Pillow – urunga
A woman goes to lie down with a bright orange-coloured pillow.
Chair – tūru
Balanced precariously on a small chair are two kangaroos (two roos).
Bed – moenga
A bedroom looks photographically realistic except for the bed, which is drawn in Manga-style with Japanese characters on the bedding.
Mat – whāriki
A young man is sitting on a toilet and looking down at the mat in front of him. The mat starts swirling in a range of terrifying colours and he says “Freaky!”
Sheet – hīti
A man is lying in bed on a sweltering night. He cries out “Oh, the heat!” and then strips his bed down to the sheets.
Mirror – whakaata
A woman looks at herself in the hand mirror and notices, in the reflection, Dan Carter, far in the distance. In the mirror is the Far Carter.
Brush – paraihe
A boy holding a large brush in his hands kneels down to pray.
Stairs – arapiki
An arrow walks up a set of stairs outside a house and then peeks through a window. He is the arrow peeker.
Table – paparahua
A young boy is sitting at a beach when a man comes by, rowing on an upended table. The boy says “Papa! Row here!”
Clothespeg – mātiti
A fat young boy puts a clothespeg on his own chest and says “Ow, my titty!”
Telephone – waea
Two people in adjacent houses are talking to each other on telephones, but there is a wire connecting both of the phones and they can’t move further away from each other.
Couch – hāneanea
A man is lying on a couch watching a video of two women fighting MMA-style. From deep in the couch he cheers “Ha! Knee her! Knee her!”
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The above is an excerpt from the upcoming Learn Maori Vocabulary With Mnemonics, by Jeff Ngatai, due to be published by VJM Publishing in the summer of 2017/18.