Ko te mahi ahau i toku whare, I am going to work at my house.
§ 45. Passive Voice. The passive voice is formed generally by the addition of one of the following terminations to the active: -a, -ia, -hia, -kia, -mia, -ngia, -ria, -tia, -whia, -na, -ina. No rule can be laid down which termination is to be used with any given verb: some form the passive with one only, others again with several; the passive termination, therefore, of each verb must be learnt with the active.
Those verbs which have the first syllable doubled in the active drop the repetition in the passive; thus pupuri becomes (not pupuritia, but) puritia.
§ 46. The Tenses of the different moods in the Passive voice are formed in the same way as in the Active, the passive form of the verb being merely substituted for the active,—puritia for pupuri.
The Imperative Passive is not, like the Imperative Active, confined to the second person, but is more commonly used in the first or third person, the command at the same time being addressed to the second person.
Example.
Puritia tenei pukapuka! be this book held [by thee!] i. e. hold this book!
§ 47. Uses of Active and Passive. The Passive Voice is generally used when the action is emphatic rather than the agent, and therefore is much more frequently required than the Active Voice in strictly active verbs. But when an active verb follows a neuter verb and is in apposition with it, it will retain the active construction of the neuter verb.
Examples.