"My family is from Molokaʻi."

Translation: No Molokaʻi koʻu ʻohana.

[MitchTalmadge]

How is No used?

[jdmcowan]

In this lesson it appears to mean "from". It may have additional uses, but not in this lesson.

[darian219105]

Sentence structures get real tricky in this lesson...

[lagrasshopper]

Hawaiian word order does sound in reverse order to our English ears. Instead of saying "I am good" they say "Good, I" or "Maika'i au".

[Mak511906]

Molokai is NOT a typo; it is a spelling just as valid as the one with the 'okina.

[jdmcowan]

In English. But if you leave out the ʻokina when entering your Hawaiian translation, you have misspelled the word.

[whale_kai]

Are you certain? I was told otherwise by people from the island.

[jdmcowan]

I'm no expert and know very little about such disagreement. Sources I've been able to find say that the etymology and meaning are lost to time, so there's no way to prove which pronunciation is historically correct. I have heard Hawaiian speakers from Moloka‘i say it with the ‘okina and all the Hawaiian language instruction materials I have seen spell it with the ‘okina. I have also seen materials produced by those living on Molokai that spell it without the 'okina. But most importantly, this course spells it with an ‘okina, which is really what I was trying to say above.

[whale_kai]

Is the spelling of Molokaʻi controversial? When I was there, a family from the Hālawa valley claimed that it was pronounced molo-kai without the ʻokina, as kai means sea.

[BethKing-M]

It's not really controversial any more, as folks here have come to accept the common misspelling ("Moloka‘i") as the way people not from here say/spell our island. Traditionally, it is both spelled and pronounced correctly "Molokai" - this is NOT a misspelling here. Both spellings should be accepted in this sentence.