He travels all over the place, with no place to live. in Tetun
Nia la'o lemo rai de'it, la iha fatin atu hela.
English → Tetun phrasebook
Grammar in this phrase
Aspect markers
hela — 'currently' or 'reside'
helaAfter a verb, 'hela' marks continuous aspect ('is ...-ing'). As a standalone verb it means 'live, reside'. Often paired with 'sei' for 'is still ...-ing'.
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
- Nia fuuk nakrakat loos. Karik nunka sui!Her hair sticks out all over the place. Maybe she never combs it!
- Durante tempu okupasaun Indonézia nian, Timor oan barak nia ruin naklekar iha fat-fatin.During the Indonesian occupation, the bones of many Timorese were scattered all over the place.
- Ami hotu hela bes-besik malu.We all live close to each other.
- Ita hotu hakarak moris iha dame nia laran.We all want to live in peace (with others)
- Nia tebe bola, monu ó! iha ne'ebá!He kicked the ball, and it fell all the way over there!
- Loron finadu tiu ami bá kari ai-funan iha semitériu Taibesi.On All Souls’ Day, we go to place flowers in Taibesi cemetery.