Many people nowadays use gas for cooking, and don’t use firewood any more. in Tetun
Ema barak agora uza gás hodi te'in, no la uza ona ai-sunu.
English → Tetun phrasebook
Grammar in this phrase
Aspect markers
ona — 'already' (perfective)
onaPlaced after the verb (or after the object), 'ona' marks that something has already happened. Cannot stand alone — must belong to a sentence. See also 'tiha ona' for a stronger completed aspect.
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.
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
- Keta husik ema barak tama iha sala votasaun.Don’t allow many people to enter the voting room.
- Joven barak mak baruk-teen no la gosta estuda.Many young people are lazy and don’t like to study.
- Keta naran du'un ema karik ita la hatene problema ne'e nia lala'ok.Don’t arbitrarily accuse people if you don’t know the problem in-depth.
- Ami prepara kadeira atus ida, maibé ema mai res-resin tiha fali.We prepared a hundred chairs, but the people who came were many more than that.
- Agora ami la uza ona lali'an, maibé uza fali fogaun hodi te'in.Now we are no longer use a hearth of three cooking stones, but instead use a stove to cook.
- Horiseik joven grupu rua seran malu iha Hudi Laran halo ema kanek barak.Yesterday two groups of young people attacked one another in Hudi Laran, injuring many people.