Te hāngai o te whakaputa - purpose, audience and context
What this domain tests
Te hāngai o te whakaputa asks whether your Māori fits the job it is doing. Before a single sentence is written or spoken you need three answers: he aha te kaupapa, ko wai te hunga whakarongo, ā, he aha te horopaki? Everything else - register, length, address forms, structure - follows from those.
Address forms and number agreement
- Tēnā koe - one person. Tēnā kōrua - two. Tēnā koutou - three or more.
- E te whānau, e ngā rangatira, e te kaiako - the article changes with number (te singular, ngā plural).
- Ki a koe e hoa works between peers; a kaumātua or a formal panel needs the fuller form.
Tikanga in formal contexts
Open with acknowledgement of the whenua and the dead before the living. On a marae the tangata whenua speak first; you do not place yourself ahead of them. At a tangihanga, mihi ki te hunga mate is not optional - skipping it is a context failure, not a style choice.
Matching text type to purpose
A mihi whakatau at a workplace morning tea needs warmth and brevity. A letter of application needs structure, evidence and formal register. A pānui to whānau needs the key facts first - rā, wā, wāhi - before commentary.
Worked example
You must open a short speech at a tangihanga and at a workplace farewell. Same words? No. At the tangihanga: Tēnei te tangi atu ki a koutou kua hinga atu, ki te whānau pani hoki - ka nui te aroha. At the farewell: Tēnā koutou katoa; he rā harikoa tēnei, engari he rā pouri hoki i te wehenga atu o tētahi hoa mahi. Reasoning: the first foregrounds mate and whānau pani because that is the kaupapa; the second can name a mood that mixes celebration and loss. Same language, different hāngai.
Traps that cost marks
One register for every occasion; tēnā koe to a group; ignoring the audience named in the task; a kīwaha inside a formal letter; a mihi that forgets the whenua and the dead.