Don’t change the school timetable arbitrarily. Otherwise the students might go to wrong class. in Tetun
La bele naran muda oráriu eskola nian, se lae estudante sira tama sala aula.
English → Tetun phrasebook
Grammar in this phrase
Conditionals
se / karik — conditionals
se'se' opens a definite conditional ('if X, then Y'). 'karik' sits at the end of a clause and hedges it ('perhaps'); it can also mark an uncertain conditional.
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
nian'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
- 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.
- Bainhira sinu lian, alunus ida-idak hamriik iha formatura tuir nia turma.When the bell rang, the students all lined up by class.
- La bele hanaruk tan sira nia kontratu, tanba sira servisu la di'ak!Don't extend their contract, because they don't work well!
- La bele hirus beibeik; se lae, ferik lailais.Don’t get angry all the time; otherwise you’ll grow old quickly.
- Estudante sira tenke tuir regulamentu ne'ebé eskola fó sai.The students have to obey the regulations given out by the school.
- Totál estudante iha eskola ne'e sentu í ún pesoas.The total number of students in this school is one hundred and one.