That family all died in the war, there wasn’t even one descendant left. in Tetun
Família ne'e mate mohu iha funu, nia jerasaun ida mós la hela.
English → Tetun phrasebook
Grammar in this phrase
Aspect markers
hela — 'currently' or 'reside'
helaAfter a verb, 'hela' marks continuous aspect ('is ...-ing'). As a standalone verb it means 'live, reside'. Often paired with 'sei' for 'is still ...-ing'.
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.
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
- Labarik sira iha hotu. Só ida de'it mak falta.The children were all present; there was only one who was absent.
- Bele iha difikuldade oioin, mas ha'u enkoraja ita para la'o ba oin nafatin.Even though there are various difficulties, I encourage us all to keep moving forward.
- Ema barak mate. Iha mós ema kanek na'in hitu mak ami konsege lori ba ospitál, maski dook.Many people died. There were also seven injured people whom we managed to take to hospital, even though it was a long way.
- Semana liu ba udan boot. To'o agora bee nalihun iha uma oin, halo susuk barak tan de'it.Last week there was heavy rain. Even now there is water pooled in front of the house, leading to an increase in mosquitoes.
- Ami hotu hela iha ne'ebá.We all stayed there.
- Ema rihun-rahun mak mate iha tempu funu nian.Thousands of people died during the war.