A man stole Maria’s wallet today. Now she doesn’t have money to pay the minibus home. in Tetun
Ohin mane ida na'ok Maria nia karteira. Agora nia la iha osan atu selu mikrolét ba uma.
English → Tetun phrasebook
Grammar in this phrase
Possession
nia / nian — possession
nia'nia' goes BEFORE the thing possessed; 'nian' goes AFTER. Both function the same way; position decides which form. 'nia' is also the 3rd-person pronoun (he / she / it) — disambiguate by position.
Negation
la — 'not' (general negation)
laPlaced before verbs and adjectives to negate them. For contrastive 'not X but Y' use 'laós'; for 'not yet' use 'seidauk'; for 'no longer' wrap 'la ... ona' around the verb.
More patterns like these in the Tetun grammar guide.
Translate your own text with the free English ↔ Tetun translator or look up individual words in the Tetun dictionary.
Related phrases
- Ha'u nia karteira haluha hela tiha iha uma, ne'ebé ohin loron la lori osan.I forgot my wallet at home, so today I’m not carrying any money.
- Iha tempu uluk, osan seidauk iha, Antonio fó manu troka ho Maria nia fós.In the past, before there was money, Antonio gave money in exchange for Maria's rice.
- Maria ohin ku'u kafé, tau iha bote, haklulu hosi kafé laran mai to'o iha uma.Maria went and picked coffee today, put it in a basket, and carried it home from the coffee plantation on her back.
- Ha'u ohin haree hetan Maria iha Plaza laran.I spotted Maria today in the Plaza.
- Agora ha'u bá deskansa iha uma.Now I'll go and have a rest at home.
- Oinsá mak ita bele hetan osan atu selu eskola?How can we get money to pay for schooling?