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A determiner is a word that goes before a noun to say which one, how many or whose it is.
In Māori we need to have a determiner before every noun. Otherwise, the sentence doesn't make sense.
For example:
I am gong to read book.
Um... which book? What book? Whose book?
The most common determiners are "the" and "a".
I am going to read the book. Or
I am going to read a book.
In Māori these words are
"Te" for one thing and
"Ngā" for more than one thing.
But we also have
He, which can either mean "a"or "some".
We alao have
Tētahi for "a"
And Ētahi for "some".
We can also say i am going to read my book, or our book, your book, their book, his book, etc.
Ka pānui ahau i tā rātou pukapuka
I am going to read their book.
Other determiners that we have also are
Tēnei, this near me
Tēnā that near you
Tērā, that over there
And the plurals
Ēnei, ēnā, ērā.
So... none of this new.
But now we are going to add a new one.
Taua
This means the thing that we previously talked about. In old fashioned English, you could use the word aforementioned
I'd like a cup of tea.
And I'd like a sugar in that aforementioned tea.
That's a bit weird, people would think you were odd, but its perfectly normal in te reo.
Kei te auau te kurī. He tino nui taua kurī.
The dog is barking. That aforementioned dog, the dog we are speaking about, is big.
And taua is one of those words that loses the initial letter in the plural and becomes aua.
Kei te waiata ngā kōtiro. He tino pai aua kōrero.
The girls are singing. Those girls, the ones we are talking about, are good.
Kua pānui ahau i nga pukapuka. Kei hea aua pukapuka?
I have read the books. Where are those books?
Ka hīkoi ratou ki taua whare.
They are walking to that house that we have been talking about.
Kua hɔkɔ au i ētahi hu. He pango aua hu.
I have bought some shoes. Those shoes are black.
Now there is another word aua, sounds the same, spelt the same that means I don't know.
Kei hea aua pukapuka?
Where are those books that we have been talking about, those aforementioned books
Aua.