You must repent of your sins and turn to God, so that He will forgive all our sin. in Tetun

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.

• Aspect markers

  ona — 'already' (perfective)

  ona

  Placed 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.

• Possibility & probability

  bele / parese / dala ruma / kala — possibility

  bele

  Tetun hedges less than English, but has a cluster of markers. 'bele' before the verb = can / may. 'parese' at the start = 'seems'. 'dala ruma' at the start of a clause = 'perhaps, sometimes'. 'kala / kal' before a number = 'approximately'.

More patterns like these in the Tetun grammar guide.

Related phrases

• Maromak perdua ita nia sala, í lori ita ba moris rohan laek.God forgives our sins, and brings us to eternal life.
• Na'i Maromak hamoos ita nia sala bainhira ita husu perdaun ba Nia.God forgives our sins completely when we ask Him for forgiveness.
• Maromak kasu tiha ona ha'u nia sala tanba ha'u hakribi tiha ona sala ne'ebé mak ha'u halo.God has forgiven my sins because I repented of the sins I have committed.
• Ita tenke husik ita nia sala ne'ebé mak uluk ita halo tiha ona, atu nune'e ita bele simu moris foun.We must turn from the sins which we have committed, so that we can receive new life.
• Ita sei liu iha imigrasaun hodi revista ita nia sasán hotu mak foin ita bele sai ba li'ur.We will go through immigration where they will inspect our goods before we can go outside.
• Ita tenke hadomi ita nia funu-balun.We must love our enemies.