In the past, before there was money, Antonio gave money in exchange for Maria's rice. in Tetun
Iha tempu uluk, osan seidauk iha, Antonio fó manu troka ho Maria nia fós.
English → Tetun phrasebook
Grammar in this phrase
Negation
seidauk — 'not yet'
seidaukSingle word covering English 'not yet / hasn't ... yet'. Goes before 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
- Maria bá hamoos hare ne'ebé iha kabubu laran.Maria went to weed the rice that in the rice bay.
- Uluk liu, kontinente hotu-hotu seidauk fahe malu, iha super kontinente ida.In the distant past, before the continents all separated, there was a super-continent.
- Tia dulas hare uza mákina.Auntie mills rice in a (rice) mill.
- Maria sateia hela de'it nia amá tanba osan.Maria keeps hassling her mother (to give her) money.
- Ha'u fó $1, nia volta fali 50c.I gave (him) a dollar, and he gave me fifty cents change.
- Rai monu iha estrada, halo ita liu ho kareta la di'ak.There was a landslide on the road, so we couldn’t go past by car.