Hawaiian grammar

This article provides a brief sketch of grammar in the Hawaiian language.

yntax

Hawaiian is a verb subject object language. The only exception is if the sentence has a negative mood and the subject is a pronoun, in which case word order is subject verb object instead (e.g. ‘a‘ole ‘oia e puka ana 'he won't graduate'). Within the noun phrase, adjectives follow the noun (e.g. ka hale li‘ili‘i 'the small house'), while possessors precede it (e.g. kou hale 'your house'). Hawaiian, like English, is a non-pro-drop language. Nonetheless, there is an exception with commands, where the use of subject pronouns is optional. In these cases, the subject pronoun is usually never used if the context deems it unnecessary, as in "e hele i ke kula" "go to school"; here, the subject "you" is understood, and can be omitted.

Nouns

Gender

In Hawaiian, there is no grammatical gender. The word for third person (she, he, it) is "ia". It is commonly preceded by "okinao" as in "okinao ia".

Place deixis

Number and articles

In Hawaiian, the noun does not change form to determine the number. Rather, the article changes to determine the number.

Generally, the singular definite articles are "ke" when the noun begins with the letter "k", "e", "a", or "o" and "ka" when the noun begins with any other letter. The plural definite article is "nā". The singular indefinite article is "he". Examples:

:"ka puke" (the book) vs. "nā puke" (the books)

:"ke pākaukau" (the table) vs. "nā pākaukau" (the tables)

:"He kanaka maika‘i ia." ('A-person-good-s/he.' S/He is a good person.)

To pluralize nouns marked with a possessive, add "mau" between the possessive and the noun.

:"ka‘u mau puke" (my books)

:"kona mau peni" (his books)

Case

Plural personal pronouns may refer to two people or three.

Class

Most Hawaiian nouns belong to one of two classes, known as the "o-class" and the "a-class". Classes are only taken into account when using the genitive case (see table above).

O-class nouns, in general, are nouns whose creation cannot be controlled by the subject, such as "inoa" "name", "puokinauwai" "heart", and "hale" "house". Specific categories for o-class nouns include: modes of transportation (e.g. "kaokinaa" "car" and "lio" "horse"), things that you can sit on or wear (e.g. "noho" "chair", "okinaeke" "bag", and "lole" "clothes"), and people in your generation and previous generations (e.g. "makuahine" "mother").

A-class nouns, in general, are those whose creation can be controlled, such as "waihookinaoluokinau" "color", as in "kaokinau waihookinaoluokinau punahele" "my favorite color". Specific categories include: your boyfriend or girlfriend ("ipo") and future generations in your line (all of your descendants, but not your siblings' descendants).