Recognizing a Passive Form

Level 3

Karangatia, hurihia, inumia, and kainga illustrate different passive formations.

How It Works

Learn established pairs such as karanga → karangatia, huri → hurihia, inu → inumia, and kai → kainga. These illustrate different endings, not a universal selection rule. Accepted variants also occur, including kōrerotia / kōrerohia. Speaker variation alone does not make a form erroneous.

The ending expresses neither tense nor subject person or number. Compare I hiki a Hana i te pouaka, ‘Hana lifted the box’, with I hikitia te pouaka e Hana, ‘The box was lifted by Hana’. The affected participant is the passive subject, and e marks the actor.

Complete forms matter: titiro has passive tirohia, with a shortened base. Passive forms also serve as instructions. Māori statives generally lack passive suffixes. Selected modifiers can receive passive marking, but this is not subject agreement and does not permit suffixing every particle.

Examples (4)

  1. I hikitia te pouaka e Hana.

    The box was lifted by Hana.

    Hikitia is passive; e Hana identifies the actor.

  2. Kei te inumia te wai e ngā kaitākaro.

    The water is being drunk by the players.

    Inumia retains its lexical formation with a plural actor.

  3. Kua kainga ngā āporo.

    The apples have been eaten.

    Kainga is the ordinary passive spelling of kai; the actor is omitted.

  4. Tirohia te whakaahua.

    Look at the photograph.

    The complete passive form tirohia functions as an instruction.

How It Connects

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Recognizing a Passive FormLevel 3

Learn This First

Introduce complete lexical pairs such as huri and hurihia, including accepted variants and stem changes. Passive formation is learned for the word; it does not encode tense or participant agreement.

Learn Next

Patterns that build on this one.