"The rice is not delicious."

Translation: ʻAʻole ʻono ka laiki.

[JolenePeachy]

When does one use "i ka..." as opposed to just "ka"? As in 'A'ole 'ono ka laiki, and not ...i ka laiki?

[KekoaMonkey]

Aloha e @Jolene560924 , this is really a question of Hawaiian sentence patterns. I will try to answer your question through some examples below.

Equational Sentence Pattern: A = B

• ʻOno ka laiki. The rice is delicious.
• Wela kēia laiki. This rice is hot.
• ʻAʻole anuanu kēia lā. Today is not cold.
• ʻO Kekoa koʻu inoa. My name is Kekoa.

Action+subject+object Simple Pattern

• ʻAi au i ka laiki. I eat the rice.
• Hele ʻoe i ka hale kūʻai. You go to the store.
• ʻAʻole makemake ʻo Kaʻiulani i ka poi. Kaʻiulani does not like/want poi.

I hope this helps! To answer your question very simply, itʻs because it is using an equational sentence pattern ;3.

[SiobanSnyd]

Does << 'A'ole 'ono > imply that something tastes bad, or just not delicious?

[selamyohan]

i think it's just "not delicious" since whenever you put "'A'ole" in front of a word it makes it the negative "not ____(descriptor)"... but I'm no expert.

[Dave798360]

Oh, I see. So, the i is sort of to connect a subject to an object? If you're just saying "the rice is hot" you don't need the i, but if someone is going to a place or doing something to a thing, you need the i?