"ʻAʻole ʻono ka laiki."

Translation: The rice is not delicious.

[CharlesWil267432]

you do not need a "the" here since ka laiki can mean rice in general as in the phrase "he does not eat rice"-- 'a'ole 'o ia 'ai i ka laiki

[MacKinzieRob]

But there are two quite different possibilities
1) w/o the article it means that the speaker does not like the taste of rice at all
2) w/ the article it means than this particular batch of rice does not taste good to the speaker

[Pohaikealoha]

‘Ae. It can be used in two different ways: to either say "Rice isn't delicious" or "The rice isn't delicious" depending on the context. It is perfectly okay for them to start the english sentence with "The."

It'd be nice if there were side notes that indicated other acceptable translations and usages though. :)