Police who are carrying out their work cannot discriminate in favour of any party. in Tetun
Membru polísia ne'ebé hala'o nia servisu la bele inklina ba partidu polítiku ruma.
English → Tetun phrasebook
Grammar in this phrase
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.
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.
Possibility & probability
bele / parese / dala ruma / kala — possibility
beleTetun hedges less than English, but has a cluster of markers. 'bele' before the verb = can / may. 'parese' at the start = 'seems'. 'dala ruma' at the start of a clause = 'perhaps, sometimes'. 'kala / kal' before a number = 'approximately'.
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
- Polísia tenke hala'o sira nia knaar ho imparsiál no neutru.The police must carry out their work impartially and neutrally.
- Polísia halo hela investigasaun kriminál iha ne'e.The police are carrying out a criminal investigation here.
- Eleisaun besik ona, nune'e partidu hotu-hotu hala'o sira nia atividade konsolidasaun iha baze.The elections are close, so all the parties are carrying out their 'consolidation' activities at local level (e.g. membership drive, appointing local leadership)
- Delia moras atan. La bele husu nia kaer servisu todan.Delia is sickly. Don’t give her any heavy work.
- Sira sei remata sira nia servisu iha fin dé Janeiru.They will finish their work at the end of January.
- Ami servisu to'o kosar metan sai.They worked hard such that their sweat poured out.