Ngā tae (Colours)

Colour words are one of the easiest ways to start noticing te reo Māori in everyday life. You can use them with things around you straight away: books, cars, clothes, houses, balls, and more.

Te Reo Māori	English
mā	white
pango	black
whero	red
karaka	orange
kōwhai	yellow
kākāriki	green
kikorangi	sky blue
kahurangi	blue
waiporoporo	purple
parauri	brown
māwhero	pink

You do not need the whole colour set perfectly on day one. Start with the ones you are most likely to use and notice often.

Here are a few simple examples:

te pukapuka whero (the red book)
te motokā pango (the black car)
he whare mā (a white house)
te pōro kākāriki (the green ball)

You may hear a bit of variation around blue shades. Here we use:

kikorangi (sky blue)
kahurangi (blue)

A good way to make these stick: pick two or three colours you see all the time and start naming them in your head during the day. That kind of small repeated noticing usually works better than trying to memorise the whole list in one go.

Which word means “red”? whero
Which word means “orange”? karaka
Which word means “brown”? parauri
Which word means “pink”? māwhero

Ngā tae — Colours

Ngā tae — Colours