It is the duty of teachers to help their students to know things that they don’t yet know. in Tetun
Mestre ho mestra sira nia devér mak lori estudante atu hatene saida mak sira seidauk hatene.
English → Tetun phrasebook
Grammar in this phrase
Focus
mak — focus marker
mak'mak' focuses the preceding constituent — used when English would bold or cleft ('it was X who...'). Also forms the superlative with 'liu'.
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
- La bele hanaruk tan sira nia kontratu, tanba sira servisu la di'ak!Don't extend their contract, because they don't work well!
- Sira hotu han to'o bosu. Han tiha, sira mós fahe malu.They all ate until they were satisfied. Having eaten, they went their separate ways.
- Dulce ho Joana seidauk koñese malu.Dulce and Joana don’t know each other yet.
- Ó ajuda hakiduk lai kareta ne'e; ha'u hakiduk kareta la hatene.Help me reverse this car; I don't know how to reverse.
- Sira hotu riku. Maski nune'e, sira lakoi ajuda ami.They are all rich. Nevertheless, they refused to help us.
- Sira sempre manifesta sira nia fidelidade ba sira nia lider.They always demonstrate their faithfulness to their leader.