Our own mother died a long time ago, so it is our adoptive mother who looks after us. in Tetun
Ami nia inan rasik mate kleur ona, nune'e ami nia inan hakiak mak tau matan ba ami.
English → Tetun phrasebook
Grammar in this phrase
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.
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.
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'.
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
- Hean bisikleta kleur halo ita nia kidun moras demais.Riding a bicycle for a long time makes our backsides overly sore.
- Maria sei lutu ba nia inan ne'ebé mate funan neen liu bá.Maria is wearing black in mourning for her mother who died six months ago.
- Ha'u haluha nia oin tanba kleur loos la hetan malu.I’ve forgotten what he looks like, because we haven’t seen each other for a long time.
- Banhira ami la'o dook, ami nia amá sempre fó hanoin ami atu lori bukae.When we are going to travel a long way, our mother always reminds us to bring food for the journey.
- Mestre hanorin full-time ka part-time?Does the teacher teach full-time or part-time?
- Iha ami nia aldeia ami uza jeradór bainhira presiza karega telefone.In our village, we use a generator to charge our phones.