Uncle Carlito has been as a widower for ten years and doesn’t want to remarry. in Tetun
Tiu Carlito sai mane faluk durante tinan sanulu ona, no nia lakohi atu kaben fali.
English → Tetun phrasebook
Grammar in this phrase
Aspect markers
fali — 'again' / 'back' / 'instead'
faliPlaced after the verb. Can mean 'again / back' or mark an unexpected reversal ('instead'). Context decides which.
Aspect markers
ona — 'already' (perfective)
onaPlaced after the verb (or after the object), 'ona' marks that something has already happened. Cannot stand alone — must belong to a sentence. See also 'tiha ona' for a stronger completed aspect.
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
- Ana lakohi hariis.Ana doesn't want to bathe.
- Atai lakohi bá eskola.Atai doesn't want to go to school.
- Tiu Marito lakohi hemu wiski.Tiu Marito doesn't want to drink whisky.
- Labarik ne'e maledukadu liu, ema ko'alia nia la rona.This child is very rude. He doesn’t want to listen to people.
- José nia hasan rahun barak loos no nia lakohi hamoos.José has a lot of facial hair, and he doesn’t want to remove it.
- Tiu Gregório luta ba nasaun durante tinan ruanulu, to'o ikus mate iha ai-laran.Uncle Gregório fought for the country for twenty years, eventually dying in the jungles.