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tēnā koe
Greetings — Tēnā koe, tēnā koutou Pronouns - singular — koe Pronouns - singular — ia
Use of tēnā koe as a more formal greeting than kia ora.

Hello to you all!

Kia ora is an informal greeting, like "hi" or "gidday" in English and is used to greet friends or to say hello in a casual way.

However, if you are meeting someone important, or you want to greet someone formally, then you would use a more formal greeting:

Tēnā koe.
There you are.
Hello

The word tēnā means, "there, by you". So tēnā koe literally means "there you are".

It is a little bit like the Na'vi in Avatar who greet each other by saying "I see you". It is a polite way of acknowedging the other person.

Tēnā koutou!

A long time ago there was a plural word in English for "you" - it  was "ye". Sometimes people today say "yous" as a plural form of you ("can I come woth yous guys?"), but mostly we no longer differentiate between talking to one person or many people.We just say "you".

Te reo Mōai,however, does have a different word for "you" when talking to one person (koe) and  talking to 3 or more people. This word is koutou.

You have probably heard it used:

Tēnā koutou.
There you (all) are.
Hello.

This is a polite form of address to three or more people. 

Another word that can be used is katoa, meaning "all". And you have probably heard this used in speeches:

Tēnā koutou.
Tēnā koutou.
Tēnā koutout katoa.
There you are.
There you are.
There you all are.

Video

Vocabulary

  • koe — you
  • koutou — you, three or more people
e hoa mā • e tū • hoa • kaha • kia • Kia kaha! • kia ora • koe • koro • koutou •  • ora • tama • tamariki • whaea

Sample Sentences

Tēnā koe!
Tēnā koutou.
Tēnā koutout katoa.
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#5: Hello to all of you! →