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Consonants

The consonants have the same sound in Hawaiian as they do in your everyday English except for “w.” “W” is sometimes pronounced as “v” when it follows “a,” always pronounced as “v” when it follows “e” or “i.”

Vowels

The vowels are generally pronounced as they are in Italian, with each vowel sounded separately. Authentic Hawaiian makes further distinctions, but those are of more interest to scholars than to hikers. The following is a simplified system. Vowel sounds in general are:

a like “ah” in “Ah!”

e like “ay” in “day.”

i like “ee” as in “whee!”

o like “o” in “go.”

u like “oo” in “food” (or “u” in “rude”).

Notice that that means that when you see two or more of the same letter in a row, you pronounce each of them separately:

“Honokaa” is Ho-no-ka-a.

“Pepeekeo” is Pe-pe-e-ke-o.

“Milolii” is Mi-lo-li-i.

“Ookala” is O-o-ka-la.

“Puu” is Pu-u.

That seems too simple, and it is. If you tried to pronounce every vowel, speaking Hawaiian would turn into a nightmare. You wouldn’t live long enough to pronounce some words. Fortunately, several pairs of vowels often—but not always—form merged sounds.