NCEA Level 2 Te Reo Māori cheat sheet

NCEA Level 2 listening texts are delivered in natural-speed te reo Māori; key information is usually carried by the verb phrase, not by every noun, so track the verb first.

Passive endings mark who receives the action: -tia, -hia, -kia, -mia, -ngia, -ria, -a (e.g. kōrerotia, tuhia, kainga); hearing the ending tells you the object is being acted on.

Directional particles signal movement relative to speaker: mai = towards speaker, atu = away, ake = upwards/towards, iho = downwards; they change the meaning of verbs like haere, tuku, homai.

Tense/aspect markers to catch at the start of clauses: kua (perfect), e...ana (present/ongoing), i (past), ka (sequential/future), e...ai (habitual/future), kia (purpose/wish).

Negation is carried by kāore/kāre (kāore i, kāore e, kāore ano) and by kore/kaua; hearing kāore flips the polarity of everything that follows in that clause.

Question cues to listen for: wai (who), aha (what), hea (where), āhea (when, future), nāhea (when, past), pēhea (how), e hia (how many), he aha te take (why).

Numbers and quantities: tekau (10), rua tekau (20), kotahi rau (100); counting people uses toko- (tokorua = two people) while counting things does not.

Macrons distinguish meaning and are audible as vowel length: kākā (parrot) vs kaka (garment), rōpū (group) vs ropu; a long vowel can change the whole sense of a sentence.

Formal speech (whaikōrero) structure: tauparapara/whakataukī opening, mihi to the house and the dead, acknowledgement of the hosts, then the take (topic), then whakamutunga (closing).

Mihi order convention: mihi ki te atua, ki ngā tūpāpaku, ki te whenua, ki te whare, ki te tangata whenua, ki ngā manuhiri, then mihi ki a koe/ki a koutou.

Pōwhiri sequence: karanga → whaikōrero → waiata tautoko → koha → hongi/harirū → hākari; a speaker's waiata supports the speech and is led by the speaker's group.

Use 'au' as subject and 'i a au'/'ki a au' after prepositions; 'māu' (for you), 'māku' (for me), 'nāu' (by you), 'nāku' (by me) show possession in speech.

Tūhono/pronoun choice: māua (two, excluding listener), tāua (two, including listener), mātou (3+, excluding), tātou (3+, including) - inclusivity must match who is present.

Ā/ō possession: ā-class for movable/acquired things (taku whare, āku pukapuka), ō-class for people, body parts, water, land and things inherited (tōku whānau, ōku mātua).

Pronunciation targets for assessment: hold long vowels for roughly two morae, keep stress on the first long vowel of a word, pronounce 'ng' as in singer and 'wh' as an 'f'-like sound.

In conversation use 'ēngari'/'engari' (but), 'nā te mea' (because), 'ā' (and then), 'kia ora' responses, and back-channel with 'āe', 'ka pai', 'tika tonu' to sustain the exchange.

Identify the sentence type by its first word: 'Ko' (equative, X is Y), 'He' (indefinite article, a/some), 'Kei/Kei te' (location or present tense), 'Kua' (perfect), 'E...ana' (present continuous).

Passive sentence order: verb-passive + e + agent + object (e.g. I tuhia te reta e Hine = the letter was written by Hine); the 'e' marks the agent.

Cause and reason markers: nā te mea / nō te mea (because), nā/nō + noun (caused by, from), mā/mō (for, by way of), ki (to), i (past/at, by).

Relative clauses use 'ai' or 'nei/nā/rā': te tangata i haere mai nei (the person who came here); nei = near speaker, nā = near listener, rā = over there.

Whakataukī are figurative: read the literal image then apply the moral; e.g. 'He kākano ahau i ruia mai i Rangiātea' asserts genealogical origin, not literal seed.

Macrons and apostrophe-free spelling change meaning: 'te rā' (the day/sun) vs 'tera' (that); 'kōrero' (speak) vs 'korero' (no standard meaning) - check length marks when decoding.

Numbers in text: 'tuatahi, tuarua, tuatoru' = first, second, third; 'tekau mā rua' = 12; dates use 'te rā' + number + month (te 5 o Hōngongoi).

Cohesion cues: 'otirā' (moreover), 'engari' (but), 'nō reira' (therefore), 'me te mea' (as if), 'ahakoa' (although) - these signal the argument's direction in longer passages.

Sentence-initial particles dictate grammar: 'Kua' + verb + object (perfect), 'I' + verb + i + object (past), 'Ka' + verb (sequential), 'E' + verb + ana (ongoing), 'Me' + verb (should).

Passive formation by verb class: -a (tuhi→tuhia), -tia (kōrero→kōrerotia), -hia (aroha→arohahia), -kia (tuku→tukuna), -mia (tāmi→tāmimia), -ngia (hopu→hopukia), -ria (kimi→kimihia).

'Kei te' states present location/action; 'Kei' alone states location (Kei te kura a Hemi = Hemi is at school); 'Ki te' introduces condition (ki te hiahia koe = if you want).

Word order for 'have/own': 'He' + noun + 'a/ō' + possessor (He pukapuka āku = I have books); use ā-class for things, ō-class for people/body parts.

Use 'kia' for purpose and wish (I haere au ki te kura kia ako ai = I went to school in order to learn); 'ai' follows when the purpose verb is intransitive.

Commas separate mihi elements and subordinate clauses; macrons are obligatory in formal writing (Māori, whānau, kōrero) and their omission is a spelling error.

Formal register markers: 'tēnā koe/koutou' opening, 'nāku noa, nā' or 'nā [name]' closing, 'hei kupu whakamutunga' for a concluding statement.

Direct speech uses 'hei tāna' / 'e ai ki a' (according to) plus the quote; indirect speech keeps the same tense markers as the original clause.