When his father didn't give him money he just cried intensely. in Tetun
Nia aman la fó osan nia ne'e mak nia tanis halo bulak rai tiha de'it ne'e.
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.
Focus
mak — focus marker
mak'mak' focuses the preceding constituent — used when English would bold or cleft ('it was X who...'). Also forms the superlative with 'liu'.
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
- Problema ne'e nia fukun iha ne'ebé? - Nia fukun tanba nia apá uluk la husu deskulpa ba nia avoo sira.Where does this problem derive from? - Its roots are that his father didn't ask forgiveness of his grandparents.
- Mestre Mario dada an hosi nia servisu tanba la gosta nia xefe.Teacher Mario resigned from his work as he didn’t like his boss.
- Mestre ne'e matan osan; ita fó osan mak nia fó valór di'ak.This teacher is greedy. Only if we give money does he give us good marks.
- Pedro trauma loos tanba uluk milísia tiru mate nia aman iha loos nia oin.Pedro is traumatized as the militia shot dead his father right in front of him.
- Atoy tuku nia kolega nia kabun mamar to'o monu fatin.Atoy punched his colleague in the centre of his stomach, making him fall down on the spot.
- Afonso hasoru problema finanseiru, halo nia la bele kontinua nia estudu iha universidade.Afonso faced financial problems, making him unable to continue his his study at university.