"ʻO nehinei ka Lāpule."

Translation: Yesterday was Sunday.

[RonRGB]

ʻO nehinei ka pōʻahia? = Yesterday was what day?

ʻO nehinei ka Lāpule. = Yesterday was Sunday.

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Nā iʻoa = the names

These are typically words that are the specific name of an individual. Kaipo is the name of a specific individual person. Kauaʻi is the name of a specific individual place. (Nā iʻoa / The names) are easy to identify except for a few special cases such as: (ʻaneʻi / here), (ʻō / there), (hea / where?), and (wai /who?), and (nehinei / yesterday) .

nehinei = yesterday

laila = there

Hawaiʻi = Hawaii (name of a place)

hea = where

Honolulu = a city (name of a place)

Kaipo = name of a person

wai = who

ʻaneʻi = here

ʻō = there

He lā mālie ʻo nehinei. = Yesterday was a clear day.

[MadameSensei]

RonRGB, mahalo. I really appreciate you putting these explanations in every discussion. So no matter where I click, there I have it.

[Wisemek]

So why does this sentence use "O" while "The holiday is Saturday" uses "He"?

[MacKinzieRob]

"Yestereday was a Sunday' won't work? She says "Never on Sunday" He grins and says "Yesterday was a Sunday"

[RuthieMW]

"'o nehini ka lāpule" is referring to past tense, but i don't think there is any grammatical way of seeing this (other than the word yesterday).

Is that because there is no "is/was/be" or does Hawaiian just handle tense in a whole other way?

Sorry if this is a dumb question - this language is keeping me on my toes!

Mahalo