Aunty Carla always eats bread with butter, she doesn’t like to use jam. in Tetun
Tia Carla han paun sempre kose manteiga, nia la gosta uza marmelada.
English → Tetun phrasebook
Grammar in this phrase
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.
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
- Timor-leste seidauk uza enerjia solár.Timor-Leste doesn't yet use solar energy.
- Bainhira ami te'in na'an asu sempre uza du'ut morin.When we cook dog meat we always use lemon grass.
- Ami uza kareta ne'e ba ami nia an.We use this car for ourselves (i.e. for private use).
- Ó ne'e mane, tenke hatudu ó nia hahalok nu'udar mane, la bele hanesan fali feto.You’re a man, and should act like a man, not like a woman.
- Maria la gosta hatais vestidu kór malahuk, maibé nia gosta kór mean.Maria doesn’t like to wear grey dresses, but she likes red.
- Labarik sira haksoit tapa, sempre uza fatuk belar.When the children play hopscotch, they always use a flat stone.