Tito is living in a rented room, because he has no house in Dili. in Tetun
Tito hela iha kós, tanba nia uma iha Dili la iha.
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
- Ami aluga uma tanba la iha osan atu sosa.We rent a house because we don’t have money to buy one.
- Ita presiza uma provizóriu ida atu hela to'o ita bele harii ita nia uma rasik.We need a temporary house to stay in until we can build our own house.
- Ami nia viziñu halo moru hale'u uma tanba ta'uk na'ok-teen bele tama.My neighbours built high walls around their house because they are afraid of thieves getting in.
- Ha'u nia viziñu halo moru aas hale'u uma tanba ta'uk ema tuda.My neighbour build a high wall around the house out of fear that people would throw rocks (at the house).
- Uluk ema respeitu ó tanba ó servisu ho onestu, maibé agora ó nia naran aat ona tanba ó na'ok.People used to respect of you because you worked honestly, but now you have a bad reputation because you stole.
- Ha'u hosi Dili.I am from Dili.