h k l m n p w ʻ

The Consonants

Level 1

Seven consonants and the ʻokina are all Hawaiian needs: h, k, l, m, n, p and w.

How It Works

The Hawaiian alphabet has 13 letters. Five are vowels. The other eight are h, k, l, m, n, p, w and the ʻokina.

  • h, m sound about as they do in English.
  • k and p sound like English k and p, with less puff of air.
  • l and n sound about as in English.
  • w sounds like w or v, depending on the word and the speaker (see Saying W).

A syllable is a vowel, or a consonant followed by a vowel. So a word cannot end in a consonant, and two consonants do not sit side by side. That is why English words change when Hawaiian borrows them: “bill” became pila, and “coffee” became kope. Sounds Hawaiian does not have, such as b, d, r, s and t, are replaced by the closest Hawaiian sound.

Examples (5)

  1. hale

    house

    Two consonants, h and l, each followed by a vowel.

  2. kalo

    taro

    The k sounds like English k with less puff of air.

  3. wai

    water

    A word can start with w.

  4. kope

    coffee

    A borrowed word, reshaped into Hawaiian syllables.

  5. pila

    a bill

    English “bill” became pila: b turned into p, and a vowel was added at the end.

How It Connects

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

h k l m n p w ʻLevel 1The Consonants

Learn This First

Every syllable is a vowel or a consonant plus a vowel, and the ʻokina is one of the eight consonant sounds, so learners need both first.

Learn Next

Patterns that build on this one.