I’m irritated because he don’t work well. in Tetun
Ha'u nervozu tanba nia servisu la di'ak.
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.
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 hanaruk tan sira nia kontratu, tanba sira servisu la di'ak!Don't extend their contract, because they don't work well!
- Delia moras atan. La bele husu nia kaer servisu todan.Delia is sickly. Don’t give her any heavy work.
- Ami aluga uma tanba la iha osan atu sosa.We rent a house because we don’t have money to buy one.
- La bele taka janela tanba rai manas loos.Don’t close the windows because the weather is very hot.
- Maria Victoria nia naran boot iha Timor tanba nia artista.Maria Victoria is well-known in Timor because she is a performer.
- Horiseik ha'u mai servisu tarde tanba demora uitoan iha uma.Yesterday I came to work late because I was delayed a bit at home.