Tēnā koutou - hello everyone.

How are you going in your te reo journey?  It’s great to hear people giving te reo a go with me.

Let’s get topical this week and talk about te māuiui - illness.

Kei te pēhea koe?  How are you? 

We all know this phrase by now, and it’s a great place to start a conversation.. 

Remember, you can leave off the pronoun, 'you', to keep it very informal and just say 'How's it?' Kei te pēhea?

Kei te māuiui ahau - I’m not feeling well.

The word māuiui means to be sick or unwell when used as a verb, and can also be used as a noun meaning sickness or illness.

It looks complicated, but is fairly simple to pronounce. The uiui in māuiui is pronounced almost like wi-wi. You just roll the u and i together quickly.

So māuiui is pronounced mā-wi-wi.

 He aha te mate? - What’s wrong?

Mate is another word for sickness or illness.

Your answer might be:

Kei te ānini taku upoko - I have a headache.

Kei te ngau taku puku - I have a stomach ache.

Lastly for this week, the Māori phrase for Coronavirus is mate corona.

We’ll have more for you next week. In the meantime, practice using these simple but topical new phrases.

Kia pai te rā. Have a great day.

Check out te wiki o te reo Māori here