—– Where does ne’e go?

As you know, ne’e means ‘this’. As Lauren has picked up, ne’e can be used in different places in Tetum, sometimes before another word, and sometimes after.

So the question is… where does ne’e go? Let’s start by looking at ‘this’ in English.

We can have the two following sentences, which have different meanings.

 

1- This is a book

2- This book is good

 

In sentence 1, we have the words is and a in between the other words, but in Tetum we don’t actually use these words…

 

This is a book

Ne’e        livru

 

Tetum doesn’t distinguish beween this is a ____ , and this _____  using additional words, it uses a different strategy – switching the word order.

 

This book is good                                This is a good book

Livru ne’e di’ak                                      Ne’e livru di’ak

 

I always remember it by thinking

THIS IS        =  ne’e first/before the word

THIS ____    =   ne’e second/after the word

 

Activity 1- Practise getting the order right

Translate the following into Tetum

 

This is a book

 

This book is mine

 

This house is big

 

This is a big house

 

This is a cup

 

This is my cup

 

This cup is mine