This child is very shy. When he sees many people at in front of the house, he doesn’t dare to go in. in Tetun
Labarik ne'e moe dór, haree ema barak iha uma oin, nia la brani tama.
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
- Ami nia uma kloot loos, ema barak bá la di'ak.Our house is very narrow/small, so not many people can go.
- Labarik ne'e maledukadu liu, ema ko'alia nia la rona.This child is very rude. He doesn’t want to listen to people.
- Iha granada ida rabenta iha uma oin, halo ema na'in rua kanek.A grenade exploded in front of the house, injuring two people.
- Ema tama mate nabanaban, to'o uma laran ema nakonu.People just kept coming in, until the house was full of people.
- Ema barak gosta bá hola anin iha Palásiu Governu nia oin.Lots of people like going for a stroll in front of Government House.
- Iha Lospalos fatuk kuak barak loos. Tempu uluk ema hela iha laran.In Lospalos there are very many caves. In the past people used to live in them.