In the next few lessons we are going to look at what I think is the most complicated aspect of te reo Māori - possession.

It's complicated for several reasons. Firstly, there are four different kinds of possessives: there is are simple possessives like "the man's song", there are T-class possessives like tōku and tāu, there are M-class possessives like māku and mōu and there are N-class possessives like nāku and nōu. 

Secondly, these possessives use the a and o categories, so something might be tāku or tōku depending on what it is. This is tricky because there is nothing comparable to this in English.

Thirdly, its complicated because it has concepts that are not really found in English, like realised versus unrealised possession: I own something but I don't have it yet.

Fourthly, possessive use the various personal pronouns which are also complicated: it's mine but not yours, or it belongs to the two of us but not you, or it belongs to those two not me or you, etc.

And, on top of that, we have plurals: this one thing belongs to the two of us, or these two things belong to me, etc.

So all of this makes possessives in Māori difficult. But let's start with the simplest thing first.

In English, when we want to talk about possession, we often use an apostrophe and an s:

The man's book.
The woman's car.
The children's playground.
The ocean's waves.

The first thing to do when constructing a simple possessive in Māori is to think of these things using the English word "of":

The book of the man.
The car of the woman.
The playground of the children,
The waves of the ocean.

This might sound a bit strange as we won't normally talk like this. There are some phrases that we would use "of" naturally. You might say: " house of cards" rather than "the card'shouse". Or "a den of thieves" rather than "the thieves' den", or "a house of sin", rather than "sin's house". Or: "the Book of Job" rather than "Job's book".

But usually, would say "the man's book" and not "the book of the man".

But, in Māori, we want to think of it as "the book of the man".

We can then translate this into Māori using o or a to mean "of".

So, "the book of the man" will either be:

Te pukapuka a te tane.

Or:

Te pukapuka o te tane.

Which one we use depends on whether the book is in the a or o category.

So, if we want to say: "the woman's song", we first need to change it in English to "the song of the woman". Then, in Māori it will either be:

Te waiata a te wahine.

Or:

Te waiata o te wahine.

Which one is correct depends on whether a song is in the a or the o category of things.

So, this leads us to the a and o categories.

Pretty much everything in the world, that is, every noun, belongs in one or other of these catergories. 

Man-made, moveable objects are in the a category. So, a book, is a man-made moveable object, so the correct sentence is:

Te pukapuka a te tane.
The book of the man.
The man's book.

A cup is also a man-made moveable object, so if we want to say "the children's cup", we first need to think of the sentence as "the cup of the children". We know it will either be te kapu o ngā tamariki or te tapu a ngā tamariki. But since we know that a cup is a man-made moveable object, it will be in the a category, so we can say:

Te kapu a ngā tamariki.
The cup of the children.
The children's cup.

Now, a hat is also a man-made moveable object, so if you wanted to say "the man's hat" you might, firstly, think of the sentence as "the hat of the man" and you might then say: te potae a te tane.

However, anything associated with the body, including clothing, is in the o category. So while it's true that a hat is a man-made moveable object, it is worn on the head, and this puts it in the o category. So we would actually say:

Te potae o te tane.
The hat of the man.
The man's hat.

And this is true of anything else that is worn, like a shirt, or a ring, or shoes. So "the children's shoes" would be:

Ngā hū o ngā tamariki.
The shoes of the children.
The children's shoes.