The child’s tongue has a sore, so he’s not able to eat anything. in Tetun
Labarik nia nanál kanek, nia han buat ruma la di'ak.
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.
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.
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
- Habosok labarik toba tiha lai mak ó han.Distract the child into sleeping first, and then you can eat.
- La bele han ai-fuan ne'e lai, tanba sei tara hela horok. Aban liurai sei hasai horok mak bele han.You can't eat the fruit yet, because it is still under the horok taboo. You can only eat the fruit once the king removes the horok.
- Mai ita han ona.Let’s eat now.
- Han tan!Eat some more!
- Ita presiza buat ruma ka?Do you need anything?
- Atoi hakarak han batar.Atoi wants to eat corn.