Ngā Tohutohu
He roroa rawa ōu makawe
Using hei
Hei belongs to the same class of words as ki, i, and kei.
All of these words indicate a location in space and time, as illustrated in the following examples.
Tauira:
| Kei te toa tōku māmā. |
My mother is at the store. |
| I haere a māmā ki te toa. |
Mum went to the store. |
While i indicates a past location, kei indicates a present location, and ki means ‘towards’ or ‘to’. Hei indicates future location. This use you have already encountered as in the following examples.
Hei tauira:
| Hei aha te mati? |
What is the match for? |
| Hei tahu i te ahi. |
To light the fire. |
in the following examples hei is more obviously being used to indicate future position.
Hei tauira:
| Hei āpōpō rātou hoki ai ki te kāinga. |
Tomorrow they return home. |
| Hei te rā nei taku whakamātautau. |
My exam is today. |
Hei can also replace e in negative commands as in the examples below.
Hei tauira:
| Kaua e whāki! |
Don’t tell! |
| Kaua hei whāki! |
Don’t tell! |
For further explanations and examples see Te Pihinga p. 148
Whakatikaina te rerenga kōrero
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