Grammar
Hawaiian is an analytic language and a verb–subject–object language. While there is no use of inflection for verbs, in Hawaiian, like other Austronesian personal pronouns, declension is found in the differentiation between a- and o-class genitive case personal pronouns in order to indicate inalienable possession in a binary possessive class system. Also like many Austronesian languages, Hawaiian pronouns employ separate words for inclusive and exclusive we, and distinguish singular, dual, and plural. The grammatical function of verbs is marked by adjacent particles (short words) and their relative positions to indicate tense–aspect–mood.
Some examples verb phrase patterns:
- ua verb perfective
- e verb ana imperfective
- ke verb nei present progressive
- e verb imperative
- mai verb negative imperative
Nouns can be marked with articles:
- ka honu the turtle
- nā honu the turtles
- ka hale the house
- ke kanaka the person
ka and ke are singular definite articles. ke is used before words beginning with a-, e-, o- and k-, and with some words beginning ʻ- and p-. ka is used in all other cases. nā is the plural definite article.
To show part of a group, the word kekahi is used. To show a bigger part, you would insert mau to pluralize the subject
Examples:
- kekahi pipi one of the cows
- kekahi mau pipi some of the cows
Read more about this topic: Hawaiian Language
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