There are two kinds of non-verbal sentences- which are sentences withour a verb - firstly, sentences that start with he, which we have had before
And sentences that start with ko, which is new.
Sentences that start with he are called categorizing sentences and they put things into a category.
He waka tērā
That, over there is a car. In the category of car is that.
He mōkai tō kurī
In the category of pet is your dog
And
He kararehe tō kurī
In the category of animal is your dog.
And there we lots of categories your dog can belong to
He tinɔ pai tō kuri
In the category of very good is you dog
He pangɔ tō kuri
In the category of black is your dog
Etc
Anyway, there is another kind of non-verbal sentence. And these start with ko.
They are not categorizing sentences, they are **equalizing** sentences. That is. They say that this thing is the same as that thing.
For example my name is Jeff
My name equals Jeff and Jeff equals my name.
And we say this using ko
Ko Jeff tōku ingoa.
My name equals Jeff
Now this is different from saying
He ingoa a Jeff
That means: Jeff is a name, which it is.
In the category of name is Jeff
There are thousands of names and Jeff is one of them.
But i only have one name, and that name equals Jeff.
Ko Jeff tōku ingoa.
In the same way, if could say
He tamāhinɛ a Hana
I am saying
In the category of a daughter is Hana
She is a daughter.
But if I say
Ko Hana tāku tamāhinɛ
I am making a mathematical statement
Hana equals my daughter
And
My daughter equals Hana
They are one and the same thing.
This sentence structure is also commonly used in a mihi...
Ko Taranaki tōku maunga.
My mountain is Taranaki and Taranaki is my mountain.
So, again, if I said
He maunga a Taranaki i am saying that Taranaki is a mountain, in the category of mountain is Taranaki.
There are lots of mountains and Taranaki is one of them.
But if I say ko Taranaki tōku maunga i am saying that there is one mountain that is my mountain and Taranaki is that mountain.
So i could say
He pāpā a Brian
Bruan is a father. There are lots of father And rangi is one of them.
But if I say
Ko Brian tōku pāpā
I am saying that brian is *my* father, not just any old father.
Brian is my father
And My father is Brian.
They are one and the same thing.
And another example of a sentence starting with ko is when you meet someone who tells you that they have just son ten million dollars in lotto
And you say
Core! Can i have some?