Te Reo Māori has 8 consonants:
H K M N P R T W
Most of the consonants are pronounced as in English, there are some exceptions:
The ‘r’ is rolled, try placing your tongue up towards the roof of your mouth and curl it a little on the sides and use a little puff of air between the roof of your mouth and your tongue to vibrate and straighten out your tongue as you let the sound come out.
rere : fly raro : underneath rima : 5
The ‘t’ is not aspirated like it is in English (ie. not so much air is expelled as you say the letter).
Try placing your tongue at the top of your teeth instead of on the roof of your mouth when you say it. The sound should be closer to a ‘th’ than a ‘t’ sound.
tote : salt tiki : fetch tahi : one
Te Reo Māori has 5 vowels: A E I O U
A: ah (as in car)
E: eh (as in any)
I: ee (as in pee)
O: oh (as in ought)
U: oo (as in zoo)
When a macron is added to a vowel it doubles the length of the sound.
Ā, Ē, Ī,Ō, Ū
It’s very important to hold on to the sound when a macron appears:
manu, bird
mānu, float
papa, floor
pāpā, dad
patu, hit
pātū. wall
There are two diagraphs in Te Reo Māori:
(ie. two letter combinations that are joined together to make one sound)
wh = the f sound (whare:house, awhi:hug)
ng = the sound at the end of thing (ngeru:cat, ngongoro:snore, rangi:sky)