Don’t allow many people to enter the voting room. in Tetun

Grammar in this phrase

• Permission

  husik / hataan / foo — permission verbs

  husik

  Three 'let / allow' verbs. 'husik' = leave, let, allow, abandon; 'husik hela' = leave behind. 'hataan' = agree, permit formally. 'foo' = let, give — also heads compound verbs like 'foo haan' (feed), 'foo hatene ba' (inform).

• Prohibition & permission

  keta / lalika / la bele — prohibition

  keta

  Three strengths of 'don't': 'lalika(n)' is softest — 'no need to, don't bother'. 'keta' is a direct prohibitive command. 'la bele' = 'not allowed, must not'.

More patterns like these in the Tetun grammar guide.

Related phrases

• Joven barak mak baruk-teen no la gosta estuda.Many young people are lazy and don’t like to study.
• Husik de'it ema ne'ebé autorizadu tama iha sala votasaun.Only allow authorised people to go into the voting hall.
• Keta naran du'un ema karik ita la hatene problema ne'e nia lala'ok.Don’t arbitrarily accuse people if you don’t know the problem in-depth.
• Ema barak agora uza gás hodi te'in, no la uza ona ai-sunu.Many people nowadays use gas for cooking, and don’t use firewood any more.
• Horiseik joven grupu rua seran malu iha Hudi Laran halo ema kanek barak.Yesterday two groups of young people attacked one another in Hudi Laran, injuring many people.
• Ema barak mate. Iha mós ema kanek na'in hitu mak ami konsege lori ba ospitál, maski dook.Many people died. There were also seven injured people whom we managed to take to hospital, even though it was a long way.