daily-reo

Hapori means: Community, neighbourhood.

The example sentence for hapori on Te Aka is “I pēwhea te reo i tēnei hapori i a koe e tupu ana?” (What was the language like in this community when you were growing up?)

This uses the question word ‘pēhea/pēwhea’ (how, what like). Most learners are introduced to this kupu in the sentence “kei te pēhea koe?” (how are you?). An earlier post covered the question word, or interrogative, aha

Some examples of other pēhea questions include:

• I pēhea te pēne? (What was the band like?)
  • I pai te pēne (The band was good)
• I titiro pēhea atu ia ki a koe? (How did he look at you?)
• I pēhea te tunu kai i ngā wā o mua atu i te hiko? (How did people cook their food before there was electricity?)
• He pēhea te pikitia rā? (What was the film like?)

An interesting thing about pēhea is that it’s composed of ‘pē-‘ (‘like’ - also found in pēnei [like this], pēnā [like that], pērā [like that over there]) and other question word ‘hea’ which on its own means “where/what place” or “what time”.

Hea functions as a locative noun and sits in the same part of speech as a place name.

• Kei hea te Whare Wānanga o Waikato? (Where is the University of Waikato?)
• Kei Kirikiriroa (In Hamilton)
• Kei Kirikiriroa te Whare Wānanga o Waikato. (The university of Waikato is in Hamilton)

It can also be preceded by the preposition ā to ask questions about the time of future events.

• Āhea te hui? (When is the hui?)
• Āhea koe haere ai? (When are you going?)

To ask about the time of a past event, you would use ‘nahea’.

• Nō nahea rātou i wehe atu ai? (When did they leave?)