I don’t like thinking back to the difficult times in the past. in Tetun
Ha'u la gosta hanoin fila fali tempu susar pasadu nian.
English → Tetun phrasebook
Grammar in this phrase
Aspect markers
fali — 'again' / 'back' / 'instead'
faliPlaced after the verb. Can mean 'again / back' or mark an unexpected reversal ('instead'). Context decides which.
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
- Istória ne'ebé nia hakerek ne'e, ha'u gosta nia tópiku, maibé la gosta nia maneira narasaun.This story that he's written, I like the topic, but don't like his style of story-telling.
- La bele ko'alia nune'e!Don’t talk like that!
- Ha'u ladún gosta ida ne'e.I don’t like this one very much.
- Ami la gosta haree televizaun.We don’t like watching television.
- La bele doko bebé hanesan ne'e!Don’t shake/rock the baby like that!
- La bele han etu sobak de'it hanesan ne'e.Don’t just guzzle the rice like that.