Saying What Someone Is

Level 1

Say he and what the person is, then ʻo and who they are.

How It Works

When the subject is a name, put ʻo before it:

He + kindʻO + name
He haumānaʻo Keoni
He kumuʻo Malia

The little word ʻo marks the third person pronoun ia and proper nouns (Wikipedia): He makuahine ʻo ia “She is a mother”. For “I” the Reference Grammar shows the pronoun right after the noun: He kumu au “I am a teacher”. The same order works for “you”, as in He haumāna ʻoe? below.

The ʻo is written before the name, not joined to it. The pattern has no word for “is”.

Examples (5)

  1. He kumu ʻo Malia.

    Malia is a teacher.

    The ʻo comes before the name.

  2. He haumāna ʻo Keoni.

    Keoni is a student.

    The same pattern, with a different noun and name.

  3. He makuahine ʻo ia.

    She is a mother.

    ʻO also goes before ia.

  4. He kumu au.

    I am a teacher.

    The pronoun au follows the noun directly.

  5. He haumāna ʻoe?

    Are you a student?

    A question can use the same word order, shown by your voice.

How It Connects

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

Saying What Someone IsLevel 1

Learn This First

These sentences are built on he, so he comes first.

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Patterns that build on this one.

Words in This Pattern

heʻo