Ngā Tau

Language Focus

The language focus is on costing. You will learn how to ask the price of something, that is, ‘He aha te utu mō...’ (What’s the cost of ...).

Notice that, before the numbers 2-9, there is the word ‘e’, for example, ‘E rua tāra’ ($2). But the number one does not follow this pattern, for example, ‘Kotahi tāra’ ($1).

There are two useful (but quite difficult) dual pronouns used; namely māua (me and someone else, that is, we), and kōrua (you two).

Language Focus

In this reomation, you will learn how to ask the question ‘how many’ – which varies, depending on whether you are asking about people or animals/things. You use ‘Tokohia’ to ask how many people there are and ‘E hia’ to ask how many animals/things.

You will notice that counting people is slightly different from counting animals (or things).

When counting 2-9 people, there is a prefix ‘toko-’, for example, ‘tokoono ngā tamariki’ (six children).

When counting animals (or things), you’ll notice that the numbers 2-9 are preceded by ‘e’, for example, ‘e whā ngā kurī’ (four dogs).

Note the exceptions; namely one, for example, ‘kotahi te ika’ (one fish) and numbers beginning with tekau (ten), for example, ‘tekau mā toru ngā mōkai’ (thirteen pets).

Language Focus

The language progresses from counting 1-10, then 11-20, then in tens thereafter until we arrive at ten tens, that is, 100.

Language Focus

You will learn how to express numbers using thousands (mano), hundreds (rau), tens (tekau) and ones.