Instructions
- Study the vocabulary below.
- Translate the sentences from Hawaiian to English.
- Check your work: tap each sentence to see the answer.
- Put this assignment down for a while to let your mind rest.
- Now switch to “English → Hawaiian”, translate, and check your answers the same way.
- Repeat the whole lesson as needed.
Nā Huaʻōlelo Hou ~ Vocabulary
- kula kikino
- school
- i kēia lā ʻawe
- today
- aʻo hamani
- to teach; to learn
- halekūʻai kikino
- supermarket, shop
- kani hehele
- resounding, ringing
- hoʻokani hamani
- to make sth sound
- nui ʻaʻano
- many; large
- kahua mokulele kikino
- airport
- holo hehele
- traveling (by car, etc.)
- honu kikino
- turtle, tortoise
- lana hehele
- floating
- ʻāina ʻē kikino
- any place outside HI
- noho hehele
- living; sitting; staying
- ʻoia papani (pronoun)
- he/she
- keʻena kikino
- office
- maʻemaʻe ʻaʻano
- clean
- ia kaʻi
- the aforementioned
- palekana ʻaʻano
- safe, protected
- ua kikino; hehele
- rain; raining
- pulu ʻaʻano
- wet
- i nehinei ʻawe
- yesterday
- pōloli ʻaʻano
- hungry
- ʻai hamani; kikino
- to eat; taro, poi, food
- pōpoki kikino
- cat
- pāʻani hehele; hamani
- playing; to play w/sth
- makuahine kikino
- mother
- hoʻi hehele
- returning someplace
- maiʻa kikino
- banana
- pala ʻaʻano
- ripe
- ulu hehele
- growing bigger
- pele kikino
- lava
- wela ʻaʻano
- hot
Translate
Additional Notes
About the Difficulty of Defining Intransitive Verbs
A hamani (transitive verb) is an action that does something to something, or something receives the action. Examples are «ʻai» (“to eat”), since you have to eat something (the “direct object”); or «pahu» (“to push”), since you have to push something.
A hehele (intransitive verb) is one which does not take a direct object; the action does not “transit” onto anything. Examples include «holo» (“to run”) as in “I run to the store”, and «pāʻani» (“to play”) as in “The kids play at the park”.
English language can be very confusing because most verbs can be either transitive or intransitive, depending on how they are used. For example, “to return” —as in “I returned home”— is intransitve in use, whereas “I returned the letter” is transitive. Or “to sit” —as in “She sits in the chair”— is intransitive, but “She sits the baby in the chair” is transitive.
The Hawaiian language, on the other hand, we mostly use special prefixes, suffixes, or entirely different words to show if an action happens to an object or not. For example:
So if I were to define «hoʻi» as “to return” and «noho» as “to sit”, how would you know if I mean the transitive meaning or the intransitive meaning? Over the years, I have noticed that students are easily confused by this ambiguity and often end up using the wrong verb, even when they are labeled hamani or hehele.
Therefore, in an attempt to solve this problem, I am testing out non-traditional English language definitions, as in the vocabulary table above. For example, in defining «hoʻi» (hehele), I have used “returning someplace” rather than “to return”; for «noho» (hehele) I have used “living; sitting; staying” rather than the transitive-sounding “to sit”.
Let me know if you have any thoughts on this topic.
ʻŌlelo Online Virtual Classroom · kumu Kaliko Beamer-Trapp · Practice revision 8b (July 2026) · This is a work in progress; feedback is welcome.