§ 43. Inflexions.

The Maori verb has no true inflexions, but the Passive Voice is formed by adding a passive termination to the Active form, (§ 51), while another termination forms the verbal noun. (§ 58.)

§ 44.

Differences of Tense are denoted by auxiliary particles, e, ana, kua, i, ka, the same form in each case serving for all persons and numbers. Particular attention must be given to the use of the negative adverbs, which cannot be used indiscriminately, and also to the fact that, in the negative form of the Perfect, kua is changed into kia.

The Inceptive denotes a change from one state or action to another, or the commencement of a new action or condition, and may be either Past, Present, or Future; the actual time to be determined by the context. With a negative it may often be translated by “cease to.”

§ 45.

It must be understood that the tenses of a Maori verb indicate the condition of the action, but do not, except in the case of the Past Indefinite and the Future, connote a time relationship. The Imperfect and Perfect may have a past, present, or future reference according to the context.

§ 46. Active Voice.

§ 47.

The Imperative is generally used in the second person, but in speaking of parts of the human body it will be used in the third person. (§ 62). If the verb is a word of one syllable or two, or if the command is negative, the particle e is used in the Imperative; otherwise it is not.

The translation of the Future Consequential Subjunctive with kia will depend upon whether it is used in a dependent sentence or as an entreaty.

The Future Deprecatory, with kei, used in the second person is equivalent to an Imperative.

§ 48.

Mehemea and me with the Subjunctive imply that the contrary to the alternative expressed is the fact: ki te mea and ki te imply simple uncertainty.

§ 49.

The Infinitive Active is merely the verb treated as a noun, and is always, as stated (§ 46), attended by one or other of the definitives (§ 18). It may be used with the preposition kei, making a present imperfect indicative, or with the preposition i, making a past imperfect indicative.

§ 50. Uses of Subjunctive and Infinitive.

—After a word expressing (a) eagerness, desire, intention to do anything, and (b) after one signifying go, come, stay, etc., and (c) after teach, use the infinitive with the preposition ki; (d) after learn, use the infinitive with the preposition i; but (e) after a word expressing request, page 35 command, advice, consent, or permission to another person to do anything, use the subjunctive. (f) In a clause expressing the object in view, use the subjunctive followed by the particle ai.

§ 51. Passive Voice.

—The passive voice is formed generally by the addition of one of the following terminations to the active: -a, -ia, -hia, -kia, -mia, -ngia, -ria, -tia, -whia, -na, -nga, -ina, -hina, -kina, -rina, -whina, -hanga. Thus:—

Of these terminations nga appears to be used only with verbs ending in ai^†, mia only with those ending in o or u, and ina only with those ending in a; but in all these cases other terminations also are used. For the rest it is questionable whether any rule can be formulated. Usage varies so much in different parts of the country that it appears to be a mere matter of custom, some regard being had to euphony. In a few cases the consonant of the termination represents the final consonant of the primitive root; but this fact is of no assistance to the beginner, and it will be advisable then, to learn the passive in each case with the active. Verbs which have the first syllable doubled in the active generally drop the repetition in the passive; thus pupuri becomes (not pupuritia, but) puritia. In a few of these cases the vowel is lengthened, as tāria from tatari.

§ 51·1.

The passive termination, tia, may be used with a noun, adjective, or participle to indicate a change to the thing or condition which the simple word signifies.

The passive termination may also be used with a noun to denote the bringing of the subject of the sentence under the action of what is represented by the noun.

This construction may even be extended to a clause, as: Ma-te-matapihitia, let it be passed through the window, from ma te matapihi, through the window.

§ 52.

The Tenses of the different moods in the Passive voice are formed in the same way as in the Active, the passive form of the verb being substituted for the active —puritia for pupuri.

The Imperative Passive, unlike the Imperative Active, seldom refers to the second person, but more commonly to the first or third person, the command at the same time being addressed to the second person.

§ 53. Transitive Prepositions, etc.

—Every transitive verb in Maori is connected with its object, or the thing acted upon, by either of the propositions i or ki; some verbs requiring one, some the other, and some again taking either. These prepositions may in some cases be translated by an English preposition; but in most cases they merely represent the connexion between the verb and its object, and may therefore be called transitive prepositions.

It is difficult to formulate a rule for the use of these prepositions, but it will be found that i is the one generally used. The more important verbs which take ki are noted in the English-Maori Vocabulary, pp. 94–119.

Every passive verb is connected with the agent by the preposition e, by.

The instrument requires the preposition ki, with.

§ 54. Uses of Active and Passive.

—The Passive Voice is generally used when the action is emphatic rather than the agent, and therefore in the case of transitive verbs it is more frequently required than the Active Voice. But when a transitive follows an intransitive verb expressing an action consequent upon it, both verbs will be in the active voice.

Obs. The Maori language allows of the use of an intransitive verb in the passive, but in such a case a preposition will generally have to be added in English to make the sense complete.

§ 55. Agent Emphatic.

—When special emphasis is to be laid on the agent an irregular construction is used, the preposition na being placed before the subject for past time, and ma for future. In sentences of this kind the subject, being the most emphatic member of the sentence, stands first, and the object either before or after the verb, but without any transitive preposition, the verb being in the active. This construction is not properly used with neuter verbs.

§ 56. Imperative Future.

—Another irregular construction is the formation of what may be called the Imperative Future with me, in which the verb is active in form but passive in sense. This construction is never used with a negative.

§ 57.

The Causative Prefix, whaka-, may be used:—

i. With a verb, adjective or participle (§ 66), to form a verb signifying the attempt at, beginning of, or approach to the action or condition indicated by the root word.

ii. With a noun to form an intransitive verb signifying the assumption of the character or form appropriate to the noun.

iii. With a verb, adjective, participle (§ 66), or noun to form a causative verb, generally transitive. Thus, whakamahi, cause to work; but whakakite, cause to be seen.

Of course these compounds with whaka- may, like other words, be used otherwise than as verbs.

§ 58. Derivative Nouns are formed—

i. From transitive verbs, by prefixing kai, to denote the agent, thus:

Hanga, make. Kaihanga, maker.

ii. From verbs generally, by adding as a suffix one of the terminations, -nga, -anga, -hanga, -kanga, -manga, -ranga, -tanga, -inga, as:—

The termination suitable to any particular verb will, as in the case of the passive, have to be learned; but page 41 it will be noticed that in many cases it bears some relation to the passive termination (§ 51), thus:—

A few verbs preserve an ancient verbal suffix, hi or ki; and these form the verbal noun direct from the root; as, arahi, arahanga, rumaki, rumakanga.

The noun thus formed denotes the (a) circumstance, (b) time, (c) place, or (d) matter of the action expressed by the verb. In the case of a transitive verb the noun may be used in either the active or the passive sense. (§ 22 a, b).

§ 59.

An Intransitive Compound Verb may be formed by treating a transitive verb and its object grammatically as one word, thus:

E tope rakau ana a Turi, Turi is felling trees (or tree-felling).

§ 60. Interrogative Verbs.

—The interrogatives aha, what, and pehea, of what nature, may be used as verbs; aha, to ask what a person is doing, or what is being done; and pehea, to ask how a person is acting, or in what way a thing is being done. In rendering into English another word will often be needed to complete the sense.

For other interrogative sentences see § 41.

§ 61. Verbal clauses.

—A verb, active in form but active or passive in sense, may be used, with or without an object or indirect object, to form a clause qualifying a noun.

Descriptive details will sometimes be introduced by the use of he mea with a construction similar to the above.

§ 62.

In speaking of movements of different parts of the body, the member spoken of in each case is regarded as the agent, and is spoken of, or addressed, as if it were capable of independent action, the verb being, of course, intransitive.

§ 63.

Doubling the di-syllabic root of a verb gives it a frequentative force. Doubling the first syllable only often gives intensity; but sometimes it denotes reciprocal action.

§ 64. The Verb ai, “there is,” “it is,” etc.

§ 65.

The Verb “to have” having no equivalent in Maori its place is supplied by the following expedients:

i. By the use of one of the possessive particles, to, ta. o, a, with a pronoun, noun, or proper name (§§ 6, 18); the time (past, present, or future) being gathered from the context.

ii. By the use of the prepositions kei, i, hei, respectively for present, past, and future. (§ 40, f).

iii. By using the verb ai (§ 64) followed by the preposition ma or mo; but this use is permissible only when the noun is preceded by the definitive he.

iv. By using the adjective whai, which signifies possessing, the thing possessed being used as another adjective qualifying whai.