Te tika o te reo - grammar, syntax and accuracy
What this domain tests
Te tika o te reo is where small slips are punished hardest, because a wrong particle or passive ending changes who did what. The exam checks that you control the core sentence patterns, the a/o possession split, tense and aspect markers, negatives, and passive formations.
Sentence patterns to command
- Ko te/ngā ... - identification: Ko Mere te kaiako.
- He ... - classification: He kaiako a Mere.
- Kei te ... / E ... ana - present: Kei te kōrero ia / E kōrero ana ia.
- I / Kua / Ka / E ... ai / Ana - past, perfect, narrative, habitual.
- Kāore ... i / Kāore ... e and Ehara ... i a - negatives.
- Mā / Nā - agent emphatic: Nā Mere i tuhi te reta.
Possession: a and o
a for what you acquire or initiate - āku pukapuka, āku tamariki, āku mahi. o for what you belong to or inherit - tōku whānau, ōku mātua, tōku whenua, tōku ingoa, ōku tūpuna.
Passive endings
-a, -ia, -tia, -hia, -ngia, -ria, -na, -ina, -nga. The ending attaches to the active verb stem (kai → kaingia, tuhi → tuhia, kōrero → kōrerotia), so learn the active form and the passive together.
Worked example
Original: I kī a Mere ki a au, "Kia ora." Corrected: I kī mai a Mere ki a au, "Kia ora." Reasoning: mai marks the direction of the speech act towards the speaker. Without it the sentence is not ungrammatical, but it is imprecise, and the same test applies to haere mai / haere atu and homai / hoatu. Note also ki a au, not ki ahau, after the preposition.
Traps that cost marks
Using tāku with whānau or whenua; ki ahau instead of ki a au; i a koe where i ā koe is needed; a macron that changes the word (wā / wa); mixing kei te with e ... ana in one clause; inventing a passive ending instead of learning it.