Possessive Determiners

Possessive determiners are words that show how things are connected to other things (such as the speaker). They replace articles. The possessive determiners in Māori are well organised and can be arranged into the following chart.

Explanations of “first person”, “second person”, and “third person” can be found in the Personal Pronouns section.

Explanations of “alienable” and “inalienable” categories can be found in the Possessive Prepositions section.

The examples from the Possessive Prepositions section can be just as readily translated with possessive determiners.

To pluralise any present tense determiner, simply chuck the t away! You could also replace the t with a w or “ng”. For example, “tō” could turn into “ō”, “wō”, or “ngō”.

General possessive determiners are also used with dual and plural personal pronouns.

Singular personal pronouns have their own special forms.

They also have a special neutral form, which disregards alienability. So “ōku makawe” (“my hair”) could be “aku makawe” instead. “tōu waka” could be simply expressed as “tō waka”.

Past tense possessive determiners express that something has been belonging to someone. They can often be translated as “from”.

Future tense possessive determiners function just like past tense ones, but they express that something will belong to someone, or is just about to be theirs. They can often be translated as “for”.

You can ask if somebody wants something by using future tense possessive determiners.

Present tense possessive determiners can also stand on their own. This is how you say that something has something. Whatever part goes first is the part that you want to emphasise.