I have got terrible arthritis, making me unable to sleep well. in Tetun
Ha'u nia ruin siin loos, halo ha'u toba mós la di'ak.
English → Tetun phrasebook
Grammar in this phrase
Intensifiers
Intensifiers (loos, tebes, demais, laduun)
loosPosition matters. 'loos' / 'tebes' / 'demais' follow the adjective ('barak loos' = very many). 'laduun' PRECEDES the adjective ('laduun diak' = not very good). 'liu tan' = even more.
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
- Uza eskova nehan ida ne'e hodi kose nehan didi'ak molok toba.Use this toothbrush to brush your teeth well before going to sleep.
- Bainhira ema hotu moris di'ak. signifika nasaun ne'e dezenvolve ona ho di'ak.When all people live well, it means the country has developed well.
- Ami nia viziñu halo festa uza koluna, barullu demais toba la di'ak.Our neighbour had a party using a big loudspeaker, making it so noisy it was hard to sleep.
- Afonso hasoru problema finanseiru, halo nia la bele kontinua nia estudu iha universidade.Afonso faced financial problems, making him unable to continue his his study at university.
- Ha'u nia kaspa barak loos, halo ha'u toba la di'ak tan de'it katar.I have a lot of dandruff, with the result that I can’t sleep well just because it’s so itchy.
- Rona didi'ak!Listen well!