It will be observed that the voiced consonants b, d, g, are wanting, also the voiced and voiceless pairs v, f and z, s, l. The only consonants are the voiceless p, t, k, the voiced and voiceless pair w, wh, the three nasals m, n, ng, the liquid r, and the aspirate h. The combinations of 10 consonants and five vowels form 55 open syllables, four of which, however, wo, wu, who, and whu, do not occur in any genuine Maori word.

The above table contains every letter and syllable used in Maori, but those syllables in italic are not found in genuine Maori words, although they are used in modern Maori introduced words, such as wuru (wool) and whuru (flu).