Hawaiian/Lesson 4.5

It seems a bit silly to give this short little topic its own page of notes, but yet most of the items on this page are review and practice for the learner.

First of all, making a sentence negative, if you hadn't figured it out, inserts the words "not" or "no", as in... I do not make my bed. or I have no money. This, in Hawaiian, is possible with the word for no, which is a'ole. This word works a lot like it does in Spanish.

Ex) No hablo a nadie.- I don't talk to anyone.
 * No tengo dinero.- I don't have (any) money.
 * El no quiere ir.- He doesn't want to go.

When using this word, it is positioned at the beginning of the sentence, followed by a pronoun if there is one, and the rest of the sentence stays the same. To explain this, we will translate: I do not work at the library.

For starters, the negation goes first:
 * A'ole...

Then, the pronoun if there is one. In this case, there is: I.
 * A'ole au...

Next, the verb:
 * A'ole au hana...

And finally, the rest of the sentence:
 * A'ole au hana ma ka hale waihona puke.

Note: Hale waihona puke means library.