Prefixes and suffixes in Tahitian – Faa, Haa, Raa, Hia – Tei hea

In this lesson, we will learn prefixes and suffixes in Tahitian: Faa, Haa, Raa, Hia.

Prefixes and suffixes in Tahitian?

In this first chapter, let’s start from the beginning: as in English, words can have:

• prefixes: positioned at the beginning of the word
• suffixes: positioned at the end of the word

The base word (the base of the word) is a noun, a verb, or an adjective.

We then have the construction: PREFIX – BASE – SUFFIX. The, the whole forms a new word.

For example :

Tahitian	English
Haapii	Learn
Te haapiiraa	The school, the teaching, the lesson

Haapii is the base word which is here a verb. Be careful, the base word is not pii (to which we would have added a prefix haa).

Raa is the suffix for Haapiiraa. With Raa, Haapii becomes a noun: Te haapiiraa.

I repeat to be clear: affixing a prefix or a suffix creates a new word.

The main suffixes and prefixes in Tahitian

These are :

• Faa prefix
• Haa prefix
• Raa suffix
• Hia suffix

Come on, let’s meet these new friends!

Function	Detail	Grammatical construction
Create a verb	Transform the base word into a verb: make … make sure to make … The base being the result of the action described by the verb. The base starts with a vowel or with t, n, r, h	Faa – Base
Create a verb	Same. The base starts with f, v, p, m	Haa – Base
Create a noun	Transform the base word into a noun, into a notion	Base – Raa
Change the point of view	Transform the verb (in the active form) into: passive form or past participle or adjective The point of view changes: In the active form, it is the point of view of the subject.	Base – Hia

This chapter is the heart of the lesson, if you need to read it over and over again, now is a good time!

Familiarize yourself with examples

We learned the theory in the previous chapter. Let us illustrate with examples to understand and assimilate. We take the opportunity to learn vocabulary too.

Faa – To build a verb with a base starting with a vowel or with t, n, r, h

Tahitian	English	Tahitian	English
Ora	To live	Faaora	To save, to make live, to heal
Te itoito	The courage, the perseverance, the energy	Faaitoito	To encourage, to give yourself courage, to persevere. Good luck
‘Amu	To eat, to consume	Faa’amu	To feed, to raise, to adopt
Nehenehe	Pretty, beautiful	Faanehenehe	To embellish, to decorate
Ineine	Ready, in good order	Faaineine	To prepare

Haa – To build a verb with a base starting with f, v, p, m

Tahitian	English	Tahitian	English
Maita’i	Good, well, nice	Haamaita’i	To improve
Māuruuru	Thank you	Haamāuruuru	To thank
Te pe’ape’a	The worry	Haape’ape’a	To worry, to disturb
Pārarai	Thin	Haapārarai	To go on a diet
Fifi	Difficult, problematic	Haafifi	To complicate
Māu’a	Wasted	Haamāu’a	To waste

Raa – To build a noun

Tahitian	English	Tahitian	English
Tāmāa	To have a meal, to lunch, to dinner	Te tāmāaraa	The feast
Haapii	To teach (haapii atu)To learn (haapii mai)	Te haapiiraa	The school, the teaching, the lesson
Te ora	The life	Te oraraa	The existence, the everyday life, the life at home
‘Amu	To eat, to consume	Te ‘amuraa māa	The meal, the dining table
Pārahi	To sit, to be seated	Te pārahiraa	The place, the seat, the chair

Hia – To build a passive form, a past particle, an adjective

Tahitian	English	Tahitian	English
Te ma’i	The disease, the sick	Ma’ihia	Sick
Fānau	To give birth, to bring into the world, to give birth, to beget, to procreate	Fānauhia	Born
‘Ite	To see, to know	‘Itehia	Seen
‘Amu	To eat, to consume	‘Amuhia	Eaten
Pārahi	To sit, to be seated	Pārahihia	Sat

A little grammar

By now, we know Faa, Haa, Raa, Hia quite well. In this part, we will learn more about the adjoining grammatical constructions.

Translate when, while doing with Raa

Grammar rule: Te… raa, te… raa ia

1 / To translate: when, while doing, we use the construction:Te … raa, te … raa ia The triggering of the 2nd part of the phrase coincides with the 1st. 2 / The 1st part of the sentence may not be specified. In this case, the trigger is done with the last event mentioned.

For example :

Tahitian	English
To’u taeraa mai i Tahiti, te haapiraa mai ia vau i te reo tahiti	It was when I arrived in Tahiti that I started to learn Tahitian
Te ‘iteraa vau ia’ oe, te taaraa ia vau i to ‘oe hinaaro	When I saw you, I understood what you wanted
Te taaraa ia vau i to ‘oe hinaaro	I understood what you wanted.Example for case 2 /

The new vocabulary:

Tahitian	English
Taa	To be separate, to be distinct, to be understood
Hinaaro	To desire, to want, to wish

The different uses of hia

We saw previously that Hia allows to transform the verb (in the active form) into:

• passive form
• or past participle
• or adjective

The point of view changes.

For example :

Function	Tahitian	English	Explanation
Active form	Ua ‘amu’ o Mere i te âpara	Mere ate the apple	Mere does the act of eating the apple.In the active form, it is the subject’s point of view. It was Mere who ate the apple.
Passive form	Ua ‘amuhia te âpara	The apple has been eaten	The apple which was in function of complement of the sentence in the active form becomes subject.In the passive form, it is the complement point of view. It is the apple that has been eaten.
Adjective (impersonal form)	– Tei hea te âpara?- Ua ‘amuhia – Ua parauhia mai au e, ua ‘amuhia	– Where’s the apple?- Someone ate it – Someone told me that someone ate it	The idea is not to cite the subject. We translate into Rnglish by someone …We encounter a construction of relative proposition: that someone ate it.
Past participle	– Te âpara e ‘amuhia- Te âpara i ‘amuhia – Ahea ra te âpara e ‘amuhia? – Ahea te âpara i ‘amuhia?	– The eaten apple- The eaten apple – When the apple was eaten? – When the apple was eaten?	We see here that we use the particles i and e. These are constructions for relative propositions. We will see this in a future lesson.

Tei hea = where?

We saw in the previous lesson the use of Tei: Locate in space in Tahitian – Locatives (Front, behind) – Tei

So Tei hea means where.

Tahitian	English
Tei hea	Where

Short dialogue

Let us review the points of the lesson thanks to this short dialogue.

Tahitian	English
Te taeraa ‘o Pāpā i te fare,	When daddy came home,
Te haapihaaraa ia Māmā i te pape no te taofe.	Mom was boiling water for coffee.
Ua mānii ‘o Māmā i te taofe i roto i te âu’a	Mom poured the coffee in the bowl.
Ua faano’ano’a ‘o na i te taofe mā te û haari.	She flavored the coffee with coconut milk.
E au rāua i tera taofe inuhia ra.	They enjoyed this coffee they drank.

The already known vocabulary

The vocabulary already encountered in the previous lessons is as follows:

Tahitian	English
Tae	To arrive, to reach, to achieve
Pihaa	To boil
Te pape	The water
Te taofe (from English, coffee)	The coffee
Mānii	To pour
I roto	Inside, in
Te âu’a	The bowl, the cup
Au	To like, to apreciate

The new vocabulary

The new words are:

Tahitian	English
Te no’ano’a	The perfume
Mā	Clean, pure, accompanied by, and the others
Te û	The milk
Te haari	The coconut
Te û haari	The coconut milk

To sum up

With this lesson, we have just learned how to construct new words by juxtaposing prefixes and / or suffixes to a base word in Tahitian. The prefixes are faa, haa and the suffixes are raa and hia. We also learned 48 vocabulary words and expressions. Yippee!