"Yes, today is hot."

Translation: ʻAe, wela kēia lā.

[kananileialoha]

Does anyone know why it wouldn't be "'Ae, wela i keia la." I thought that "Wela i ka la" would be "The day is hot" (Hot is the day) and therefore "Wela i keia la" would be "Today is hot" (Hot is this day).

[kelii....]

"Wela i kēia lā." means "It is hot today", whereby i kēia lā is just a prepositional phrase of time. "Wela kēia lā" is using kēia lā as the subject of the sentence - "Today is hot", instead of It is hot.

[DCnF91]

A similar sentence wanted ke before ikiiki. 'Ae ke ikiiki o Hilo, but this one does not need ke?
I understand that ke (or ka) is a definite article but I don't yet understand when to use it for these weather phrases.

I would also argue that this isn't the best topic to use for the distinction between possessive and the preposition in. I am having a hard time with o Hilo vs. i Hilo.

[Mak511906]

In all the nuances of 'ōlelo Hawai'i, surely there's a way to distinguish between the situations when today is "kēia lā" and when it's just "kēia" - mana'o anyone?

[kelii....]

There is no one word for today - to say today in Hawaiian, you are actually saying this day - "kēia lā". The word "kēia" only means this.

[UilaniPisa]

That is super helpful. Thank you!

[BethKing-M]

Yes, and sometimes the program wants "kēia lā" and sometimes it wants "kēia." IS there a way to know which to use in a given situation?

[UilaniPisa]

Yes. As Kelii mentioned above, Kēia mearly means this. Therefore if the translation is asking for This is pretty, you want He nani kēia. If you want a pretty day, you want He la nani. And if you want Today (this day) is a pretty day, then you want He la nani I kēia la. So when you see kēia la you know it means today, and la means day, and a solo kēia just means this. Savvy?

[SuaveDave317244]

I thought day was "lā". But what do I know?

[Eliza727459]

Yes, la is "day." Re-read the above explanation.

[UilaniPisa]

That's exactly what i was just trying to figure out!

[Everlighta]

Tell me please, could I say: ʻAe, ka wela o kēia lā. If I meant: Yes, there is a heat today. Would it be grammatically correct?

[kelii....]

That structure of yours would not work as is. it is just a noun phrase. It just means - Yes, the heat of today (this day). There is no expression in Hawaiian equivalent to There is/are. It is best to say Wela kēia lā. or Wela i kēia lā. If you want to use wela as a noun, then you could say He wela ko kēia lā. or He wela i kēia lā.

[Everlighta]

Thank you for respond! I got it! But i'm puzzled with the sentence you wrote: Wela i kēia lā. Here is no subject? No 'ka' and 'i' precedes 'kēia'. Is it possible? And I also feel hesitancy about indefinite article here: He wela i kēia lā. I haven't noticed this during lessons, only 'ka', 'Ka makani i kēia lā'.

[kelii....]

Wela i kēia lā. - It is like Spanish. Weather sentences often do not have subjects, because one is not needed. It is hot today. The word kēia replaces ka (this replaces the), and the word i shows that "today" (kēia lā) is just an added time phrase. Without the word i, then kēia lā would be the subject of Wela - Today is hot. as opposed to It is hot today.

[kelii....]

As for He wela i kēia lā. you wanted to know how to say There is heat today. That is one way to do it. He changes wela from an adjective to a noun. Wela i kēia lā. = It is hot today. He wela i kēia lā. = There is heat today.

[Everlighta]

I'll keep it on mind! Thank you! As I'm trying to learn Hawaiian from very zero knowledge of it, every detail is important :)