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- "He does not like his cousins…
"He does not like his cousins."
Translation:ʻAʻole ʻo ia makemake i nā hoa hānau.
24 Comments
189
so I assume that means that "mau" makes "kona hoa hānau" plural? (I wrote without the "mau" and it was incorrect) More to the point: what does "mau" mean??? The dictionary definition of "always, (plural)" doesn't help??
Not using "kona" seems to me to indicate talking about someone else's cousins.
293
Aoha, e KarinLynn,
from wehewehe.org 5. Part. marking plural, used principally after the k-class possessives and demonstratives, numerals, and he.
From Ka Lei Ha'aheo by Alberta Pualani Hopkins
"One way to make plurals in Hawaiian is to put mau in front of the noun that is plural..."
In something like "Ko‘u manakō" would mean "My mango"
If you wish to pluralize that and you can't say "Ko‘u nā manakō", you say " Ko‘u mau manakō" It's just a seperate way of saying it.
Since, in this sentence we have already established that this is about "him", then we don't neccasiraly need to specify that it's HIS cousins. You would if "he" doesn't like your cousins though. This also goes for past tence stuff
2228
I understand the "his" issue (like Spanish with body parts) but can someone please clarify why in this construction the " 'o ia " comes before "makemake" or is that "just the way it is?"
In these sentences that use "ʻaʻole" to negate an idea, a pronoun (au, ʻoe, ʻo ia, kāua, etc.) that is the subject of the sentence will move up.
For example:
Affirmative: "Makemake ʻo ia i nā hoa hānau" -> "She likes her cousins."
Negative: "ʻAʻole ʻo ia makemake i nā hoa hānau." -> "She doesn't like her cousins."
But if the subject is not a pronoun, it stays in the usual order.
Affirmative: "Makemake ka ʻīlio i ke kinipōpō." -> "The dog likes/wants the ball."
Negative: "ʻAʻole makemake ka ʻīlio i ke kinipōpō." -> "The dog doesn't like/want the ball."
390
Hawaiian is much more contextual than English. We match throughout the sentence - he/his" in this case. In Hawaiian, having said "he doesn't like" then "his" is implied by the context. It is easier then to simply make cousins plural using "nā" instead of saying "kona mau hoa hānau." Does that help?