Puʻunēnē is a place on the island of Maui, and a beautiful name that is all too often mispronounced. It is named for a hill – a puʻu – where you might find the nēnē goose, our state bird: goose hill.

Millions of people see it every year, but few know that the bay that extends from Honolulu Harbor to Pearl Harbor is called Māmala.

Maʻa mau is two words that mean common, usual, customary. Chinese food is the meaʻai maʻa mau for a lot of people in Hawaiʻi. He mea maʻa mau—a common thing.

Kiʻi means “picture, a photo, a doll, statue, any image.” It also means “to fetch something” and both are commonly used. Such as E kiʻi ʻoe ke kiʻi—fetch the picture.

ʻEleʻele is the Hawaiian word for black. So anything that is black can be said to be ʻeleʻele. Yes, the place called ʻEleʻele on Kauaʻi has the same meaning: black.

ʻAnakē is another term we borrowed from English, and it means aunty. We have so many aunties in Hawaiʻi, ʻanakē should come in handy.

In Hawaiʻi, where everyone it seems is our uncle or aunty, the word ʻanakala comes in pretty handy. It is a borrowed word from the English language meaning “uncle.”

Ame, two little words used together, means "and." You will often hear ame when speakers link nouns such as mele kalikimaka ame hauʻoli makahiki hou.

As most of you know, hapa means “half,” and nui means “larger.” So hapanui, the “larger half,” means majority. Non-Hawaiians account for more than half of the people of Hawaiʻi, so they are the hapa nui.

Nānā means “to look at, observe, see, inspect, pay attention to.” Nānā i ke kumu — look to the source — it's good advice!