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Reference

Determiners with objects

All the objects in our examples have been common nouns, pronouns or personal nouns. Like the agent nouns, these usually have a determiner placed before them.

Common nouns

We've seen three determiners that are used with common nouns. All three of them can go before a noun when it is an AGENT. But 'he' cannot be placed before a common noun when it is the OBJECT

Determiner
Before Agents
Before Objects

Te

The (singular)

Yes
Yes

Ngā

The (plural)

Yes
Yes

He

A / some

Yes
No
'He' cannot be placed immediately after 'i', 'ki', 'hei' or 'ki'

Ka kai te rāpeti i te kāreti

Ka

kai

te

rāpeti

i

te

kāreti

(future)

eat

the

rabbit

the

carrot

The rabbit will eat the carrot

Ka kai te rāpeti i ngā kāreti

Ka

kai

te

rāpeti

i

ngā

kāreti

(future)

eat

the

rabbit

the

carrots

The rabbit will eat the carrots

As we have seen, we can use ‘he’ before the AGENT of the sentence, like this:

Ka kai he rāpeti i ngā kāreti

Ka

kai

he

rāpeti

i

ngā

kāreti

(future)

eat

a

rabbit

the

carrots

A rabbit will eat the carrots

But we cannot use the article ‘he’ immediately after the particles ‘i’, ‘ki’, ‘kei’ or ‘hei’, so we cannot put ‘he’ before ‘kāreti’ to mean ‘a carrot’.

Ka

kai

te

rāpeti

i

he

kāreti

is not correct

To say 'a' or 'some' OBJECT, we need to know two new determiners.

Tētahi and ētahi

Like ‘he’, ‘tētahi’ is an indefinite article. It refers to an unspecified instance of a noun, doing the same job as the English indefinite article ‘a’. The plural form, ‘ētahi’ does the same job as the English ’some'.

Unlike ‘he’, we can use ‘tētahi and ‘ētahi’ immediately after particles such as ‘i’ or ‘ki’:

Ka kai he rāpeti i tētahi kāreti

Ka

kai

he

rāpeti

i

tētahi

kāreti

(future)

eat

a

rabbit

a

carrot

A rabbit will eat a carrot

Ka kai he rāpeti i ētahi kāreti

Ka

kai

he

rāpeti

i

ētahi

kāreti

(future)

eat

a

rabbit

some

carrots

A rabbit will eat some carrots

E tuhi ana koe ki tētahi pene

E

tuhi

ana

koe

ki

tētahi

pene

(now+
'ing')

writing

you

with

a

pen

You are writing with a pen

Personal nouns

When the AGENT is a personal noun, we place the personal article ‘a’ before the personal noun.

The same applies when the OBJECT is a personal noun:

Ka oma a Wiremu i a Te Aroha

Ka

oma

a

Wiremu

i

a

Te Aroha

(future)

run

Wiremu

from

Te Aroha

Wiremu will run from Te Aroha

I horoi a Marama i a Rangi

I

horoi

a

Marama

i

a

Rangi

(past)

washed

Marama

i

a

Rangi

Marama washed Rangi

Pronouns

When the AGENT is a personal pronoun, we don’t put anything else in front of it.

But when the OBJECT is a pronoun, we do put the personal article ‘a’ before the pronoun.

Ka whakaako koe i a tātou

Ka

whakaako

koe

i

a

tātou

(future)

teach

you

us (3+)

You will teach us

Note that there is no ‘a’ before the AGENT ‘koe’, but there is before the OBJECT ‘tātou'.

There is one exception to this. We don’t put ‘a’ before the first person pronoun ‘ahau’ (I/me).

E katakata ana koe ki ahau

E

katakata

ana

koe

ki

ahau

(now+
'ing')

laughing

you

at

me

You are laughing at me

There is no ‘a’ before ‘ahau’. Now look at this sentence with the same meaning:

E katakata ana koe ki a au

E

katakata

ana

koe

ki

a

au

(now+
'ing')

laughing

you

at

me

You are laughing at me

We do need an ‘a’ before ‘au'. The only pronoun OBJECT that doesn't need 'a' before it is 'ahau'. All the others do need 'a' before them.

A couple more examples of OBJECT personal pronouns:

I horoi au i a ia

I

horoi

au

i

a

ia

(past)

washed

I

him

I washed him

I kī a Rangi ki a rāua

I

kī

a

Rangi

ki

a

rāua

(past)

said

Rangi

to

them (2)

Rangi said to them

Note the verb ‘kī’ (the i has a pōtae) which means ’say’. Not to be confused with the preposition ‘ki'.