NCEA L1 Gagana Tokelau cheat sheet

The Tokelauan alphabet has 15 letters: a, e, i, o, u, f, g, k, l, m, n, p, t, v, h; the letters h, r, s, w, y and b, c, d, q, x, z do not occur in native words.

Vowel length is phonemic and marked with a macron (toe = 'all' vs tō = 'to plant/sugarcane'); a macron changes meaning, so hearing or reading it correctly is a comprehension point, not decoration.

The definite articles are te (singular) and nā (plural); te is also used with proper personal names, e.g. te tamaiti, nā tamaiti.

Word order is predicate-first (VSO): Kua fano te tamaiti ki te fale ('The child has gone to the house') - the verb phrase precedes the subject.

The prepositions/conjunctions i and ki mark location and direction respectively: i te fale ('in/at the house') vs ki te fale ('to the house').

Possessive categories mark a/o and alienable/inalienable: toku/taku-type forms (a-class) contrast with oku/aku-type forms (o-class); choosing the wrong class is a grammatical error.

Negation uses hē before nominals and kafai...hē / hēki patterns for verbal negation; recognising the negative particle is a key listening cue.

In viewing tasks, track speaker, setting and purpose: who is speaking to whom, where, and whether the text is a greeting, an announcement, an interview or a story - these determine which register and vocabulary are expected.

Formal greeting pattern: Mālō ni / Mālō te ma’uli - use the appropriate greeting for one person versus a group, and match the response.

Farewell register: use fā (informal 'bye') with peers, but a fuller formal closing for elders or an audience; register choice is assessed in speaking tasks.

Written text types for Level 1 include personal letter, simple narrative, notice, invitation and description; each has a conventional opening, body and closing.

Use the macron consistently in written work; omitting it changes word identity (e.g. distinguishing meanings between long and short vowels).

Sentence building: start from a verb phrase (Kua/Ka/E) then subject then object/location; E marks present/habitual, Kua marks completed, Ka marks future.

Direct speech is introduced with the quotative and the person marker, and pronouns change inside quotes (au 'I' vs koe 'you'); reported speech shifts these.

Presentation structure: mihi/greeting, statement of topic, two to three supporting points, then closing thanks; keep sentences short and use known vocabulary over borrowed words.

Pronunciation checkpoints: stress falls on the penultimate syllable unless a macron or glottal-like break shifts it; vowel sequences are pronounced as separate vowels, not diphthongs.

Tokelau is made up of three atolls - Atafu, Nukunonu and Fakaofo - and Tokelauan identity is tied to the atoll (village) as much as to the language.

The extended family (kaiga) and the village community (nuku) are core social units; forms of address and obligation reflect seniority and kinship.

Respect register: elders (toeaina, and the council of elders) receive deferential language; the taupou/fono roles and the village council (fono) shape who speaks in formal settings.

Christianity is central to community life; church vocabulary and hymns are a major domain of Tokelauan language use and literacy.

Tokelauan is a Polynesian language closely related to Samoan and Tuvaluan; shared cognates aid comprehension but false friends exist, so do not assume Samoan forms are identical.

Large Tokelauan communities live in Aotearoa New Zealand (especially Wellington and Auckland), so language use spans homeland and diaspora contexts, including radio, church and family domains.

Code-switching between Tokelauan and English is normal in diaspora settings; recognising when and why a speaker switches is part of intercultural understanding.

Respect protocols for a marae/community setting: remove shoes indoors, do not pass in front of speakers, and acknowledge hosts before speaking; these are assessed as cultural knowledge.

Authentic text types at Level 1: weather and shipping-style notices, church notices, family letters, radio announcements, songs and simple news items.

Receptive strategies: identify the text type and purpose first, then locate key content words (who, what, where, when) before translating word by word.

Cognate strategy: many Tokelauan words share Polynesian roots (fale 'house', vai 'water', ika 'fish'); use known roots to infer unknown compounds.

Inference from context: unknown nouns can often be classified by the article (te/nā) and by the preposition that follows (i vs ki) to determine role in the sentence.

Numbers and time: counting uses the numeral plus a classifier for people versus things; time expressions use i and specific day words, so check which is being asked.

Productive strategy: build sentences from a small set of verb markers (E, Kua, Ka, Koi) plus a known subject and location phrase rather than translating English structure.

Vocabulary learning by domain: household, school, church, fishing/voyaging and village life cover most Level 1 topics; group new words by domain rather than alphabetically.

Assessment evidence: for each skill, show understanding by responding in Tokelauan where the task is productive, and use full phrases rather than single words where a sentence is requested.

The Tokelauan alphabet has 15 letters: a, e, i, o, u, f, g, k, l, m, n, p, t, v, h; the letters h, r, s, w, y and b, c, d, q, x, z do not occur in native words.

Vowel length is phonemic and marked with a macron (toe = 'all' vs tō = 'to plant/sugarcane'); a macron changes meaning, so hearing or reading it correctly is a comprehension point, not decoration.

The definite articles are te (singular) and nā (plural); te is also used with proper personal names, e.g. te tamaiti, nā tamaiti.

Word order is predicate-first (VSO): Kua fano te tamaiti ki te fale ('The child has gone to the house') - the verb phrase precedes the subject.

The prepositions/conjunctions i and ki mark location and direction respectively: i te fale ('in/at the house') vs ki te fale ('to the house').

Possessive categories mark a/o and alienable/inalienable: toku/taku-type forms (a-class) contrast with oku/aku-type forms (o-class); choosing the wrong class is a grammatical error.

Negation uses hē before nominals and kafai...hē / hēki patterns for verbal negation; recognising the negative particle is a key listening cue.

In viewing tasks, track speaker, setting and purpose: who is speaking to whom, where, and whether the text is a greeting, an announcement, an interview or a story - these determine which register and vocabulary are expected.

Formal greeting pattern: Mālō ni / Mālō te ma’uli - use the appropriate greeting for one person versus a group, and match the response.

Farewell register: use fā (informal 'bye') with peers, but a fuller formal closing for elders or an audience; register choice is assessed in speaking tasks.

Written text types for Level 1 include personal letter, simple narrative, notice, invitation and description; each has a conventional opening, body and closing.

Use the macron consistently in written work; omitting it changes word identity (e.g. distinguishing meanings between long and short vowels).

Sentence building: start from a verb phrase (Kua/Ka/E) then subject then object/location; E marks present/habitual, Kua marks completed, Ka marks future.

Direct speech is introduced with the quotative and the person marker, and pronouns change inside quotes (au 'I' vs koe 'you'); reported speech shifts these.

Presentation structure: mihi/greeting, statement of topic, two to three supporting points, then closing thanks; keep sentences short and use known vocabulary over borrowed words.

Pronunciation checkpoints: stress falls on the penultimate syllable unless a macron or glottal-like break shifts it; vowel sequences are pronounced as separate vowels, not diphthongs.

Tokelau is made up of three atolls - Atafu, Nukunonu and Fakaofo - and Tokelauan identity is tied to the atoll (village) as much as to the language.

The extended family (kaiga) and the village community (nuku) are core social units; forms of address and obligation reflect seniority and kinship.

Respect register: elders (toeaina, and the council of elders) receive deferential language; the taupou/fono roles and the village council (fono) shape who speaks in formal settings.

Christianity is central to community life; church vocabulary and hymns are a major domain of Tokelauan language use and literacy.

Tokelauan is a Polynesian language closely related to Samoan and Tuvaluan; shared cognates aid comprehension but false friends exist, so do not assume Samoan forms are identical.

Large Tokelauan communities live in Aotearoa New Zealand (especially Wellington and Auckland), so language use spans homeland and diaspora contexts, including radio, church and family domains.

Code-switching between Tokelauan and English is normal in diaspora settings; recognising when and why a speaker switches is part of intercultural understanding.

Respect protocols for a marae/community setting: remove shoes indoors, do not pass in front of speakers, and acknowledge hosts before speaking; these are assessed as cultural knowledge.

Authentic text types at Level 1: weather and shipping-style notices, church notices, family letters, radio announcements, songs and simple news items.

Receptive strategies: identify the text type and purpose first, then locate key content words (who, what, where, when) before translating word by word.

Cognate strategy: many Tokelauan words share Polynesian roots (fale 'house', vai 'water', ika 'fish'); use known roots to infer unknown compounds.

Inference from context: unknown nouns can often be classified by the article (te/nā) and by the preposition that follows (i vs ki) to determine role in the sentence.

Numbers and time: counting uses the numeral plus a classifier for people versus things; time expressions use i and specific day words, so check which is being asked.

Productive strategy: build sentences from a small set of verb markers (E, Kua, Ka, Koi) plus a known subject and location phrase rather than translating English structure.

Vocabulary learning by domain: household, school, church, fishing/voyaging and village life cover most Level 1 topics; group new words by domain rather than alphabetically.

Assessment evidence: for each skill, show understanding by responding in Tokelauan where the task is productive, and use full phrases rather than single words where a sentence is requested.