The child is sick on and off. I don’t know what her illness is. in Tetun
Labarik ne'e moras oraoras. Ha'u la hatene nia moras ne'e saida.
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.
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
- Keta ko'us labarik sai ba li'ur, se lae anin tama.Don't carry the child outside, or she'll get sick.
- Ha'u nia oan moras. Favór ida lori ba ospitál.My child is sick. Please take (him/her) to hospital.
- Labarik ida tanis hakilar maka'as loos tanba nia mamá baku.A child cried very loudly because her mother hit her.
- Keta naran du'un ema karik ita la hatene problema ne'e nia lala'ok.Don’t arbitrarily accuse people if you don’t know the problem in-depth.
- Nia namoradu ne'e hais nia to'o lima sén mós la iha nia isin!Her boyfriend bled her dry till she didn't even have five cents left on her!
- Mestre ho mestra sira nia devér mak lori estudante atu hatene saida mak sira seidauk hatene.It is the duty of teachers to help their students to know things that they don’t yet know.