Our house is very narrow/small, so not many people can go. in Tetun

Grammar in this phrase

• Intensifiers

  Intensifiers (loos, tebes, demais, laduun)

  loos

  Position matters. 'loos' / 'tebes' / 'demais' follow the adjective ('barak loos' = very many). 'laduun' PRECEDES the adjective ('laduun diak' = not very good). 'liu tan' = even more.

• Negation

  la — 'not' (general negation)

  la

  Placed 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.

Related phrases

• Ita presiza uma provizóriu ida atu hela to'o ita bele harii ita nia uma rasik.We need a temporary house to stay in until we can build our own house.
• Badaen halo odamatn ki'ik liu, ema isin boot tama la di'ak.The builder made a very small door, with the result that fat people can’t enter.
• Labarik ne'e moe dór, haree ema barak iha uma oin, nia la brani tama.This child is very shy. When he sees many people at in front of the house, he doesn’t dare to go in.
• Ami fó aluga ami nia uma ba malae Tailándia.We are renting our house out to Thai people.
• Ema tama mate nabanaban, to'o uma laran ema nakonu.People just kept coming in, until the house was full of people.
• Kobra ne'e samea ne'ebé perigozu loos. Nia veneno bele halo mate ema.The cobra is a very dangerous snake. Its poison can kill people.