tēnā koutou mō te whakarongo
The English phrase "thank you for listening" is translated into Māori as tēnā koutou mō te whakarongo.
tēnā koutou mō te whakarongo is a polite expression used at the end of a speech or presentation to thank the audience for their attention. It is most commonly used at the conclusion of a formal speech (whaikōrero) or a presentation.
What does it mean word for word?
The phrase literally translates to "greetings to you all for the listening".
How does it change in a sentence?
The phrase changes based on the number of people you are addressing. Use tēnā koe mō te whakarongo if you are addressing only one person, and tēnā kōrua mō te whakarongo if you are addressing exactly two people. To emphasize that you are thanking the entire group, you can use tēnā koutou katoa mō te whakarongo.
Did you know?
- When ending a formal speech, this phrase is often followed by a waiata (song) performed by the speaker's group to support the words spoken.
- The word whakarongo is built from rongo, which means not only 'to hear' but also 'to feel', 'to smell' or 'to taste'.
- The word koutou is a cognate of the Hawaiian word ʻoukou, reflecting the shared ancestry of these Polynesian languages.
Examples in context
- Tēnā koutou mō te whakarongo ki taku whai kōrero.Thank you all for listening to my speech.
Example conversation
Rawiri has just finished giving a short presentation to the group.
- RawiriTēnā koutou mō te whakarongo.Thank you all for listening.
- AnaheraTēnā koe, Rawiri, mō tō kōrero pai.Thank you, Rawiri, for your good speech.
- RawiriHe pai ki ahau te kōrero ki a koutou.I enjoyed speaking to you all.
- AnaheraKa pai tō mahi.You did a good job.
Sources
- Word origins: Wiktionary entries koutou, te, whakarongo, CC BY-SA 4.0.
