Maori Unpacked, 4, te and ngaa
4
But what about te and ngaa?
We can't just leave them sitting on their own!
Te is the singular definite article and nga is the plural definite article
the person
te tangata
the persons
ngaa taangata
Note that the first vowel of the plural doubles. Tangata goes to taangata when you put ngaa in front of it. This happens with some nouns but not others.
te tai
the beach
ngaa tai
the beaches
Say and sing them out loud. The neighbours will love it, really...aa
ee
ii
oo
uu
Play with these sounds, don't just unpack them and leave them sitting on their own. Make them feel wanted. Say and sing them out loud. The neighbours will love it!
3
So what do we do next with this unpacking business?
Let's carry on with a naming word.
te tai,
the beach
or te tangata
the person
There, we've unpacked a noun!
Two nouns in fact!
tai, beach
and
tangata, person
How many nouns do you know in Maori?
Make a list of ten or however many you know- at least two now- and
put them in the Noun Box!
Or should we draw pictures of them with titles and hang them on the wall?
Or take the pictures and the titles and make mobiles?
Or just make a space in a village of the mind for the Noun Family?
4
But what about te and ngaa?
We can't just leave them sitting on their own!
Te is the singular definite article and nga is the plural definite article
the person
te tangata
the persons
ngaa taangata
Note that the first vowel of the plural doubles. Tangata goes to taangata when you put ngaa in front of it. This happens with some nouns but not others.
te tai
the beach
ngaa tai
the beaches
Some things change, some stay the same!
The word tamaiti changes to tamariki as it goes from singular to plural
te tamaiti
the child
Ngaa tamariki
the children
There we go! We've unpacked singular and plural markers of definite things!
These definite things are, of course, NOUNS and we can take the singular and plural definite articles, put them in boxes of their own and clip them onto the Noun Box.
Or put them in a little house beside the Noun Family.
Or make a space in a Mind Map for Definite Articles and connect this to the Noun Space. Each space could be like a cloud with lines between the clouds or like suns, moons- its up to you, the Amazing Unpacker!
If we were making a mobile of the Definite Articles we might put this by the door as you can't really go anywhere without them!
No comments:
Post a Comment