Māori greetings for emails and everyday life

The everyday Māori greeting is kia ora ‘hello’, to anyone, and the safe email sign-off is ngā mihi ‘regards, thanks’. For something more formal, open with tēnā koe to one person, tēnā kōrua to two and tēnā koutou to three or more, and close a formal letter with Nāku noa, nā followed by your name. Here is what each one means, when to use it, and templates you can copy.

Updated 6 October 2026 · 8 min read

Tap 🔊 to hear an example. Māori examples play Papa Reo, the te reo Māori voice made by Te Hiku Media from recordings of native speakers.

How do you say hello in Māori?

Kia ora is the greeting you will hear and read most. Te Aka Māori Dictionary gives its literal meaning as be well, and notes that it works for any number of people and at any time of day. It also means thank you, which is why someone may answer your favour with it.

Tēnā koe is a step more formal. Unlike kia ora, it changes with the number of people you are speaking to, because it ends in the word for you, and te reo Māori has three of them.

Like kia ora, all three tēnā greetings can also be used to say thank you to the people concerned. Adding katoa ‘all’ to a group greeting, as in tēnā koutou katoa, makes it greetings to you all.

Why Māori has a word for “you two”

Kōrua is the dual: a pronoun for exactly two people, which English has no equivalent of. It is easy to overlook, and it matters: greeting a couple, two colleagues or both your parents with tēnā koutou counts them as three or more. The same three-way count runs through the whole pronoun system:

What Māori does not have is a polite you and a familiar one, the way French has tu and vous or German du and Sie (see formal and informal you, by the numbers). In Māori the pronoun only counts people. The formality lives in the greeting around it: kia ora kōrua and tēnā kōrua address the same two people, one casually and one formally.

Good morning, good night and how are you

How to start an email in Māori

Te Taura Whiri i te Reo Māori, the Māori Language Commission, publishes a sheet of greetings and sign-offs for the office, and New Zealand’s universities publish their own. They agree on the core set below. A name usually follows the greeting, often with e, the particle for calling someone, in front of it: Kia ora e Mere, or Tēnā koe e Mere,.

How to sign off an email in Māori

If you learn one closing, make it ngā mihi. Te Aka gives it as acknowledgements and thank you, and the university guides render it as regards, kind regards or thanks. It suits nearly any message to nearly anyone. The rest are worth knowing too, because you will see them in your inbox.

The guides do not quite agree on which English formula each formal close matches. Te Taura Whiri and Victoria pair Nāku noa, nā with yours sincerely and Nāku, nā with yours faithfully; the University of Auckland’s list gives Nāku noa, nā as yours faithfully. Either way it is the standard formal close, and nobody will read it as the wrong one.

What does nāku noa, nā mean?

It is not a fixed noise. Each word is doing something, and once you see the parts you will never misplace the comma.

• Nāku means mine or by me. It is the possessive for something the owner is active towards or in control of, which is how a writer stands to a letter.
• Noa means just, only or merely. It makes the phrase modest: Te Aka glosses nāku noa as it is just me.
• Nā before a name means by or from that person. It belongs to your name, which is why it is followed by one: Nāku noa, nā Mere.

So the whole line is roughly it is just mine, from Mere, which does the job of yours sincerely, Mere. The same nā signs a message on its own: nā Hone is simply from Hone.

Because the first word is a pronoun, it changes when more than one person signs. Victoria’s guide gives Nā māua noa, nā for two signatories and Nā mātou noa, nā for three or more. Those are the exclusive we from the table above, māua and mātou, because the reader is not one of the writers. The dual turns up even in the sign-off.

Why the farewells speak to the person who stays

Māori goodbyes depend on who is leaving. Haere rā. is said to the person going away; E noho rā. is said by the one going, to the person who stays. Mixing them up is easy, and saying haere rā on your way out tells your host to leave their own house.

An email follows the same logic. You are the one leaving the conversation, and your reader stays where they are, so the sign-offs address someone staying. Te Aka describes noho ora mai as only said to someone staying, and hei konā is built on konā, there, where you are. Te Aka gives hei konā as goodbye to someone remaining on the phone, which is the same situation. Ka kite anō (see you again) and Mā te wā. work from either side, which makes them the safe choice when you are not sure.

Māori email templates to copy

Swap the names for your own. Each template is an opening, your message in English or Māori, and a close.

To one person, everyday

Kia ora e Mere,
Thanks for sending the report through.
Ngā mihi, nā Anna

To one person, formal

Tēnā koe e Mere,
Please find attached the signed agreement.
Nāku noa, nā Hone

To two people

Tēnā kōrua,
Thank you both for your time yesterday.
Ngā mihi nui,
Hone

To a team or group

Kia ora e te whānau,
The meeting has moved to Thursday at ten.
Hei konā mai.
Mere

To a group, formal

Tēnā koutou katoa,
Thank you for your submissions.
Noho ora mai rā,
nā Hēmi

Getting it right

Teachers will find the classroom versions — the roll, instructions, praise and the date — in te reo Māori for teachers, and for anything longer than a greeting, see what machine translation can’t know.

• Use the macrons. An email is written down and forwarded, and tena koe or nga mihi without them is misspelt; a macron marks a long vowel, which can change a word. The pronunciation guide explains how they work.
• Count your readers. koe for one, kōrua for two, koutou for three or more. When in doubt, kia ora on its own suits any number.
• Match the register you were sent. If someone writes Kia ora and Ngā mihi, answering with E te rangatira, tēnā koe will read as stiff.
• Keep it short if that is all you know. A Kia ora and a Ngā mihi around an English email are correct and normal, and Te Taura Whiri’s sheet of greetings and sign-offs is written for exactly that setting, the office.

Going further

For thank you, sorry, please, yes and no and the rest of the everyday phrases, see common Māori phrases.

Greetings are the first words almost everyone learns, but they are only a handful. How many Māori words you need sets out what comes next and how far the most common words take you, and the Māori frequency list ranks them. Verbavia’s free te reo Māori course teaches these greetings in its first lessons and gives email and letter writing a lesson of its own. Once the greeting is done, the next step is introducing yourself: see how to write a pepeha, and to add a proverb under your greeting, these whakataukī come with a translation and a note on when each one suits.

Sources

1. Te Taura Whiri i te Reo Māori: Reo for the Office (Te reo o te tari, Greetings and sign-offs)
2. Te Herenga Waka – Victoria University of Wellington: Māori greetings and phrases
3. Waipapa Taumata Rau – University of Auckland: Greetings and sign-offs
4. Massey University: Using te reo in letters and emails
5. Te Aka Māori Dictionary: kia ora
6. Te Aka Māori Dictionary: tēnā koe
7. Te Aka Māori Dictionary: tēnā kōrua
8. Te Aka Māori Dictionary: tēnā koutou
9. Te Aka Māori Dictionary: kōrua
10. Te Aka Māori Dictionary: koutou
11. Te Aka Māori Dictionary: mōrena
12. Te Aka Māori Dictionary: ngā mihi
13. Te Aka Māori Dictionary: nāku noa
14. Te Aka Māori Dictionary: nāku
15. Te Aka Māori Dictionary: noa
16. Te Aka Māori Dictionary: nā
17. Te Aka Māori Dictionary: noho ora mai
18. Te Aka Māori Dictionary: hei konā
19. Te Aka Māori Dictionary: konā
20. Te Aka Māori Dictionary: mā te wā
21. Te Aka Māori Dictionary: ngā mihi o te tau hou