No Word for Is

Level 1

There is no word for “is”. The sentence just puts the two parts side by side.

How It Works

English needs “is” in “The water is cold”. Hawaiian does not have a verb for it. Three common ways fill the same job:

  • Kind of thing: he plus a noun, then the subject. He kumu ʻo Malia “Malia is a teacher”.
  • Describing word first: Wela ke kope “The coffee is hot”.
  • Place: aia plus the thing and the place. Aia ke kumu ma ka lumi “The teacher is in the room”.

The Reference Grammar says Hawaiian has no verb meaning “to be”. A sentence with he or ʻo does not take a marker such as ke … nei. A describing-word sentence can take ua, as in Ua anuanu ka wai “The water has become cold”. Context usually shows the time.

Examples (5)

  1. He kumu ʻo Malia.

    Malia is a teacher.

    The sentence has he and ʻo, and no word for “is”.

  2. He puke kēia.

    This is a book.

    A kind of thing comes first, then the subject kēia.

  3. Wela ke kope.

    The coffee is hot.

    The describing word starts the sentence.

  4. Aia ke kumu ma ka lumi.

    The teacher is in the room.

    Aia says where the teacher is.

  5. Hauʻoli au.

    I am happy.

    A describing word and a pronoun are enough.

How It Connects

Tap a pattern to see what it builds on and what it leads to.

No Word for IsLevel 1

Learn This First

Hawaiian puts time on small marker words and leaves out a word for “is”, so the markers come first.