Happy Aloha Friday and happy Lei Day!
Mahalo to Toni McIntire from Tampa, Florida for sharing this Aloha Friday Photo. Toni’s photo shows kukui nut leis on display from one of the vendors at the Aloha Stadium Swap Meet market in Honolulu.
In addition to highlighting that today is Lei Day, this photo gives us a little opportunity to share an interesting aspect about the Hawaiian language. In the Hawaiian language, you don’t add “s’ or “es” to indicate a plural as you do in the English language. For example, in the photo, you see multiple lei, but saying “leis” is actually incorrect, though you might see “leis” being said or written. We have been guilty of incorrectly using “s” to indicate plural, but since we’ve learned that’s improper, we refrain from doing that.
To indicate plural in Hawaiian “na” – for example you may have seen or heard of the spectacular Na Pali coast of Kauai. “Pali” means hill, but with “na” in front of “pali” it means many hills.
You might have noticed in the title of this article I wrote “lei.” As you can see in the photo there are multiple lei. And, now you know why I didn’t write leis.
Sheila Beal
