0 in Māori
kore
Zero in contemporary counting, listed in the Native Council lesson.
LIVING · DECIMAL NUMBER WORDS
Māori
Te reo Māori
Contemporary Māori decimal number words, composed from thousands, hundreds, tens, and additional units.
Convert numbers- Place
- Aotearoa New Zealand
- Period / variant
- Contemporary decimal counting; historical variants explained separately
EXAMPLES
rima tekau mā ono
56 · Decimal number words
Rule-derived example: five tens plus six, 5 × 10 + 6 = 56.
Worked example
Read 56 in Māori
Read the named groups from largest to smallest. A unit before mano, rau, or tekau multiplies that amount; mā joins remaining units. The converter uses isolated contemporary counting forms.
- rima tekau
rima tekau counts 5 tens: 5 × 10 = 50.
- mā ono
Mā joins the additional units. ono supplies 6.
Check
5 × 10 + 6 = 56
Number-word dictionary
Number words are the signs in this tradition. This dictionary shows the documented words and their meanings, preserving the spelling used by the sources. Some words name whole groups or connect parts of a number.
- kore
- 0
- tahi
- 1
- rua
- 2
- toru
- 3
- whā
- 4
- rima
- 5
- ono
- 6
- whitu
- 7
- waru
- 8
- iwa
- 9
- tekau
- 10; a number before tekau counts tens, as in rua tekau (20)
- rau
- 100; kotahi rau (100), rua rau (200)
- mano
- 1,000; kotahi mano (1,000), rua mano (2,000)
- kotahi
- one in the hundred/thousand groups shown here; also used for one object
- mā
- joins the final additional units
How the words fit together
Read the named groups from largest to smallest. A unit before mano, rau, or tekau multiplies that amount; mā joins remaining units. The converter uses isolated contemporary counting forms.
- Use tahi through iwa for one through nine, kore for zero, and tekau for ten.
- A coefficient before tekau multiplies ten: rima tekau means 5 × 10 = 50. A single ten is simply tekau.
- Mā joins additional units: rima tekau mā ono is 50 + 6 = 56.
- Rau names hundreds and mano thousands. One hundred is kotahi rau and one thousand kotahi mano; larger coefficients use rua through iwa.
- Read the expanded groups in order: kotahi mano iwa rau waru tekau mā waru is 1,000 + 900 + 80 + 8 = 1,988. Rua mano mā tahi is 2,001.
- In sentences, counting people may take toko-, and counting other things may take e; this isolated-number converter does not add noun-dependent grammar.
12 in Māori
tekau mā rua
Ten plus two; a documented compound in Te Aka.
20 in Māori
rua tekau
Two tens, using the contemporary decimal meaning of tekau.
56 in Māori
rima tekau mā ono
Rule-derived example: five tens plus six, 5 × 10 + 6 = 56.
1988 in Māori
kotahi mano iwa rau waru tekau mā waru
The Native Council lesson gives this expanded date example, with optional commas between groups.
2001 in Māori
rua mano mā tahi
Two thousand plus one, an example printed in the same lesson.
Supports contemporary isolated whole-number counting from 0 to 9,999. Historical meanings of tekau and pair counting are separate traditions. Macrons are part of the spelling. This display follows the cited teaching forms, omitting optional punctuation between large groups.
History
Modern counting belongs to a living language. Earlier practices cannot simply be read back from today’s terminology: Te Aka records that tekau, now ten, originally denoted twenty, as related forms still do in other eastern Polynesian languages.
How to read it
Read the named groups from largest to smallest. A unit before mano, rau, or tekau multiplies that amount; mā joins remaining units. The converter uses isolated contemporary counting forms.
- Use tahi through iwa for one through nine, kore for zero, and tekau for ten.
- A coefficient before tekau multiplies ten: rima tekau means 5 × 10 = 50. A single ten is simply tekau.
- Mā joins additional units: rima tekau mā ono is 50 + 6 = 56.
- Rau names hundreds and mano thousands. One hundred is kotahi rau and one thousand kotahi mano; larger coefficients use rua through iwa.
- Read the expanded groups in order: kotahi mano iwa rau waru tekau mā waru is 1,000 + 900 + 80 + 8 = 1,988. Rua mano mā tahi is 2,001.
- In sentences, counting people may take toko-, and counting other things may take e; this isolated-number converter does not add noun-dependent grammar.
Limits
Supports contemporary isolated whole-number counting from 0 to 9,999. Historical meanings of tekau and pair counting are separate traditions. Macrons are part of the spelling. This display follows the cited teaching forms, omitting optional punctuation between large groups.
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