The Agent Emphatic

The Agent Emphatic emphasises the agent as the doer of the verb. The Agent Emphatic is only used for past tense and future tense sentences.

The formulas are as follows:

Past tense

Nā + agent + subject + i + verb
Nā + te kōtiro + te taramu + i + patu

Nā te kōtiro te taramu i patu.
It was the girl who hit the drum.

or with spoken emphasis:
The girl hit the drum.

Future tense

Mā + agent + subject + e + verb
Mā + te kōtiro + te taramu + e + patu

Mā te kōtiro te taramu e patu.
It will be the girl who will hit the drum.

or with spoken emphasis,
The girl will hit the drum.

There are special singular pronoun forms, which are as follows:

		Pronoun	Example
First person	Past	Nāku	Nāku ngā pereti i horoi. I washed the plates.
First person	Future	Māku	Māku te kōtiro e korero. I will speak to the girl.
Second person	Past	Nāu	Nāu te mahi uaua i mahi. You did the hard work.
Second person	Future	Māu	Māu te ruma e whakarite You will tidy the room.
Third person	Past	Nāna	Nāna te parāoa i tunu. He baked the bread.
Third person	Future	Māna	Māna te kanikani e haere. It will be her that goes to the dance.

Note the similarity of these pronouns to the 'a' forms used in N-, M- possession.

Also see Negatives - Agent Emphatic.