As you might've noticed in previous vocab lists, a Hawaiian word often takes up more than one part of speech. For example, in the Duolingo Intro category, we saw that the word "lei" can be used as a noun (a garland made of native flowers) or as a verb (to adorn someone or yourself with a lei).

 

In this Duolingo category, we see many more of these. For example, we see the Hawaiian word "ua" as a noun:

Ka ua.

[The rain.]

As an adjective:

He lā ua kēia.

[This is a rainy day.]

And as a verb:

Ua ʻo Hilo.

[Hilo rains.]

 

That is why the words in the vocab list above may specify the part of speech that the word can assume, as you will see more than one used in the practice below/on Duolingo.

 

 

 

 

 

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The translation for the Hawaiian word "polalauahi" is the English word "vog / voggy," but unless you live on Hawaiʻi, you probably don't know what that means. Vog is a weather condition produced by the smoke coming out of the many volcanoes the islands have. "Vog" is a contraction of "volcano" and "smog."

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" O " can be translated as "of" in English. It is used for possession. Hawaiian doesn't have the possessive s (" 's "), so any time you see an English sentence with that apostrophe s, try rewriting the sentence to contain "of," then translate that new sentence. For example:

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How is today's weather? → How is the weather of today? → Pehea ke anilā o kēia lā?

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There are many uses of " i " in Hawaiian, but this Duolingo category only introduces one very common way for now (yay!).

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This "i" precedes an indicator of time in which the sentence is occurring. For example:

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Wela au i kēia lā.

[I am hot today.]

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The main part of this sentence is "Wela au" ("I am hot"). "...i kēia lā" ("...today") tells when that main part of the sentence is happening.

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You'll have to keep your attention to the Subject of the sentence, because sometimes nouns like "today" can be the Subject. Don't confuse the above example with the following:

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Wela kēia lā.

[Today is hot.]

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In this example, "kēia lā" ("today") is the Subject, not the indicator of time.

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So, as we've seen before, this word "i"  is not directly translatable and you'll have to remember how this is used in Hawaiian sentences, rather than memorize it as part of your vocab list.

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This Duolingo category introduces "Hū" ("Wow") as an interjection, but also as part of a common phraseology. The formula is "Hū, ka/ke [noun] o [place]!" Here's an example:

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Hū, ka wela o Honolulu!

[lit. Wow, the heat of Honolulu!]

[Wow, Honolulu is hot!]

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It's a common interjectory expression used regularly for weather. Duolingo won't test you on this terribly much until a much later category. However, it's pretty common to use in the Hawaiian language! On Duolingo, you'll translate the Hawaiian into the second English translation above, not the literal translation.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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This category of Duolingo introduces a third sentence structure. This formula is "Verb + Subject" in Hawaiian. Let's look at a previously mentioned sentence for an example:

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Ua ʻo Hilo.

[Hilo rains.]

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Here, Hilo is the Subject, and the verb that it's doing is "ua" (or, "raining").

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