Using taea

Taea, the passive form of tae, is used to say something is possible or someone has the ability to do something. When taea is used this way, it has a special sentence pattern peculiar to itself. Look carefully at the examples and observe the word order of the different elements of the sentence. Notice how the taea pattern may be used with any appropriate verbal markers (i.e ka, kua, i, e … ana, etc).

Hei tauira:

This sentence pattern has features in common with both the stative sentence pattern and the passive sentence which you will learn about in other exercises. However, it needs to be stressed that this pattern is only used with taea and no other verb. It may be difficult to master initially but it is necessary to become familiar with it as it is so frequently used in spoken and written Māori. Here are some more examples to help you become familiar with the taea sentence pattern and to illustrate the different word orders that are possible using this sentence pattern.

Hei tauira:

The last three parts of the structure can be moved around. However, the word order used in the first example above is the most usual. If the agent or patient is a personal pronoun (ia, rāua, etc), then it will tend to come early in the sentence.

Hei tauira:
Ka taea au e koe te āwhina? Are you able to help me?

Further explanations and examples: Te Kākano p. 7

Whakakīa ngā āputa kia rite ai te rerenga Māori ki te rerenga Ingarihi.