daily-reo

Me haere tāua ki te tina means: Let’s (you and I) go for lunch.

A quick weekend post because I’m practicing all day at a one-day wānanga, but got to keep up the habit.

Commands using ‘me’ communicate a softer suggestion (or a weak imperative) that something “should” happen.

• Me aha tātou? - What should we do?
• Me haere tātou ki te hui - We should all go to the meeting.
• Me mahi ahau āpōpō. - I had better work tomorrow.
• Me hōmai ngā tuhinga roa i mua mai i te 1 o Oketopa. - The essays should be passed in by the first of October.

Even though you might use a passive sentence construction, you don’t use the passive form of the verb (except with the kupu taea).

• Me horoi ngā kākahu [e koe]!- [You] should wash the clothes! without ‘e koe’ this suggests that ‘someone’ should do it.

There are a few ways to negate this type of sentence, depending on what you’re trying to say. For example, if you are negating “Me haere a Hōne” - “Hōne should go” you might want to say “Hōne should not go” or simply that it’s not the case that Hōne should go or “Hōne does not have to go”:

• Kaua a Hōne e haere- Hōne should not go.
• Me kaua a Hōne e haere - Hōne should not go.
• Kia kaua a Hōne e haere - Hōne should not go.
• Ehara i te mea me haere a Hōne - It is not the case that Hōne should go.