Three times a week, we'll check in with Hēmi Kelly, to learn some useful te reo Māori phrases you can use in your day-to-day life.
Hemi's a lecturer in Te Ara Poutama - the Faculty of Māori & Indigenous Development at Auckland University of Technology, and his book A Māori Phrase a Day: 365 Phrases to Kickstart Your Reo will be released on January 7.
Last time on the show we learned the phrase: kei te pēhea koe?
Today's phrase: Kia pai te rā!
Translation: Have a good day!
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"There's a familiar word there - 'pai' - which means 'good'", says Hēmi.
"'Ra' is 'day' - so we're telling someone to have a good day: 'kia pai te rā."
It's a sentence that can be used at any time of day - and a dextrous one too.
"What we can do is take out that word 'rā' and we can put in another word."
"If we want to say have a good meeting - 'kia pai te hui'".
"Have a good trip - 'kia pai te haere'. So we can change that last word for different contexts."
"You'll normally hear it when you're saying goodbye to someone, or maybe when you're signing off an email, if it's not too late in the day."
"You can also change 'ra' for 'po', which is 'night.'"
The two 't' sounds in te Reo Māori
Hēmi also takes us through the two different sounds of the letter "t" in te reo Māori."
"There's the dull 't' sound, in words like 'ta', 'te' and 'to'".
"Some day it's almost similar to a 'd' sound."
"Then there's the sharper 't' sound, like in 'ti' and 'tu'".
"You can hear the - almost 's' sound. Tsi, tsu."
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Click the play button above to hear Hēmi pronounce this phrase and take you through any pronunciation nuances
