There are 11 personal pronouns in re reo Māori, and there are 25 possessive personal pronouns in the a category and 25 personal pronouns in the o category. Which is quite a lot.
Now, generally, the Māori language is much simpler than English, but not the possessives, oh no, which are the most difficult thing, i think, in te reo.
And the good news is that these 50 possessive pronouns are ask that you need to learn and if you know them then you know everything you need to know about them.
So you can say I have a car, you have a dog, they have a house.
But...
Wait a minute.
What if I have two cars?
What you have three dogs?
What you they have four houses?
Oh no! There are plurals!
Why? Why?
So, yeah, there's more to learn.
Here are all the singular possessive pronouns. And here are all the plural possessive pronouns.
They are exactly the same except that we miss off the initial t.
So tōku becomes ōku
Tā rātou becomes ā rātou and tō māua becomes ō māua l.
We have met thos idea before a couple of times.
Tēnei, this near me
Tēnā, this near you
And Tērā, that over there, in the plural becomes
Ēnei, these things near me
Ēnā, those near you
And ērā, those over there.
And tētahi means a
And the plural ētahi means some
We lose the initial t in the plural.
We have also had the plural for the neutral possessive pronouns
Taku aku
Tō ō
And
Tana ana
And the possessives in the a and o categories so exactly the same thing.
Tā tātou, this thing belongs to us becomes ā tātou, these things belong to us.
Tō koutou becomes ō koutou.
So...
If I am talking to you and talking about the car we own together
Kua pakaru tō tāua waka.
Our car is broken.
But if we have two cars that have broken down
Kua pakaru ō tāua waka.
Incidentally, the word pakaru means broken And can't be fixed. So if the type on your car gets a puncture and you can fix it, it's not pakaru. But if you drive for talent kilometers on it while it's flat and it becomes shredded, then it's pakaru.
And so, if you break your arm, you don't say Kua pakaru tōku kōiwi (bone), because hopefully it will mend. The word to break a bone is whati. So you'd say kua whati tōku kōiwi.
And if me and my friend have a horse, which we ride, not a pet horse, it's a means of transport
Kei te oma tō māua hōiho.
Our horse is running.
At ten o'clock on Saturday at the Otaki racing club. Better put ten dollars on it to win.
Not really. Don't have a horse.
But if we have two horses
Kei te oma ō raua hōiho
Our horses are running
Not your horses.
And if their mother is angry
Kei te riri tō rātou māmā
But if their mothers are angry
Kei te riri ō rātou māmā.
And we don't want to get their mothers angry. Oh no!