Te reo Māori is the indigenous language of Aotearoa New Zealand and a member of the Polynesian family, closely related to Cook Islands Māori and Tahitian and more distantly to Hawaiian and Samoan. It has been an official language of New Zealand since 1987, and after decades of revitalisation work it is now visible everywhere: on road signs, in weather forecasts, in workplace emails, and in the September celebration of Te Wiki o te Reo Māori (Māori Language Week).
For a learner, greetings are the perfect entry point. They are short, they are used constantly, and — unlike a lot of textbook vocabulary — you will get to use them on your very first day. This guide covers the greetings that matter, how to say them without mangling the vowels, and the small cultural rules that separate a respectful “kia ora” from an awkward one.
Get the sounds right before you get the words right
Māori pronunciation is genuinely learner-friendly: the spelling is consistent, so once you know the sounds, you can read any word aloud. There are five vowels, each with a short and a long form, and ten consonant sounds.
The five vowels
| Letter | Short sound | Long (with macron) | Example |
|---|---|---|---|
| a | like the “a” in aha | ā — like “a” in father | ata (morning) / āta (carefully) |
| e | like the “e” in pet | ē — the same sound held longer | kete (basket) |
| i | like the “ee” in feet, but short | ī — like “ee” in see | iwi (tribe) / īnaianei (now) |
| o | like the “o” in port, without the r | ō — the same, held longer | koe (you) / kōrua (you two) |
| u | like the “oo” in foot | ū — like “oo” in moon | utu (payment) / tūrangawaewae (place of belonging) |
Three consonant notes will fix most beginner accents:
- wh is normally pronounced like an English “f” — so whānau (family) is roughly “FAH-now”.
- ng is the sound at the end of “singer”, never the “ng-g” of “finger” — and it can start a word, as in ngā mihi.
- r is a single light tap of the tongue, much closer to the “tt” in the American pronunciation of “better” than to an English or Spanish r.
The macron (tohutō) is not decoration. It marks vowel length, and vowel length changes meaning: wahine is one woman, wāhine is women; keke is cake, kēkē is armpit. Even the word Māori itself means something different without it. Learn to type macrons early — on most keyboards you can enable the Māori keyboard layout, then hold the tilde key or use a dead key before the vowel.
The core greetings
| Phrase | Meaning | When to use it |
|---|---|---|
| Kia ora | Hello / be well (literally “may you have life”) | The universal, all-purpose greeting. Also means “thanks” and “cheers”. |
| Tēnā koe | Greetings to you (one person) | More formal — meetings, elders, someone you’re meeting for the first time. |
| Tēnā kōrua | Greetings to you two | Formally greeting exactly two people. |
| Tēnā koutou katoa | Greetings to you all | Opening a speech, email or presentation to a group. |
| Mōrena | Good morning | Casual; borrowed from English “morning”. Very common at work. |
| Ata mārie | Peaceful morning | A softer, more traditional “good morning”. |
| Ahiahi mārie | Good afternoon / evening | Late-day equivalent of ata mārie. |
| Pō mārie | Good night | Said at parting in the evening, or before bed. |
| Nau mai, haere mai | Welcome, come forward | Welcoming someone into a home, event or website. |
Kia ora or tēnā koe?
Think of kia ora as your everyday register — the equivalent of “hi” — and tēnā koe as your respectful register, closer to “good day to you”. If you are emailing a colleague, kia ora is perfect. If you are addressing a kaumātua (elder), a formal gathering, or the opening line of a job application, tēnā koe lands better. You will never cause offence with kia ora; you will simply sound a little casual in a formal room.
The one grammar rule you cannot skip: counting your listeners
English uses “you” for everyone. Māori distinguishes one, two, and three-or-more, and greetings change accordingly. Get this wrong and native speakers will notice immediately.
| Number of people | Pronoun | Formal greeting | Casual greeting |
|---|---|---|---|
| One | koe | Tēnā koe | Kia ora (koe) |
| Two | kōrua | Tēnā kōrua | Kia ora kōrua |
| Three or more | koutou | Tēnā koutou (katoa) | Kia ora koutou |
The same logic runs through the whole language, so learning it here pays off later. Adding katoa (“all”) to tēnā koutou is a common way to sweep in everyone present.
Getting past hello
A greeting is only useful if you can survive the reply. These are the exchanges you will hear most:
- Kei te pēhea koe? — How are you?
- Kei te pai (ahau). — I’m good.
- Kei te ora. — I’m well.
- Kei te ngenge au. — I’m tired.
- Ko wai tō ingoa? — What’s your name?
- Ko Sarah tōku ingoa. — My name is Sarah.
- Nō hea koe? — Where are you from?
- Nō Ingarangi ahau. — I’m from England.
A complete first conversation might run: “Kia ora, ko wai tō ingoa?” — “Ko Tom tōku ingoa. Nō hea koe?” — “Nō Tāmaki Makaurau ahau. Kei te pēhea koe?” — “Kei te pai, kia ora.” That is roughly thirty seconds of study away.
Saying goodbye — and who says what
Farewells in Māori depend on who is leaving. This trips up almost every beginner.
| Farewell | Literal sense | Who says it |
|---|---|---|
| Haere rā | Go well | Said by the person staying to the person leaving. |
| E noho rā | Stay well | Said by the person leaving to those staying. |
| Ka kite anō | See you again | Anyone — the casual “see ya”. |
| Mā te wā | Until the time comes | Anyone — “catch you later”, open-ended. |
| Hei konā rā | Be well there | Very common at the end of phone calls, emails and texts. |
Manners: thanks, sorry, and the missing “please”
Kia ora doubles as a quick “thanks”. For something more substantial, use ngā mihi (“greetings/thanks”, a standard email sign-off), ngā mihi nui (“many thanks”), or tēnā rawa atu koe (“thank you very much”) to one person. To apologise, use aroha mai — literally an appeal to compassion, covering everything from “sorry” to “excuse me”.
There is no single word that maps neatly onto English “please”. Politeness is carried by phrasing and tone, and tēnā koa serves when you need to soften a request or get someone’s attention.
Introducing yourself: the pepeha
A pepeha is a formulaic self-introduction that locates you in the landscape and among people rather than by job title. A traditional structure names a mountain, a river, a waka (ancestral canoe), an iwi (tribe) and a hapū (sub-tribe):
- Ko Taranaki te maunga. (Taranaki is the mountain.)
- Ko Waingongoro te awa. (Waingongoro is the river.)
- Ko Ngāti Ruanui te iwi. (Ngāti Ruanui is the tribe.)
- Ko Anna tōku ingoa. (Anna is my name.)
If you are not Māori, the respectful approach — and the one most teachers now recommend — is to adapt rather than borrow: name the mountain and river of the place you actually come from, and your family or ancestry, without claiming iwi or hapū affiliations that are not yours. “Nō Kōtirana ōku tīpuna” (“my ancestors are from Scotland”) is honest and welcome; asserting an iwi you have no whakapapa to is not.
Greetings in person: hongi and pōwhiri
The hongi is the traditional greeting in which two people press noses (and often foreheads) and share breath — the hā. It is not a nose rub. Lean in gently, make brief contact, and follow your host’s lead on whether one press or two is expected. A handshake, harirū, usually accompanies it.
On a marae, visitors are welcomed through a pōwhiri: a karanga (ceremonial call, traditionally by women) draws the group on, whaikōrero (speeches) follow, each supported by waiata (song), and the ceremony closes with hongi and shared food. As a manuhiri (visitor), your job is simple — arrive quietly, switch off your phone, don’t sit on the paepae (the speakers’ bench at the front) unless invited, keep food away from sleeping areas, and follow the group.
Five mistakes beginners make
- Dropping macrons. “Maori” and “Māori” are different words. Write them properly.
- Anglicising vowels. Māori vowels are pure and consistent — resist the English habit of turning them into diphthongs (“kee-ah OH-rah”, not “KYE-oar-uh”).
- Using “haere rā” when you’re the one leaving. Reach for e noho rā instead.
- Ignoring the dual. Saying tēnā koe to two people is a small but very audible error.
- Adding an English “s” for plurals. It’s “one kiwi, many kiwi” — plurality is shown by the article: te (the, singular), ngā (the, plural).
A one-week starter plan
- Days 1–2: Vowels and the wh/ng/r sounds. Read the vowel table aloud until it’s automatic.
- Days 3–4: The core greetings plus koe / kōrua / koutou.
- Day 5: Small talk — name, origin, “how are you”.
- Day 6: Farewells and email sign-offs (ngā mihi, hei konā rā).
- Day 7: Draft your pepeha and say it out loud to someone.
Use Te Aka Māori Dictionary online to check meanings and hear audio, and listen to Māori-language radio or news bulletins for rhythm even before you understand the words.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is it appropriate for non-Māori to use these greetings?
Yes — and it is generally welcomed, provided you make a genuine effort with pronunciation and use words in their proper meaning. Te reo Māori revitalisation depends on the language being spoken widely, and greetings like kia ora, mōrena and ngā mihi are used daily by New Zealanders of all backgrounds. The line to respect is around ceremonial and tribal content: don’t claim a pepeha, iwi affiliation or role in a pōwhiri that isn’t yours.
How do you actually pronounce “kia ora”?
Roughly “KEE-ah OR-ah” — four crisp syllables, ki-a o-ra, with no drawn-out English vowels and no stress landing heavily on the second word. Keep each vowel short and pure, and don’t let “ora” collapse into “or-uh”.
How hard is te reo Māori for English speakers?
The pronunciation and spelling are among the easiest of any language you could pick up — genuinely phonetic, with a small sound inventory. The grammar is where the work is: word order is typically verb-initial, possessives split into two categories (a- and o-), and pronouns distinguish singular, dual and plural as well as inclusive and exclusive “we”. Greetings and everyday phrases, though, are very achievable in a few weeks.
Do many people actually speak it?
The 2018 New Zealand census recorded roughly 186,000 people able to hold an everyday conversation in te reo Māori — about four percent of the population — and the number has been climbing thanks to kōhanga reo, kura kaupapa Māori and a surge in adult learning. Far more New Zealanders use Māori words and greetings within English every day.
Ready to move from reading phrases to actually saying them? A tutor will catch the vowel-length habits and pronoun slips that are almost impossible to hear on your own. Book a session with a language tutor at The Cognitio and start your first conversation this week — kia kaha, ka kite anō!