me + noun

Together with

Level 2

Te kapu me te pereti is the cup and the plate; me tana pēke is with their bag.

How It Works

Me links ordinary noun phrases or introduces accompaniment. Each phrase keeps its own determiner: te kapu me te pereti contains two singular definite phrases. Grouping them does not require changing each article to ngā, and nouns acquire no coordination ending.

English may use ‘and’ for a grouping or ‘with’ for accompaniment. Compare te kai me te wai, ‘the food and the water’, with Me kai tātou, ‘We should eat’. The first links nominal phrases; the second frames an action. Nominal me does not join complete clauses.

Traditional usage avoids directly coordinating personal names or pronouns with me; constructions such as rāua ko provide a conventional companion pattern. Direct personal coordination also occurs in modern usage, with differing speaker acceptance. This variation does not make every such construction a grammatical error.

Examples (3)

  1. te kapu me te pereti

    Noun-phrase fragment: the cup and the plate.

    Each individual phrase retains te.

  2. E kai ana te kurī me ētahi ngeru.

    The dog and some cats are eating.

    Me links a definite singular participant and an indefinite plural group.

  3. Ka haere ia me tana pēke.

    They go with their bag.

    The bag accompanies the one person referred to by ia.

How It Connects

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

me + nounLevel 2Together with

Learn This First

Introduce nominal me by joining complete noun phrases and then showing accompaniment with a bag. Its nominal surroundings distinguish this use from action-framing me; personal coordination has the usage variation described in the lesson.