Tetun Translator

I am helping Julia to complete filling in her form, as she can’t do it alone. in Tetun

Ha'u ajuda kompleta Julia nia formuláriu tanba nia halo mesak la bele.

English → Tetun phrasebook

Grammar in this phrase

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.
Negation
la — 'not' (general negation)
la
Placed 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.
Possibility & probability
bele / parese / dala ruma / kala — possibility
bele
Tetun 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.