If we burn kerosene to cook, soon the kitchen walls are all black. in Tetun
Se ita sunu mina rai hodi te'in, la kleur didin lolon dapur nian metan hotu.
English → Tetun phrasebook
Grammar in this phrase
Conditionals
se / karik — conditionals
se'se' opens a definite conditional ('if X, then Y'). 'karik' sits at the end of a clause and hedges it ('perhaps'); it can also mark an uncertain conditional.
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
- Bá lalais dapur hodi ajuda amá te'in ba bainaka sira ne'e.Go quickly to the kitchen to help mum cook for these visitors.
- Finadu ami sei oho bibi ida halo modo hodi han hamutuk.On All Souls’ Day we will kill a goat to cook up and eat together.
- Manu tama dapur halo foos hotu namkari tuun ba rai.The chicken went into the kitchen and caused all the rice to be scattered on the ground.
- Ami hotu hela iha ne'ebá.We all stayed there.
- Sira oin bonita tan-tanan!They're all beautiful!
- Ami hotu liu ezame.We all passed the exam.