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- "She is my grandmother."
"She is my grandmother."
Translation:ʻO ia koʻu tūtū wahine.
18 Comments
Wouldn't it depend on whether the goal is to identify "my grandmother" or "that woman"? Wouldn't Koʻu tūtū wahine ʻo ia mean anything in Hawaiian?
You are close with your alternative sentence. You just need to start it with 'O - ‘O ko‘u tūtū wahine ‘o ia. Your alternative is a more common word order in Tahitian grammar, but in Hawaiian ʻO ia koʻu tūtū wahine. is a bit more common. Both are correct, though.
You cannot have He and ko'u together like that. He is indefinite meaning A. That literally says She is a my grandmother. So instead of He, that sentence would start with ‘O - ‘O ko'u tūtū wahine 'o ia.
So the English distinction between ("Who's that?") "She's my GRANDMOTHER" and ("Who's your grandmother?") "SHE is my grandmother" can't be translated to Hawaiian?
I answered "He ko'u tūtū wahine 'o ia" and the program marked me wrong, but when I entered that same phrase into my online translator, it gave me back "She is my grandmother." Can someone explain to me (and apparently to the online translator) what is the fine difference here? And what nuance are we supposed to be picking up from this fine discrepancy. E kokua mai.
The sentence:
"He koʻu tūtū wahine ʻo ia"
translates literally to:
"A my grandparent woman she."
"He" means "a". Most translators for Hawaiian are not very accurate and you should only rely on them for a rough guideline. If you look at the answer for this question:
"ʻO ia koʻu tūtū wahine"
And its literal translation:
"She my grandparent woman"
You can see how it flows a little better. I think you are mixing up "he" with some of the earlier translations in Duolingo, such as:
"He tūtū wahine ʻo ia."
This translates literally to:
"A grandparent woman she."
And means "She is a grandma". I hope this helps a bit. I'm not sure exactly what questions to address but I hope this helps with any confusion.
Isn't there a conflict between "he" and "ko'u"? Like "She is a my grandmother"?
"He" means "a"? All the time I've thought that "he" means "is". I am so confused.
There is no "is" in Hawaiian. Equality is usually just implied. "He" means "a".
Twice - since the very next question I got was the same - at least they're consistent. As was I. Yep. Still "wrong."
902
When do you use "he" and when do you use "ʻo" at the beginning of a sentence? Because both are used in equative sentences and Iʻm getting a bit confused.
He at the beginning is for indefinite only - a/an. ‘O is for definite - basically everything else - the, that, those, this, these, possessives like my or her or their, proper nouns like names, etc.
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The spelling should be kuku (still pronounced tutu).. Also, can't we do kupuna-? That's how my dad refers to my grandparents when he asks us to look for them
