“I have to go to the bathroom”... in Hawaiian

Aloha e ko'u poe heluhelu,

Let’s jump into translating the last English phrase for the month. (I’m glad you guys have really liked these). 

“I have to go to the bathroom.”

Yes, yes, I know… you would think people could say this simple phrase right - but trust me, it gets butchered all the time. 

It’s all about using the correct Hawaiian sentence structures which are very different from English. If you really want to learn how to express yourself in Hawaiian, we focus heavily on this in my course, Olelo Hawaii: A Practical Approach to Using Hawaiian in Your Daily Life (learn more about it here). 

First, here is an example of how the phrase for the week is mistranslated:

Pono au e hele i ka lua - I have to go to the bathroom

This is a literal translation that comes from non-native speakers. I won’t elaborate here, but just know that native speakers don’t say this.