kāore ... i konei

Negating a Location

Level 2

Kāore tō pēke i konei. — Your bag is not here.

How It Works

Place the person or thing after kāore, then supply the location. “Here” is i konei; a place noun can take an article, as in i te kīhini, while a place name such as Rotorua appears without that article. Name subjects normally take a. The frame does not inflect for subject number.

Compare Kei konei tō pēke. — Your bag is here — with Kāore tō pēke i konei. — Your bag is not here. Both can describe the present.

Contrast Kāore a Hana i Rotorua. — Hana is not in Rotorua — with Kāore a Hana i haere ki Rotorua. — Hana did not go to Rotorua. The first i introduces a place; the second introduces a past verbal predicate. Absence here is different from nonexistence.

Examples (4)

  1. Kāore tō pēke i konei.

    Your bag is not here.

    I konei introduces a location.

  2. Kāore a Hana i Rotorua.

    Hana is not in Rotorua.

    Hana is the subject and Rotorua the place.

  3. Kāore ngā tamariki i te kīhini.

    The children are not in the kitchen.

    Te introduces the place noun.

  4. Kāore mātou i konā.

    We, excluding you, are not there where you are.

    Konā relates the location to the addressee.

How It Connects

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

kāore ... i koneiLevel 2Negating a Location

Learn This First

Place the located person or thing after kāore and introduce the denied place with i. Read the following place expression to recognize a location denial; this i does not independently make the clause past or deny the item's existence.

Learn Next

Patterns that build on this one.