English to Māori: make ‘we’, ‘you’ and possession precise
Four different groups can hide inside English ‘we’
Māori asks two questions that English we leaves unanswered: is the listener included, and are there exactly two people or at least three? Tāua means the speaker and listener together. Māua means the speaker and one other person, excluding the listener. Tātou includes the listener in a group of three or more; mātou excludes the listener from such a group.
For an English invitation, decide who is being invited before reviewing the Māori pronoun. ‘We will meet outside’ could coordinate the sender and recipient, describe two visitors' arrangements to a host, or organise an entire group. Those situations do not take the same form. A brief explanation of the participants is more useful than assuming every occurrence of we should receive the same Māori equivalent throughout a conversation.
Count the people addressed, not the people mentioned
English you can address one person, two people or a larger group. Māori distinguishes koe, kōrua and koutou. Tēnā koe addresses one person; Tēnā kōrua addresses two; Tēnā koutou addresses three or more. The relevant number is the audience being addressed, not the number of people named elsewhere in the message.
A reminder sent to a couple differs from a notice sent to an entire committee. If only one representative receives an email about several colleagues, consider whether the wording addresses that individual or the whole team. An English subject line does not settle that relationship on its own. Check the greeting and later pronouns together so the message does not switch audiences unintentionally.
English ‘my’ does not identify the Māori possession category
Māori has a- and o-category possessive forms. The relationship between the possessor and what is possessed helps determine the choice. Tāku and tōku can both translate English my, but they are not simply masculine and feminine versions. The owner's gender is not the deciding factor.
Do not use a blanket rule that anything bought takes one category and everything else takes the other. Transport, clothing and other relationships have established patterns that such a shortcut misses. Neutral forms also occur: the unmarked taku is not merely a careless spelling of tāku with a missing macron. When checking a possessive, identify both the actual noun and its relationship to the person rather than replacing every English my mechanically.
Preserve the long vowels in the result
A macron marks a long vowel in standard Māori spelling. The marks in Māori, tāua and kōrua belong to the written forms; they are not optional decoration added for a formal tone. Removing them from a copied translation discards pronunciation information and can obscure distinctions between words or grammatical forms.
Keep an established personal or place name in the form supplied by its bearer or authoritative source. Do not add a guessed macron solely because another familiar Māori word has one. If a business system cannot display the characters, solve that display limitation separately from deciding the correct translation. A clean-looking English keyboard transcription is not automatically a better Māori spelling.
Language references
English is listed by the provider as English (language code en). Source text reads left to right. Preserve original spelling, punctuation, and names when entering text.
The selected target is Māori (Te Reo Māori; code mi). The result is displayed left to right. If another script or regional variant is needed, select its separate entry in the language directory.