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Idioms

Phrases

Proverbs

Loan words

Historical loan words

ehara

1. (negative) on the contrary - used to negate a negative sentence or question and may be followed by tonu.

(Te Kākano Textbook (Ed. 2): 110;)

Kāore ōu hū? Ehara! He hū anō ōku. / Don't you have any shoes? On the contrary, I do have some shoes.

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Synonyms: engaringari, anō, tonu, engari


2. (particle) sure enough (used in animated narrative), for sure - but not used with this meaning after negatives (see above).

Kotahi anō te whakarerenga iho o tana mere, ehara, kua mate tana hoariri. / With just one blow of his club, sure enough his enemy was dead.

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See also ehara (tonu)!


3. (negative) Used in various negative sentence types, especially, but not exclusively, with those that do not have verbs. These uses are explained under separate entries where ehara is listed with each of the various particles it occurs before. As well as being marked by a negative word, negative sentences often differ from corresponding affirmative sentences by having a different word order and sometimes different particles.

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