kua roa ... e ... ana

An Activity Continuing for a Long Time

Level 2

Use kua roa + participant + e + activity + ana.

How It Works

Begin with kua roa, identify the participant, then give an activity framed by e … ana: Kua roa au e pānui ana, ‘I have been reading for a long time’. A noun phrase can replace the pronoun. The examples use ordinary macron spelling and the usual pronoun-subject pattern without an added personal article.

Kua frames the accumulated duration expressed by roa; it does not say that the activity has finished. Compare E pānui ana au, ‘I am reading’, with the longer construction: the latter adds an assessment of elapsed time.

No exact duration is specified, and what counts as long depends on context. Objects retain the marking required by the activity verb. A following kia clause can express a sought outcome. The participant and verb acquire no English-style agreement endings.

Examples (3)

  1. Kua roa au e pānui ana.

    I have been reading for a long time.

    Kua roa assesses the duration of reading.

  2. Kua roa ngā tamariki e tākaro ana.

    The children have been playing for a long time.

    The participants precede the continuing activity.

  3. Kua roa mātou e ako ana i te reo Māori.

    We, excluding you, have been learning Māori for a long time.

    Ako retains its i-marked object; mātou excludes the addressee.

How It Connects

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

kua roa ... e ... anaLevel 2An Activity Continuing for a Long Time

Learn This First

Combine kua roa, the participant and an e ... ana activity to assess long elapsed duration. The participant precedes the activity in this construction, no exact duration is specified, and the activity is presented as continuing.