In this post, you will learn how to say ‘how are you?’ in Hawaiian. You’ll also learn common responses so you can respond if you’re asked this question. This can be really useful if you’re speaking with someone from Hawaii or if you’re travelling there.
Hawaiian is a Polynesian language that is spoken in Hawaii. Both English and Hawaiian are official languages in Hawaii.
It is the native language of the Hawaiian people and currently has around 24,000 native speakers. Since the introduction of English into schools, the number of native speakers of Hawaiian gradually declined from the 1830s until the 1950s.
Table of Contents
How To Say ‘How Are You?’ In Hawaiian
There are a few different ways to ask ‘how are you?’, these depend on how many people you’re speaking to. Here are the most common:
| How are you? (speaking to 1 person) | Pehea ‘oe? |
| How are you? (speaking to 2 people) | Pehea ʻolua? |
| How are you? (speaking to 3+ people) | Pehea ʻoukou? |
In informal situations, you can use:
| How are you? (slang) | Howzit? |
How To Respond To ‘How Are You?’ In Hawaiian
There are many different ways that you can reply to this question. Below are the most common responses to this question. I’ve also included how to say ‘thank you’ as it’s polite to thank someone if they ask how you are.
| Thank you | Mahalo |
| Good/fine | Maikaʻi |
| I’m good/I’m fine | Maikaʻi au |
| I’m sick | Maʻi wau |
| I’m happy | Hauʻoli au |
| I’m tired | Luhi wau |
Check out this video to hear the pronunciation of some of these phrases:
It’s also useful to know how to say ‘and you?’ or ‘what about you?’ to find out how someone else is if they ask you.
| And you? | A ‘o ‘oe? |
Example Conversation:
Person 1: Pehea ‘oe? (How are you?)
Person 2: Maikaʻi wau, mahalo. A ‘o ‘oe? (I’m fine, thank you. And you?)
Person 1: Maikaʻi wau (I’m fine)
If you want to learn to read in Hawaiian, then start by learning the Hawaiian alphabet.
Thanks for reading this post.
You should now know how to say ‘how are you?’ in Hawaiian and you should also be able to respond if you’re asked!
You can’t go wrong with these simple phrases.