When visiting Hawaii it is useful, and polite, to learn a few basic Hawaiian words and expressions.
Difficulty: Easy
Time Required: 15 minutes
Here's How:
- aloha - hello, goodbye, welcome, farewell, love
- haole - a foreigner, often referring to a Caucasian
- heiau - Hawaiian temple, place of worship
- hula - native dance of Hawaii
- kamaʻaina - native born citizen or local resident of Hawaii
- lanai - a porch, balcony or veranda
- lūʻau - a Hawaiian feast
- mahalo - thank you
- makai - a direction "towards the sea"
- mauka - a direction "towards the mountains"
- mele - a song or chant
- ʻohana - family
- ono - delicious
- pau - finished
- poi - crushed taro root, made into a sticky paste
Tips:
- The Hawaiian alphabet has only 12 letters - the five regular vowels (a, e, i, o, and u) and seven consonants (h, k, l, m, n, p, w).
- The vowels are pronounced ah, ey, ee, oh and oo, not ay, ee, eye, oh and you like in English.
- Most of the time each vowel in a word is pronounced separately.
