Don't pick the fruit wastefully. Eat up (but) according to what your stomach can accept. in Tetun
La bele ku'u estraga ai-fuan ne'ebé iha. Han ba sukat ho imi nia kabun.
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.
Possibility & probability
bele / parese / dala ruma / kala — possibility
beleTetun hedges less than English, but has a cluster of markers. 'bele' before the verb = can / may. 'parese' at the start = 'seems'. 'dala ruma' at the start of a clause = 'perhaps, sometimes'. 'kala / kal' before a number = 'approximately'.
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
- La bele han ai-fuan ne'e lai, tanba sei tara hela horok. Aban liurai sei hasai horok mak bele han.You can't eat the fruit yet, because it is still under the horok taboo. You can only eat the fruit once the king removes the horok.
- Haas huun boot ne'e nia fuan barak mangál ona, ita bele ku'u hodi han.This large mango tree has lots of nearly-ripe fruit. We can pick them and eat them.
- Tuir ami nia lisan, ami la bele han na'an asu.According to our traditional law, we can't eat dog meat.
- Han ga lae mak ne'e, ó nia isin ruin maran loos hanesan ne'e!Don’t you eat? You look extremely skinny!
- Se ó la han, orsida hamlaha.If you don’t eat, you’ll be hungry later.
- Ha'u la han, la buat ida, basta dansa!If I don't eat, that's OK, so long as I dance!