"The farmer is handsome."

Translation: Uʻi ka mahiʻai.

[IPPSl411]

Nohea ka mahi'ai is more appropriate.

[deactivated user]

I would think that nohea is a better descriptor. U'i implies young and beautiful. Nohea implies handsome, though very similar. Nani does not necessarily imply young, merely pretty.

[KarinLynn1]

I had a note to myself that nani was for inanimate objects, but maybe that meant can be used for both - but for inanimate only nani, not u'i or nohea (is that right?)

[DCnF91]

Why does the adjective precede the noun here?

[SDB333]

My understanding of the grammar goes like this: for an English sentence such as: "A is B," the Hawaiian sentence becomes "B A." This makes it a complete sentence.

In this sentence "A" is "the farmer" (ka mahiʻai) and "B" is "handsome" (uʻi). So "the farmer is handsome" becomes "uʻi ka mahiʻai."

[Tania906424]

Why ''u'i ka mahi'ai'' isn't just ''the handsome farmer''?

[SDB333]

That would be "ka mahi'ai u'i." See my response to DCnF91, or Jessi784299's comment below.