"Oh dear! You did not tune your guitar?"

Translation: Auē! ʻAʻole ʻoe i hoʻokī i kāu kīkā?

[BethKing-M]

Clarification please - "kī," when used as a verb, apparently differs from the verb "ho‘okī." In what way? How do we know which one to use, and when?

[KekoaMonkey]

Aloha e @BethKing-M, I would think that kī is the state of being in tune, or having been tuned up. Hoʻokī is the causative form, and would imply "to cause to be tuned" or in English the verb form "to tune something." This is my guess based on knowledge of other Hawaiian verbs/statives:

In past tense, use kī. In other cases, use hoʻokī.
Ex: Ua kī ʻo ia i ka ʻenekini o kona kaʻa. He tuned (up) the engine of his car.

E hoʻokī ʻoe i kāu kīkā. You should tune your guitar.

Hope this helps! If anyone can comment further on this, please do so. I would like to know as well, but this is how my brain feels it is lol.

[BethKing-M]

Aloha and mahalo nui!
I was thinking "hookī" was exactly what you said - tuning an instrument or a car engine or whatever. Kī, then would be about what key you're tuning on the instrument? As in, maybe, "Ua hookī au i ke kīkā i ke kī o F#"- "I tuned my guitar to the key of F#"?
"Hīmeni kākou ma ke kī o C" - "We sing in the key of C"?
No, because both of these use kī as a noun. So maybe kī as a verb would necessarily be past tense? "Ua kī au i ka`u kīkā"
Am I getting anywhere near close to being pololei

[KekoaMonkey]

ʻAe, yes how you explained in your examples is my manaʻo on using kī in a sentence as a noun-like usage. I believe using kī in a past tense statement (verb-like) is the correct way to use that. Like it has been tuned and completed. It is done.

Think similarly to how one would use "pau" vs "hoʻopau." Remember that ma ka ʻōlelo hawaiʻi, whether an action has completed or not is very important. Likewise, specifying the state of something as having been one thing and it is something else now naturally, or if you caused it to happen, is also very specific.

[BethKing-M]

AH! That makes sense. And mahalo for the example of Pau vs. ho'opau. I very much appreciate the kokua! Mahalo nui loa.

[KarinLynn1]

Can someone remind me (not sure how to look it up otherwise...?) - is the first "i" because of "'a'ole + verb"? (And "mai + verb" means "don't (verb)"?)

[Ctxkh1Me]

While ua is normally used to mark the past tense, in the negative it changes to i (and pronominal subjects move forward between ʻaʻole and i). As I understand it, you're correct on mai.

For grammatical questions, I frequently consult https://hawaiian-grammar.org/current/