from Albertine Loomis, Grapes of Canaan:

"Is the dance called hulahula?

"ʻAe"

"Is it hudahuda?"

"ʻAe"

"Or hurahura?"

"ʻAe"

The pairs and triplet were:

p, b

l, r, d

w, v

k, t

The first of each set was chosen for the alphabet.

While not conclusive, there is evidence that certain differences in usage were geographical (t instead of k on Kauaʻi and Niʻihau; t is still used on Niʻihau^[1] and occasionally in chants), others based on phonetic context (w after u or o, v in other cases), others on personal preference, some pronounced as intermediate sounds of the set and some varied seemingly randomly. (Ellis 1824:349) reported that "The k in most of the islands is generally used in common intercourse, but it is never admitted into their poetical compositions, in which the t is universally and invariably employed." In almost all cases reported by the missionaries and by earlier Western Naturalists, native speakers did not perceive a difference in words used with one or the other sounds of a set. Each set is one phoneme, with potentially multiple renditions.

The missionaries were aware of two other important elements of pronunciation but were not able to capture them in their alphabet or use them in printing: the glottal stop and vowel length, both of which are essential to expressing meaning in the language. The glottal stop as a consonant, as well as vowel length, were not formally recognized and used in print until the middle of the 20th century. The glottal stop was known earlier as ʻuʻuina but renamed by Elbert in 1991 to ʻokina. The macron above a vowel to show length is termed kahakō.

The resultant Hawaiian alphabet contains 13 letters.  Each of the letters are pronounced as shown in the following table:

Hawaiian alphabet (Pukui/Elbert 1986:xvii):

Vowels with kahakō (macron) do not have off-glides, are somewhat longer than other vowels and are always stressed.

See (Parker Jones 2009)  and (Kettig 2021) for a modern evaluation of Hawaiian pronunciation.

Use of Kahakō and ‘Okina

As discussed above, the diacritical marks kahakō and ‘okina were not widely used in print until the middle of the 20th century. The style of writing without them is often called kahiko, or old style. The island of Ni‘ihau - the only place in the world where Hawaiian has continued to be the first language of the population without a break in transmission - never adopted use of the diacritical marks and many speakers there oppose their use in print. (NeSmith 2019:99)

Formation of Syllables

• A syllable in Hawaiian always ends in a vowel
• Two consecutive consonants are not allowed

This means that a syllable consists of either a vowel or of a consonant followed by a vowel, and that a word ends in a vowel. Note that the ʻokina is a consonant - it can begin a syllable but not end it However, in orthography it differs from other consonants in that instead of being capitalized as the first letter of a sentence or a proper noun, the immediately following vowel is capitalized, e.g. ‘Alika. Similarly, it is replaced by the following vowel in acronyms, e.g. APL for ‘Aha Pūnana Leo. (NeSmith 2019:98)

Accent

When a syllable is emphasized in Hawaiian, it is somewhat louder, longer and often higher in pitch than other syllables. Words less than four syllables in length have accent on only one syllable, while those with four or more syllables have more than one with emphasis. In words of less than four syllables, the penultimate (second to last) syllable carries the accent, unless the last syllable has a long vowel (kahakō over it), in which case the last syllable has the most emphasis.

In speech and also in names, a ka‘i (ka, ke, nā) often joins with the following word to form one unit in terms of accent, e.g. kamaka (= ka maka, the eye).

The separation of syllable groups by accent is indicated in (Pukui/Elbert 1986), (Schütz/Kanada/Cook 2005) and in the modern dictionary (Huaʻōlelo 2003) with a raised period between accent groups:

The rules for which syllable receives emphasis apply within an accent group, not between them. There is more emphasis on the accented syllable of the final accent group than on the preceding ones.

Within an accent group, the penultimate (next to last) syllable receives the most emphasis unless the last syllable has a long vowel (kahakō over it), in which case the last syllable has the most emphasis. Any syllable with a diphthong or long vowel also has emphasis.

(Schütz/Kanada/Cook 2005: xvii-xx)

Loanwords

(Pukui/Elbert 1986) and (Hua‘ōlelo 2003) include 2,012 known foreign loanwords according to (Parker Jones 2009: 3). (Parker Jones 2010) estimates the total percentage of loanwords in (Pukui/Elbert 1986) to 17%. Of them, five are from Chinese, nine from French, three from Portuguese and four from Japanese. A few are from biblical Latin or Greek. Almost all the rest are from English, particularly American English. (Hua‘ōlelo 2003) makes a conscious effort when identifying new words to prioritize source languages other than English to compensate, according to (Parker Jones 2009: 16).

"Nouns were the most commonly borrowed, followed by verbs, function words, and finally adjectives. ... Why did Hawaiian borrow so many nouns? One contributing cause is probably the number of new things that have been introduced to Hawai‘i since contact, along with their names. (Parker Jones 2009: 9)

How does Hawaiian adapt the loanwords in pronunciation?

• Consonants not present in Hawaiian are mapped to Hawaiian consonants, e.g. "bill" becomes "pila"
• Consecutive consonants either get a vowel inserted between them or have all but one of the consonants dropped, e.g. "scraper" becomes "kalepa", "truck" becomes "kalaka"
• Words ending in a consonant get a trailing vowel, e.g. "pila" for "bill"
• Words beginning with a vowel generally get an initial ‘okina (glottal stop), e.g. "‘akele" for "acre"

Structural Elements

Words

(Elbert/Pukui 1979:43) specifies the following types of words:

Non-Word Elements

Phrases

Words, particles and affixes are combined in phrases, which are divided into noun phrases and verb phrases.

"Verb phrases contain verbs as their heads." (Elbert/Pukui 1979: 39). A word is identified as a verb by its potential occurrence together with a verb marker such as ua to mark tense or aspect. See below for examples of verb and noun phrases.

"Noun phrases contain nouns or substitutes for nouns" (where a substitute is a pronoun or demonstrative); "these are names of persons or places" or are identified through their use with a determiner such as he, ke/ka. (Elbert/Pukui 1979:39).

The order of the elements of a noun phrase is defined in (Elbert 1970:117,246) as:

Preposition ± Determiner + Noun ± Post-noun elements

± indicates that the following element is optional.

The determiners are:

The post-noun elements are:

Example:

i                ka                hale        nō

Preposition        Determiner        Noun        Qualifier (post-noun element)

definitely in the house

Grammar studies of the Hawaiian language from the start and through the 1970's have categorized noun usage by "case", as used in Latin. Breakdown by "case" is explicit in (Chamisso 1837), (Andrews 1854), (Alexander 1864), (Judd 1939), (Elbert 1970) and (Elbert/Pukui 1979). Six cases were identified. Unlike in the European languages, there is no declension of nouns; instead the case is indicated with a preposition, object marker or the lack of either. (Judd 1939:13) provides a typical list of cases and examples:

Sentences

One or more phrases produces a sentence. For example:

Ua hele        ke kanaka        i Maui.

Verb phrase        Noun phrase        Noun phrase

The man went to Maui.

Ua ʻai                ke kanaka        i ka poi.

Verb phrase        Noun phrase        Noun phrase

The man ate the poi.

Ua ʻai ʻia        ka poi                e ka wilikī.

Verb phrase        Noun phrase        Noun phrase

The poi was eaten by the engineer.

He kumu        au.

Noun phrase        Noun phrase

I am a teacher.

If there are pauses when speaking, they occur between phrases and not inside a phrase.

Sentences combining simple sentences are complex sentences:

ʻO ia                ka mea        aʻu                i makemake ai.

Noun phrase        Noun phrase        Noun phrase        Verb phrase

This sentence can be considered a composition of two simple sentences:

ʻO ia ka mea. ("That is the thing." - Equational sentence)

Ua makemake au i ka mea. ("I wanted the thing." - Simple Verb sentence)

That's the thing I wanted.

Table - Types of Simple (Not Compound or Complex) Sentences

(Kamanā/Wilson 2012 I:21-22,26) - developed for teaching first-year and second-year Hawaiian at UH Hilo - takes a different approach to describe the components of a sentence. It introduces new, Hawaiian terms corresponding to the parts of a squid (see also the Terminology section below).

A pepeke is a squid or sentence. It is divided into one or more lālā (basic sentence parts; corresponds with a verb or noun phrase as discussed above). A pepeke has one or more poʻo (heads) and may have one or more ʻawe (tentacles or descriptive phrases) connected with a piko (navel or joining point). A poʻo, piko or ʻawe may include a kāhulu (descriptor). Every pepeke must have at least one poʻo, but the ʻawe and piko are optional (Kamanā/Wilson 2012 I:80). A hamani (transitive verb) may take a lauka (object or object phrase). A pepeke makua (primary pepeke) can be connected to a pepeke keiki (secondary pepeke) with e. A kuʻi is a conjunction that connects words within a poʻo, piko or ʻawe.

Examples:

It's delicious.

The teacher is in Honolulu.

I am not with Keola.

The water is cold.

This girl works at church.

The lady that lives in Kapahulu works with me.

I don't go with him.

Pualani doesn't go with him.

You are Pualani.

Pualani is not a student.

That car of my friend is not red (a red thing).

I want to eat (the) fish.

He wants you to see.

I want you to go.

Leo ate the mangoes with Kimo on the street.

Nani, sometimes these children are sloppy!

They are coming over here quickly.

My mom doesn't like that sort of thing, but I do. (As for my mom, she doesnʻt like that sort of thing, but, as for me, i like.)

There's a coconut tree there.

You can take this mango.

Ke Kinoʻō A Me Ke Kinoʻā (O-Class and A-Class Possessive Relationships)

Possessive relationships have two forms, where the form to be used depends on the noun that is possessed. In one case the letter a is used and in the other case itʻs the letter o. This distinction is called “A-Class” versus “O-Class”. The a and o appear in the context of possessive pronouns and with nouns to express the possessive relationship. Do we say "kaʻu hale" (A-Class) or "koʻu hale" (O-Class) for "my house"?

The categorization is not consistent in all cases and does not necessarily imply ownership in the strict sense, but rather speaks to the control of the relationship (and not directly to the control of the actual object being possessed). So, for example, you may not be able to control your cat but you can control your relationship to your cat (i.e. you can give it to someone else). (Buse 1960:131)^[4]

Ke Kino‘ā (A-Class)

The thing possessed is “alienable” meaning that possession can be transferred to new ownership. This implies that you have a choice as to whether or not you possess the thing. Characteristics of A-Class things may include:

• You choose whether or not you want to possess them
• Relationships caused, created, or instigated by the possessor (including kaʻu wahine “my wife”)
• They are portable and can be carried
• They are subordinate to and under the control of the possessor
• Relationships controlled by the possessor in which the possessed does not serve as the location of the possessor (i.e. kaʻu pā ʻāina “my field” that I own but I donʻt live there)

Ke Kino‘ō (O-Class)

The thing possessed is “inalienable” meaning the possession cannot be taken from or given away by the possessor. This implies you have no choice as to whether or not you possess the thing.

Characteristics of O-Class things may include:

• You cannot choose whether or not you want to possess them
• They are fixed and stationary and cannot be carried by the possessor
• They are in close contact with the body
• Possession in, on, under or something you wear
• They are inherited
• They are animals or vehicles used for riding
• They carry important cultural and historical value
• Your name, someone elseʻs name, the name of a thing (i.e. any name)
• Relationships which are not controlled by the possessor including parents, grandparents, all previous generations, cousins, brothers, and sisters. All words starting with hoa- (friend) are considered O-Class: koʻu hoaloha “my friend”
• Relationships which involve the use of the possessed by the possessor as a location^[5] (i.e. nā iʻa o ke kai “the fish of the sea”). Location, when considered as a determinant of O-Class, refers to the spatial use of an object and not just to a place where an object is situated. The goal of a possessorʻs use of an object as a location is the realization of a customary spatial relationship between the two.

The concept of an alienable versus inalienable relationship between possession and possessor is illustrated in the following examples where O-Class and A-Class possessive relationships are used for the same noun but where the two types imply different relationships:

Table - O-Class vs A-Class

Note that an object is O-Class when you own and control it but it is an A-Class when you are going to give it to someone else, or it’s in your possession but you are going to transfer possession to someone else. (Wilson 1976 I:39-50)

“There is a nice shade of distinction between the meanings of the relations expressed by a and o; but there is no preposition in English that will give the shade of difference. They must both be expressed in English by the preposition of; and yet they are so distinct in a Hawaiianʻs mind as rarely to be exchanged the one for the other.” (Andrews 1854:45)

Terminology

Comparing Classical (Andrews, Alexander), Modern UH Mānoa (Pukui/Elbert, Hopkins in Ka Lei Haʻaheo) and Modern UH Hilo (Kamanā/Wilson in Nā Kai ʻEwalu) Grammatical Terminology

The first publications to comprehensively document the grammar of the Hawaiian language were (Chamisso 1837), (Andrews 1854) and (Alexander 1864). They all proceeded from classical Latin assumptions around the structure of language, seeking to identify word classifications (noun, pronoun, verb, adjective), noun declensions, verb cases and verb moods consistent with those in European languages. See (Schütz 1994) for a discussion of the issues around this approach.

The practice of aligning Hawaiian grammatical constructs with Latin concepts continued well into the 20th century with (Judd 1939). (Elbert/Pukui 1979) mostly abandons the attempt to define Hawaiian in terms of Latin grammar but assumes certain characteristic elements such as subject and predicate that do not directly match Hawaiian syntax. It also attaches Latin cases to the prepositions. (Elbert/Pukui 1979) does adopt the more natural classification of Hawaiian verbs into intransitive, transitive, stative and loaʻa (and similar) stative types, following publications on verb classes in other Polynesian languages in the 1960s.

The Hawaiian Renaissance, starting in the 1970s, gave rise to new ways to interpret and present Hawaiian grammar, attempting to match its inherent characteristics and provide a path to competence for a new generation of instructors in the language, particularly for the students of Hawaiian immersion schools. (Kamanā/Wilson 2012) introduced the concept of the pepeke (squid) to represent a sentence, consisting mainly of the poʻo (head), piko (navel) and ʻawe (tentacles). It applies Hawaiian terms for all the constructs of the language as needed in the first and second years of instruction in the language at UH Hilo.

In addition to the pepeke system which employs the concept of a squid, there is an alternate system which utilizes the kalo plant to represent a sentence. This system is called the Hāloa system and is shown below next to the pepeke system:

(Hopkins 1992) takes a different approach, defining a number of new English-language terms - not constrained by Latin grammar - for the Hawaiian language constructs for use in the first year of instruction at UH Mānoa.

The following table relates and illustrates the Hawaiian grammatical terms used in (Kamanā/Wilson 2012) by presenting the corresponding terms used by (Hopkins 1992), and the Hāloa system where available, supplemented with examples and notes.

Table - Grammatical Terms

English/Latin Grammatical Terms

As discussed above, this book considers Hawaiian grammar both in the terms used by the many grammar books and course books from (Chamisso 1837) to (Schutz/Kanada/Cook 2005) as well as the new Hawaiian terms of (Kamanā/Wilson 2012). While the book discusses usage of all known Hawaiian language patterns with references to books of both categories, it does not define the English/Latin grammatical terms themselves but refers the interested reader to Wikipedia:

Table - English Grammatical Terms

Word Types

Overview

One of the distinguishing features of the Hawaiian language is the versatility of word usage. The same word (excluding particles, conjunctions and prepositions) can in principle be used in the sense of a verb, a noun, an adjective or an adverb with no change in conjugation. Wahine, for example, can be used to indicate a woman, to become a woman, to have female characteristics or to do something in a feminine way.

In practice, many words are not commonly used as verbs, while any verb can be used as a noun (similar to a gerund in other languages). (Elbert/Pukui 1979:105) suggests that the noun-only words "are limited largely to material objects, plants and animals, and names of persons and places".

"...there is no formally distinguished class of adjective or of adverb in Hawaiian, Words performing as English adjectives and adverbs are stative verbs in Hawaiian." (Elbert/Pukui 1979:49). The usage patterns in Hawaiian suggest a different classification from that of verb, noun, adjective and adverb. The comprehensive Hawaiian dictionary (Pukui/Elbert 1986) uses one of the following terms to indicate the type of most words:

An additional category in (Elbert/Pukui 1979:43) includes "verbs commonly used as nouns without the nominalizer ʻana". They are treated in (Pukui/Elbert 1986) as a subcategory of vi., vs. and vt.:

(Elbert/Pukui 1979) distinguishes between stative verbs of the loaʻa type and other stative verbs, and between "deliberate transitive" and "spontaneous transitive" verbs, but (Hawkins 1982:27) indicates that these distinctions are not relevant to a syntactical analysis such as ours.

A small number of words in (Pukui/Elbert 1986) have other well-defined types^[9]:

Note that the same word may have more than one meaning, with the same or different types for the distinct meanings.

Counts by word type in (Pukui/Elbert 1986) (total entries there 26,853, whereof 20,890 unique terms):

There are 7,275 words that are not classified explicitly as one of the above. Of them, the following can be considered additional grammatical categories, variants or combinations:

The rest need to be analyzed individually to determine the grammatical category (they generally refer to another term in the dictionary):

1,533 words in the Wehewehe database have more than one type. Six of them have six types, but only 346 altogether have more than two types.

See (Trussel 2011-2020) for additional statistical analysis.

Nā Kikino (Nouns)

As discussed above, Hawaiian does not have a strict distinction between nouns and other word types, particularly verbs. Any word that can be used as a verb can also be used as a noun. However, some words that are used as nouns are rarely or never used as verbs. These words are classified as n for nouns in (Pukui/Elbert 1986) and as kikino in (Kamanā/Wilson 2012). n/kikino words are further subdivided into proper nouns (iʻoa) and common nouns (memeʻa), while proper nouns distinguish between names of people, spirits or pets (iʻoa kuhane) and names of places, buildings, canoes and songs (iʻoa paku). Some words function as iʻoa kuhane in certain contexts and iʻoa paku in others. (Kamanā/Wilson 2012 II:5,19).

Nā Meme‘a (Common Noun)

Common nouns (memeʻa) are not capitalized in common usage. Hawaiian names (proper nouns) are generally words with other usages (as common nouns). When the word is used as a name, it is capitalized. Example:

(Kamanā/Wilson 2012 II:5) describes memeʻa as "types of things, actions and conditions".

Nā Iʻoa (Proper Nouns)

(Kamanā/Wilson 2012 II:5) describes iʻoa as "personal names, place names and a few other terms".

As in English, proper nouns are generally capitalized. Proper nouns take the determiner ʻo when functioning as the subject of a sentence, not ka or ke or he. Examples:

When a proper noun functions as the object of a verb, it takes iā rather than i as the object marker. Examples:

That contrasts with i as object marker for common nouns:

If there is a preposition before a common noun with a proper noun as descriptor, it is preferred to repeat the preposition rather than have ‘o between the common noun and the proper noun^[19]:

Proper nouns are further divided into place names (iʻoa paku) and other names (iʻoa kuhane). While all proper nouns take iā instead of i as object marker, a place name takes the preposition i to indicate location or direction.

Historically, the object marker in Proto-Polynesian was *i while the preposition was *ki. The two merged in pronunciation in Hawaiian but should be treated as separate grammatical entities. (Elbert/Pukui 1979:135)

A non-place proper noun takes only an object marker iā; it does not take a preposition (i). Examples:

Nā Helunui (Plurals)

Only a very small number of nouns take a different form when indicating plural. (Elbert/Pukui 1979:106) lists ten such nouns, all of them referring to people; the plural of these nouns has the third from the last vowel lengthened (note that a plural kaʻi /determiner is required when using these):

Plurality is indicated by the definite determiner nā used with a noun or by the plural modifier mau, used with the indefinite determiners he and kekahi and with the possessive and demonstrative pronouns.

Plurality of people and groups can be expressed as shown in the figure below:^[20]

(Alexander 1864:6) adds three collective plural modifiers: poʻe (for people), puʻu (for lifeless things) and pae (for lands or islands). Similar uses are described in (Andrews 1854:39-41).^[21]

(Elbert/Pukui 1979:162) says that poʻe may be used also for inanimate nouns. It also lists kau for more than two items, wahi for a small or insignificant number and nāhi (contraction of nā wahi), but not puʻu or pae as plural markers; kau and nāhi are rarely used.

mau can also be used with collective nouns to indicate multiple instances:

Mass Nouns

The word “some” is used with English words such as “water”, “sand”, and “milk” even when only one unit is intended.  These types of words are known as mass nouns.  The word “some” is used for English words such as “book” only when more than one unit is being referred to.  (Kamanā/Wilson 1977 I:178). In these cases, "some" means "several".

To express "some" of an object type (as opposed to one or more specific instances of it), the following patterns are used:

i/he kikino

(i) kekahi (mau) kikino

For example:

Ua noi ke kuene i kāpiki.

or

Ua noi ke kuene i kekahi mau kāpiki.        
The waitress asked for some cabbage.

Note that he never follows i. (Hawkins 1982:4) In other words, when the noun is an object, it takes only i or only he.

Ua hānau mai ʻo ia he keiki kāne.                She bore a son.

Ua hānau mai ʻo ia i keiki kāne.                She bore a son.

Gender

Male and female instances of a thing represented by a noun are indicated by appending kāne or wahine. In some common cases, a new compound word is formed while in most cases kāne or wahine is written as a separate word.

Nā Iʻoa Henua (Locative Nouns)

A number of nouns for time and place are considered to be locative nouns in Hawaiian. (Elbert/Pukui 1979:120-121) distinguishes between those that can be used with or without the determiner ka/ke (usually with different meanings) and those that can only be used without the determiner. (Elbert/Pukui 1979:121) identifies ten words of the first type:

(Hopkins 1992:126) does not consider muli to be a locative.

(Elbert/Pukui 1979) indicates that mamuli o (because) can be shortened to ma o.

When using or referring to an Iʻoa Henua the kaʻi clarifies the intended meaning.  The following table provides the meaning of the kaʻi and Iʻoa henua combination as well as an example:

Locative nouns of the second type (not used with a determiner) are place names and the following (Elbert/Pukui 1979:121-122):

Time words of the second type (used without a determiner):

When used with motion verbs, the locatives are generally preceded by i. In other cases, they may be preceded by i or ma with no difference in meaning. (Hopkins 1992:126)

When mua and hope are used to express location in time, they are always preceded by ma.

Mua and hope are also used as adverbs and modifiers with "time" meanings.

Nā Papani (Pronouns)

Personal

"Hawaiian distinguishes between singular, dual, and plural. The dual pronouns refer to groups of two people (we two, you two, they two). The plural pronouns refer to groups of three or more... Hawaiian distinguishes between inclusive and exclusive pronouns in the first person dual and plural. There are four Hawaiian pronouns where English uses one word, 'we'." (Hopkins 1992:31).

Meaning of first person plural types:

Dual Inclusive                You and me

Dual Exclusive        We two (not including you)

Plural Inclusive        All of us

Plural Exclusive        We, but not you

As Subject

Examples:

(Elbert/Pukui 1979:109) also discusses haʻi in this context as a pronoun, with the meaning "someone" or "someone else".

Examples:

Nā Kuʻi Papani (As Subject with Additional Participant)

māua and lāua are also used to express I and he/she together with an additional person (or other animate entity), taking ʻo or me to connect the additional entity. (Elbert/Pukui 1979:108-109)

ʻolua may also be used in the same way to express you and an additional person (or other animate entity). (Kamanā/Wilson 2012 II:30)

After a Preposition or Object Marker

After a preposition or the object marker iā, the third person singular pronoun drops the determiner ʻo and becomes ia instead of ʻo ia, while the first person singular form is aʻu. With the object marker iā, the first person singular contracts to iaʻu. As with proper nouns, pronouns take iā as object marker rather than i.

Examples:

Nā Nonoʻa (Possessives)

The basic possessive particles used to build possessive pronouns and possessive relationships in general start with or consist of a or o, depending on if the relationship is o-class or a-class. They are called ʻami nonoʻa iki or ∅-possessives or k-less possessives (because they do not have a prefix). The kaʻi nonoʻa or k-possessives have k prefixed while the ʻami nonoʻa nui or n-possessives have n prefixed.

A k-possessive and its corresponding ∅-possessive pronoun can be used interchangeably, although it requires changing the order of the possessed and possessor.

Nā Kaʻi Nonoʻa (K-possessive)

The singular forms of the k-possessive pronouns have a distinct form with k- prefixed to the ∅-possessive as a single word, while the dual and plural take kā or ko (depending on if it is an a-class or o-class relationship) with the personal pronoun retained unchanged as a separate word. Note that kā and ko are also used with nouns in general to indicate k-type possession, e.g. kā ka haumana puke (the student's book), in the same way. Some authors write kō instead of ko.

a-class

o-class

Examples:

Ko/Kā Ia Nei, Ko/Kā Ia Ala

The k-possessive is used in the following pattern to mean "his here" or "his there":

ko ia nei (pronounced koinei)                his here (o-possessive)

kā ia nei (pronounced kāinei)                his here (a-possessive)

ko ia ala (pronounced koiala)                his there (o-possessive)

kā ia ala (pronounced kāiala)                his there (a-possessive)

Nā ʻAmi Nonoʻa Iki (∅-possessive)

The singular forms of the ∅-possessive pronouns have a distinct single-word form, while the dual and plural take a or o (depending on if it is an a-class or o-class relationship) with the personal pronoun retained unchanged as a separate word. Note that a and o are also used with nouns in general to indicate ∅-type possession, e.g. ka puke a ka haumana (the student's book), in the same way.

a-class

o-class

Examples:

Nā ʻAmi Nonoʻa Nui (N-possessive)

The singular forms of the n-possessive pronouns have a distinct form with n- prefixed to the ∅-possessive as a single word, while the dual and plural take na or no (depending on if it is an a-class or o-class relationship) with the personal pronoun retained unchanged as a separate word. The n-possessive pronouns are used in verbless sentences to ask and answer the question "Whose is this (thing)?" (Hopkins1992:176) Note that na and no are also used with nouns in general to ask and answer similar questions, e.g. na ka haumana ka puke (the book is the student's), in the same way.

Na and no are also used as a preposition to indicate a beneficiary, e,g, No Keola kēia mele. (This song is for/about Keola); Ua haku ʻia kēia mele no Keola. (This song was composed for/about Keola.) Prepositions are discussed below.

Na at the start of a painu (verb) sentence indicates instead that the sentence structure is kālele ʻākena, e.g. Naʻu i holoi i nā pā. (It was I that washed the dishes.) Kālele ʻākena is discussed below.

a-class

o-class

The n-possessive pronouns have a stronger sense of ownership (vs possession) than the k-possessive pronouns:

Naʻu kēlā kaʻa.                            That car is mine.

ʻO kēlā kaʻa koʻu kaʻa.                        That is my car.

They may also indicate "taking ownership/responsibility":

With i (be!, do!) or he, no and na imply "one of".

(Kamanā/Wilson 2012 II:174-175)

Comparison of Pronouns, Third Person Singular

Demonstrative

The demonstratives in Hawaiian consist of k-class and ∅-class. Distinction is made between objects close to the speaker, close to the addressee or far from both. (Elbert/Pukui 1979:93)

k-class and ∅-class:

Ia and ua are generally translated as "the aforementioned". In connected discourse or narration, kēlā preceding a noun means “the” in the sense of aforementioned: Kēlā mau mea, those things. (Pukui/Elbert 1986:143) Ia is more common in conversation than kēlā or kēnā.

A common construction in literature is ua + noun + nei/nā/lā/ala (see below for examples).

Neia is termed an aberrant n-demonstrative by (Elbert/Pukui 1979:110) meaning "this" and is rare, mostly used in the Bible and in mele.