Yesterday my mother beat each of us because we didn't study. in Tetun
Horiseik ha'u nia inan baku ami dasa tanba ami la estuda.
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
- Sira hirus malu to'o ida-ida buka fatuk hodi tuda malu.They were angry at each other, to the extent that they each looked for rocks and threw them at each other.
- Labarik ida tanis hakilar maka'as loos tanba nia mamá baku.A child cried very loudly because her mother hit her.
- Horiseik mestre la tama be ami fila sedu tiha.Yesterday the teacher didn't turn up, so we went home early.
- Ami estuda la di'ak tanba labarik sira estrundu loos.We can’t study effectively because the children are so noisy.
- Paulo la liu ezame nasionál tanba nia la prepara.Paulo did not pass the national exam because he didn’t prepare.
- Horiseik ha'u mai servisu tarde tanba demora uitoan iha uma.Yesterday I came to work late because I was delayed a bit at home.