Key takeaways
- The word for colour in te reo Māori is "tae", so the colours are "ngā tae" and "What colour is it?" is "He aha te tae?".
- The core colours are whero (red), karaka (orange), kōwhai (yellow), kākāriki (green), kikorangi (blue), waiporoporo (purple), māwhero (pink), parauri (brown), pango (black), mā (white) and kiwikiwi (grey).
- Many colour words come straight from nature — kōwhai is the yellow kōwhai flower, kākāriki is the green native parakeet, and karaka is the tree whose berries are orange.
- Pink is literally "pale red": mā (pale) + whero (red) = māwhero. Blue joins kiko (flesh) and rangi (sky) to make kikorangi.
- In te reo the colour word comes after the noun, so "the red ball" is "te pōro whero", not "the whero ball".
- Teach ngā tae through colour hunts, a word wall, waiata and a weekly word search — little and often is what makes them stick.
Colours are one of the friendliest ways into te reo Māori, because the whole classroom is already full of them. Every pencil, book cover, item of clothing and picture on the wall is a chance to name a colour, so ngā tae (the colours) give you dozens of tiny, natural reps across an ordinary day.
The general word for a colour is tae. To ask what colour something is you say "He aha te tae?" — "What colour is it?" — and to answer you simply put he in front of the colour: "He whero" (it is red), "He kōwhai" (it is yellow). That one small pattern turns every object in the room into a question you can ask and answer in te reo.
The colours in Māori: a quick chart
| English | Māori (te reo) | Named after / built from | Say it like |
|---|---|---|---|
| Red | Whero | — | FEH-raw |
| Orange | Karaka | the karaka tree, whose berries are orange | KA-ra-ka |
| Yellow | Kōwhai | the yellow kōwhai flower | KAW-fai |
| Green | Kākāriki | the kākāriki, a native green parakeet | KAA-kaa-ri-ki |
| Blue | Kikorangi | kiko (flesh) + rangi (sky) = sky blue | ki-ko-RA-ngi |
| Purple | Waiporoporo | the poroporo plant's purple berries | wai-po-ro-PO-ro |
| Pink | Māwhero | mā (pale) + whero (red) = pale red | MAA-feh-raw |
| Brown | Parauri | uri means dark | pa-ra-OO-ri |
| Black | Pango | — | PA-ngaw |
| White | Mā | — | MAA |
| Grey | Kiwikiwi | the grey feathers of the kiwi | KEE-wee-kee-wee |
You'll sometimes see alternatives on other charts — kahurangi for blue, papura for purple, or mangu for black — and they're all fine. The list above is the set most widely used in New Zealand classrooms and on resources from Te Aka Māori Dictionary and maorilanguage.net, so it's a safe default to teach.
The colours that come from nature
One of the loveliest things about ngā tae is how many are named after the living things that carry that colour. Pointing this out helps the words stick, because tamariki have a picture to hang each one on:
- Kōwhai (yellow) is the name of the kōwhai tree, famous for its bright yellow spring flowers.
- Kākāriki (green) is also the name of a small native parakeet with vivid green feathers.
- Karaka (orange) is the karaka tree, whose ripe berries are a deep orange.
- Kiwikiwi (grey) echoes the soft grey-brown feathers of the kiwi.
- Waiporoporo (purple) comes from the poroporo, a plant with purple-black berries.
A few colours are built from smaller words instead. Kikorangi (blue) joins kiko (flesh) and rangi (sky). Māwhero (pink) is mā (pale or white) plus whero (red) — literally "pale red", which is exactly what pink is.
How to pronounce the colours in Māori
Te reo Māori is spelled the way it sounds, so once the vowels are secure you can read any colour name with confidence.
- The five vowels are a ("ah"), e ("eh"), i ("ee"), o ("aw") and u ("oo"). Every vowel is sounded — karaka is three even beats: KA-ra-ka.
- A macron (tohutō) — the line over a vowel, as in the ō of kōwhai or the ā of mā — makes that vowel longer. Mā is a long "maa", not a short "ma".
- wh is usually said like an English "f", so whero is "FEH-raw" and māwhero is "MAA-feh-raw".
- ng is the soft sound in the middle of "singer", not the hard "g" in "finger" — so kikorangi ends "-RA-ngi", not "-RAN-gee".
Model each word slowly, then at natural speed. Saying it imperfectly yourself matters far more than not saying it at all.
Describing things with colour
In te reo Māori the colour word comes after the thing it describes, the opposite order to English. So:
- te pōro whero — the red ball
- te putiputi kōwhai — the yellow flower
- ngā tae — the colours
To say what colour something is, lead with he: "He kākāriki te rākau" — "the tree is green". Give tamariki the sentence stem "He ___ te ___" and a bag of coloured objects, and they can build correct te reo sentences within one lesson.
Five ways to teach ngā tae
- 1
Run a colour hunt
Call out a colour in te reo — "Kimihia tētahi mea whero!" (Find something red!) — and tamariki race to touch something that colour. Fast, physical, and it works with any objects already in the room.
- 2
Sing a colours waiata
Set the colour names to a familiar tune your class already knows. A sung list is far easier to recall than a spoken one and doubles as a tidy-up or transition song.
- 3
Build a ngā tae word wall
Display each colour word on a matching coloured card — whero on red card, kōwhai on yellow — with a picture cue like the kōwhai flower. The colour itself becomes the memory hook.
- 4
Ask 'He aha te tae?' daily
Hold up an object and ask "He aha te tae?". Students answer "He ___". Do it during the roll or while lining up so it costs no extra planning time.
- 5
Make a weekly word search or bingo
A word search of the colour names gives independent reading practice; bingo turns it into a listening game where you call the Māori and students mark the colour square.
The year te reo Māori became an official language of New Zealand, giving everyday classroom reo real standing.
Source: Māori Language Act 1987
Turn the colour words into a printable word search
Type in whero, kōwhai, kākāriki and the rest, and generate a classroom-ready puzzle in seconds — free, no login.
Open the word search makerA note on Te Wiki o te Reo Māori
Te Wiki o te Reo Māori (Māori Language Week) falls every September and is a natural moment to introduce or refresh ngā tae. But the real gains come from small, daily use across the whole year — colours are perfect for that, because you're surrounded by them every single hour. Start with the three or four colours your class sees most, add one or two a week, and pair them with the objects already in the room.
Frequently asked questions
The core colours are whero (red), karaka (orange), kōwhai (yellow), kākāriki (green), kikorangi (blue), waiporoporo (purple), māwhero (pink), parauri (brown), pango (black), mā (white) and kiwikiwi (grey). The general word for colour is "tae".
"He aha te tae?" means "What colour is it?". To answer, put "he" in front of the colour — "He whero" (it is red) or "He kōwhai" (it is yellow).
Māwhero joins mā, meaning pale or white, with whero, meaning red. Pale red is pink, so the word describes the colour exactly. This building-block pattern makes several colours easier to remember.
Kōwhai is "KAW-fai" — the wh sounds like an English f and the macron makes the ō long. Kākāriki is "KAA-kaa-ri-ki", with both macrons lengthened and every vowel sounded evenly.
The colour word comes after the noun, the opposite of English. "The red ball" is "te pōro whero" and "the yellow flower" is "te putiputi kōwhai". To state a colour, use the stem "He ___ te ___", as in "He kākāriki te rākau" — the tree is green.