a / o possession

Choosing a or O Possession

Level 2

A and o classify the relationship, not simply the object.

How It Works

Food and many owned tools commonly use a; houses, transport, clothing, body parts and parents commonly use o. These groupings do not reduce to living versus nonliving or valuable versus ordinary.

The same base can have different relationships. A horse kept as a pet and a horse serving as transport need not select the same category. Read what the speaker is saying about the relationship, and learn attested phrases rather than applying one absolute test to every noun.

Examples (3)

Kei konei tāku pene.
My pen is here.
Kei te kāinga tōku whaea.
My mother is at home.
He nui tōku whare.
My house is big.

How It Connects

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

a / o possessionLevel 2Choosing a or O Possession

Learn This First

Develop relationship-based category choice through common food, tool, home, transport, clothing and family patterns. Use the horse comparison to show why context can change the relationship expressed, avoiding an absolute test based on the noun alone.

tāku / tōku / takuMy and Possessive Categories
The introductory tāku pene and tōku whare contrasts provide concrete marked possessive phrases whose category choices this lesson now explains more fully.
Level 1

Learn Next

Patterns that build on this one.

nā / nō ownershipAsking Whose It IsLevel 2

Practice a / o possession in Bubblegum

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