Our staple foods are rice and green leafy vegetables. in Tetun
Ami nia hahán loroloron nian mak etu ho modo tahan.
English → Tetun phrasebook
Grammar in this phrase
Possession
nia / nian — possession
nianian'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.
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
- Tia dulas hare uza mákina.Auntie mills rice in a (rice) mill.
- Ohin ha'u sosa modo futun rua.Today I bought two bunches of leafy vegetables.
- Maria bá hamoos hare ne'ebé iha kabubu laran.Maria went to weed the rice that in the rice bay.
- Iha ami nia aldeia ami uza jeradór bainhira presiza karega telefone.In our village, we use a generator to charge our phones.
- Treinu fíziku ajuda ita nia isin, treinu espirituál ajuda ita nia klamar.Physical training helps our bodies, spiritual training helps our souls.
- Laho tata kuak hotu foos karoon laran, foos fakar sai hotu.A rat has eaten holes in the rice sack, so now the rice has all spilled out.