tāku / tōku / taku

My and Possessive Categories

Level 1

Tāku and tōku mark a/o possession; taku is neutral before a noun.

How It Works

Tāku pene is my pen in the a category, while tōku whare is my house in the o category. The category follows the relationship, not whether the item is alive.

Taku, without a macron, is a neutral determiner: taku whare is grammatical too. Unlike the marked forms tāku and tōku, neutral taku must be followed by its noun. Preserve this distinction when reading or checking spelling.

Examples (3)

  1. Kei hea tāku pene?

    Where is my pen?

  2. Kei hea tōku whare?

    Where is my house?

  3. Kei hea taku pukapuka?

    Where is my book?

How It Connects

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

tāku / tōku / takuLevel 1My and Possessive Categories

Learn This First

Introduce one possessed item through tāku pene and tōku whare, giving an initial relationship-based a/o contrast. Teach neutral taku as a determiner that needs its noun and leaves the category unselected; the fuller category lesson follows later.

Learn Next

Patterns that build on this one.