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Whakahuatanga

Whakahuatanga

Oropuare

There are five vowel sounds in te reo Māori. a Δ, e Δ, i Δ, o Δ, and u Δ. They can be pronounced poto (short) and roa (long). Long vowels are signified with a tohu (macron "¯").

Orokati

There are ten consonants in te reo Māori.

ng and wh are digraphs, two letters that make one sound. ng as in singer, wh as in fish.

Hou

See the Tai Ako app for pronunciation guidance (Android, Apple(approve sites), Windows(approve sites)). The Māori Dictionary provides a spoken example for the words in it. See many of these hou (sounds) on a page Pūrārangi Māori.

About

kupu and syllables

All Māori kūoro (syllables) and kupu (words) end with a vowel. Consonant clusters do not occur. (Read more(approve sites)).

To assist with determining how to pronounce tētahi kupu

• scan the kupu for repetition, e.g. kōrerorero can be viewed as kō-rero-rero
• pronounce each syllable and syllable group, ensuring long vowels are pronounced

Cardinality

Kupuingoa (nouns) in te reo Māori do not express cardinality (with a few exceptions - see below).  (Read more).

The definite articles "te" and "ngā" can be thought of as the singlar and plural "the". For example "te rorohiko" (the computer), "ngā waea pūkoro" (the cell phones).
The Indefinite articles "tētahi and "ētahi can be thought of as the singular and plural "a" or "an". To express "a keyboard" use "tētahi papa pātuhi", and "some documents" use "ētahi pukapuka".

All the cardinality exceptions relate to people. (Read more). These are:

• matua (“parent”); plural: mātua (“parents”);
• taina or teina (“younger sister of a female or younger brother of a male”); plural: tāina or tēina;
• tuakana (“older sister of a female or older brother of a male”); plural: tuākana;
• tuahine (sister of a male); plural: tuāhine;
• tipuna or tupuna (“ancestor”); plural: tīpuna or tūpuna (“ancestors”);
• wahine (“woman”); plural: wāhine (“women”); 
• tangata (“person”); plural: tāngata (“people”);
• tamaiti (“child”); plural: tamariki (“children”), the only case where the kupu changes.