This article provides a brief sketch of grammar in the Hawaiian language.
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Hawaiian is a verb subject object language. The only exception is if the sentence has a negative mood and the subject is a pronoun, in which case word order is subject verb object instead (e.g. ʻaʻole ʻoia e puka ana 'he won't graduate'). Within the noun phrase, adjectives follow the noun (e.g. ka hale liʻiliʻi 'the small house'), while possessors precede it (e.g. kou hale 'your house'). Hawaiian, like English, is a non-pro-drop language. Nonetheless, there is an exception with commands, where the use of subject pronouns is optional. In these cases, the subject pronoun is usually never used if the context deems it unnecessary, as in e hele i ke kula "go to school"; here, the subject "you" is understood, and can be omitted.
In Hawaiian, there is no grammatical gender. The word for third person (he, she, it) is ia. It is commonly preceded by ʻo as in ʻo ia.
| Demonstrative determiners | close to speaker | far from speaker and listener | far from speaker, close to listener |
|---|---|---|---|
| Singular | kēia | kēlā | kēnā |
| Plural | kēia mau | kēlā mau | kēnā mau |
In Hawaiian, the noun does not change form to determine the number. Rather, the article changes to determine the number.
Generally, the singular definite articles are ke when the noun begins with the letter k, e, a, or o and ka when the noun begins with any other letter. The plural definite article is nā. The singular indefinite article is he. Examples:
To pluralize nouns marked with a possessive, add mau between the possessive and the noun.
Plural personal pronouns may refer to two people or three.
| Singular | Plural | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Case | 1st | 2nd | 3rd | 1st incl. | 1st excl. | 2nd | 3rd | interrogative |
| Nominative | au | ʻoe | ia | kāua (2) kākou (3+) |
māua (2) mākou (3+) |
ʻolua
(2) ʻoukou (3+) |
lāua (2) lākou (3+) |
|
| Genitive | koʻu, kaʻu, kuʻu | kou, kāu, kō | kōna, kāna | kō/kā kāua (2) kō/kā kākou (3+) |
kō/kā māua (2) kō/kā mākou (3+) |
kō/kā ʻolua
(2) kō/kā ʻoukou (3+) |
kō/kā lāua (2) kō/kā lākou (3+) |
|
| Accusative, Dative |
iaʻu | iā ʻoe | iā ia | iā kāua (2) iā kākou (3+) |
iā māua (2) iā mākou (3+) |
iā ʻolua
(2) iā ʻoukou (3+) |
iā lāua (2) iā lākou (3+) |
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Most Hawaiian nouns belong to one of two classes, known as the kino ʻō (o-class) and the kino ʻā (a-class). Classes are only taken into account when using the genitive case (see table above).
Kino ʻō nouns, in general, are nouns whose creation cannot be controlled by the subject, such as inoa "name", puʻuwai "heart", and hale "house". Specific categories for o-class nouns include: modes of transportation (e.g. kaʻa "car" and lio "horse"), things that you can sit on or wear (e.g. noho "chair", ʻeke "bag", and lole "clothes"), and people in your generation and previous generations (e.g. makuahine "mother").
Kino ʻā nouns, in general, are those whose creation can be controlled, such as waihoʻoluʻu "color", as in kaʻu waihoʻoluʻu punahele "my favorite color". Specific categories include: your boyfriend or girlfriend (ipo) and future generations in your line (all of your descendants, but not your siblings' descendants).
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