Auntie’s money has disappeared. She suspects I’m the one who took it. in Tetun
Tia nia osan lakon, deskonfia fali ha'u mak foti.
English → Tetun phrasebook
Grammar in this phrase
Aspect markers
fali — 'again' / 'back' / 'instead'
faliPlaced after the verb. Can mean 'again / back' or mark an unexpected reversal ('instead'). Context decides which.
Focus
mak — focus marker
mak'mak' focuses the preceding constituent — used when English would bold or cleft ('it was X who...'). Also forms the superlative with 'liu'.
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.
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
- Sé mak lamas tiha ha'u nia osan?Who took my money?
- Ami aluga uma tanba la iha osan atu sosa.We rent a house because we don’t have money to buy one.
- Tia ne'e du'un matak de'it ha'u nia alin mak na'ok nia osan.Auntie unfairly accused my younger sister of stealing her money.
- Totál estudante iha eskola ne'e sentu í ún pesoas.The total number of students in this school is one hundred and one.
- Atu simu osan, tama ida-ida; la bele tama hamutuk.To receive (your) money, come in one at a time; you can’t come in together.
- Ha'u nia kolega feto ida oho an tanba nia la'en hola fali feto seluk.One of my female friends committed suicide because her husband took another wife.