- Rongo, to hear; rangona (passive); wakarongo, wakarangona (passive).
Examples of this rule are very few.
(g) Of the passives of compound verbs, two examples are given at the end of the table. The rule for their formation is the same as that for the passives of simple verbs: the final letters, in both cases, being the only thing on which they depend. Occasionally, however, we meet with a word resolved into two parts, and each part put into the passive voice; e. g.,
- Kaihau, (v. act.) to sell the property of an individual without giving him any part of the payment, Kainga-hautia, (passive).
There is another form similar to the preceding, which requires to be mentioned here; viz., when two verbs follow each other in immediate succession, one of which acts as a kind of adverb, or qualifying word, to the other, they will both sympathize with each other in voice; will either be both active or both passive; e. g.,
- Toia haeretia, dragged along; lit. dragged gone.
- Tukua whakareretia, let down with a dash.
- Kai moe, eat sleeping, i. e., while he is eating he is sleeping.
In such phrases the latter of the two verbs will generally take tia for its passive form.
(h) Occasionally a passive word may be met with which has no active; as parangia e te moe, oppressed by sleep; rokohina and rokohanga, waiho, homai and hoatu.
(i) Passive verbs are used in a more extended sense in Maori, than what is commonly met with in other languages, not excepting, perhaps, even the three passives of Hebrew.
The following are a few illustrations of the various uses:—