No Grammatical Gender
Hawaiian does not have he and she. One word, ia, covers both, and the context tells you who is meant.
How It Works
The third person pronoun is ia. It takes ʻo when it is the subject, so ʻo ia can mean “he”, “she” or “it”.
Nouns are not masculine or feminine either. Whether a noun takes ka or ke depends on its first letter, not on gender. When it matters whether someone is male or female, the Reference Grammar shows adding kāne (male) or wahine (female) after the noun:
- moa kāne “rooster”
- moa wahine “hen”
- keiki kāne “boy”
English translations of ʻo ia pick he or she from the context. When you read a Hawaiian sentence, the context or the speaker tells you who is meant.
Examples (5)
- Ke ʻai nei ʻo ia i ka palaoa.
He is eating bread. / She is eating bread.
ʻO ia works for any single person.
- Ke noho nei ʻo ia ma Hilo.
He lives in Hilo. / She lives in Hilo.
The sentence does not say which.
- moa kāne
rooster
Kāne follows the noun to say male.
- moa wahine
hen
Wahine follows the noun to say female.
- keiki kāne
boy
Kāne follows the noun in the same way.
How It Connects
Related Patterns
Words in This Pattern
Practice No Grammatical Gender in Bubblegum
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