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Making and finishing

Two new words today, and they're a natural pair: one for starting something, one for ending it. Everything else is already yours, so this is a light one — two plain verbs that bookend any piece of work.

1 · Say this

mi hana (mee · HAH-na) I make. / I'm doing it.

The one new verb here is hana — make / do. Set it after mi (I / me, Lesson 1), the way you've put a verb after mi since the very first lesson, and you've said I'm making something, I'm working on it.

2 · A closer look: hana and pau

hana is make / do / work — the verb for building, cooking, fixing, getting things done. One verb covers all of it; what you're making is filled in by the rest of the sentence or by context.

pau is its partner: finish / done. It's what you say when the thing is complete — the work is over, the job is closed. pau is one beat — the OW in "flower" with a p in front.

Amatu Says Means
hana "HAH-na" make / do
pau "pow (OW as in flower)" finish / done

Same blocks you've used for weeks, with the two fresh verbs slotted in:

mi hana — I make. / I'm doing it. mi pau — I'm done. la hana — she makes / he makes. no pau — not finished.

And here's the neat part: they sit at the two ends of one job. You hana something, you work at it, and when it's complete you say pau. Keep them as two plain verbs for now — mi hana for I'm making it, mi pau for I'm done — and don't try to wire them into one phrase yet.

🌍 You already know this The shape of mi hana is exactly the shape of mi dona (I give, Lesson 17) and every other I-plus-verb you've said since Lesson 1. Subject, then verb. You're not learning a pattern today — you're reusing one you already trust, with two new verbs riding on top. And once you're pau, you can head domu (home, Lesson 54): mi pau. mi vanu domu — I'm done. I go home.

⚠️ Watch out pau is one beat — the OW in "flower" with a p in front: "pow!" Same OW sound as mau (cat) and kau (sad). All three au roots rhyme: maow · kow · pow. And in hana, both a's stay full and open — "HAH-na," never "HAH-nuh"; Amatu never softens an unstressed vowel.

3 · Your turn

Out loud:

  1. I make. / I'm doing it. → mi hana
  2. I'm done. → mi pau
  3. She makes / he makes → la hana
  4. I'm done. I give it to you. → mi pau. mi dona tu

4 · Tonight's phrase

mi hana — I make / I'm doing it — one fresh verb, resting on the same subject-then-verb shape you've owned since Lesson 1, with pau (done) waiting at the finish line.

30-second check

Cover the page. (1) Say I make. (2) Say I'm done. (3) Switch the doer: she makes. Three for three? Then today did its job — two plain verbs that bookend any piece of work, and the sentences still fall out of your mouth on their own.

⬅️ Back: Lesson 57 — Everyone · ➡️ Next: Lesson 59 — The hand