The victim's family weren't satisfied with the judge's decision on the accused, as the judge gave him unconditional freedom. in Tetun

Vitíma nia família la satisfás ho desizaun juiz ba arguidu tanba fó liberdade totál ba nia.

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)

    la

    Placed 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