Ki – to, towards, in the direction of

Kei te haere au ki te hui.

I am going to the meeting.

Kei te haere ia ki te toa.

He’s going to the shop.

I hoki mai a Nan ki tōna kainga.

Nan returned to her home.

I korero atu a Jude ki tōna hoa.

Jude spoke to his friend.

E titiro ana a Paora ki ngā ngaru.

Paul is looking at the waves.

NB: you might expect kite (to see, find) and mātakitaki (to gaze, watch, inspect) to be followed by ‘ki’ but these are exceptions and they are followed by ‘i’ instead.

Kei te mātakitaki ngā tamariki i te pouaka whakaata.

The children are watching tv.

Ā. i kite ahau i te rangi hou, i te whenua hou …

And I saw a new heavens and a new earth ….

A Little Extra on ‘Ki’

NB; Most *transitive verbs use ‘i’ as the transitive preposition (the joining word to identify the object that the verb is acting on). There are however a small group of verbs that use ‘ki’ instead:

*What are transitive verbs? These are verbs that use a direct object, which shows who or what receives the action in a sentence.

eg. She hit (subject + verb) ‘the ball’ (direct object). I patu ia ki te poro.) ‘She hit.’ would not make complete sentence, this verbs needs a direct object to make sense so it’s transitive, the action needs to be transfered onto an object.

mōhio (to know), pātai (to ask), aroha (to love), hiahia & pīrangi (to want, desire, wish for), tātari (to wait for), tūtaki (to meet, encounter), whakaaro (to think of, consider), mahara (to remember), pai (to like, approve of).