Tetum Language Guide

Official language in
Timor-Leste
Script
Latin

Where it's spoken

Timor-Leste's constitution makes Tetum and Portuguese the official languages, and names Indonesian and English as working languages within the civil service, side by side with the official languages, for as long as deemed necessary. A government decree declares Tétum Oficial, a modern literary form of the most common vernacular in the country based on Tétum-Praça, to be the official variety, and requires its spelling standard in education, official publications and the media. The same decree gives priority to Tétum Oficial and Portuguese on public signs.

The lingua franca variety, variously called Tetun Dili, Tetun Prasa or just Tetun, is described as the major lingua franca of East Timor. Tetun Terik, a separate variety, is an ethnic language spoken along both sides of the border with West Timor and also along parts of the south coast, and speakers of the two varieties have difficulty understanding each other. Tetun Dili is not a standardised language: some people borrow many more words from Portuguese, others more from Indonesian, and mixing Indonesian with Tetun is widely considered inappropriate in formal contexts and in writing.

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Script & pronunciation

Tetum uses an alphabet based on the Portuguese one, with a few variations. Stress is usually on the second-last syllable of a word; in Portuguese loans it may also fall on the final or third-last syllable, and the dictionary then marks it with an accent over the vowel, although most Timorese do not use the accents in writing. Double vowels show a long vowel. A glottal stop, which is rather like a catch in the throat, has been largely lost in Tetun Dili, but some speakers use it much more than others; when people represent it in writing, they use an apostrophe. This app's cards write apostrophes, as in Di'ak ka lae? ("How are you? / Are you well?"), and accents, as in Inglés. The cards' romanization can repeat the text split into syllables with hyphens, without the apostrophes and accents, as for example in I-ta ko-a-li-a In-gles ka la-e? ("Do you speak English?").

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Grammar essentials

In clauses, the order is usually subject–verb–object. Each word has only a single form: nouns do not distinguish singular from plural, and verbs do not agree with the subject and do not mark tense. Time can be made explicit with separate words, such as sei ("will"), as in Hau sei fila fali ("I'll come again"). Within a noun phrase, the modifiers follow the noun, as in Bee manas ("Hot water"), from bee ("water") and manas ("hot"). To negate a verb or adjective, place la ("not") immediately in front of it, as in Hau la hatene ("I don't understand / I don't know"). A second negator, laós, can negate almost anything and tends to be strongly contrastive. A statement can be turned into a yes–no question with intonation only, by adding ka ("or"), or by adding ka lae ("or not"), as in Ita ko'alia Inglés ka lae? ("Do you speak English?"). Adding ka is described as the most common option, and it does not sound as pedantic as ka lae; however, the fixed greeting for "How are you?" cannot be shortened to end in ka.

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Politeness & etiquette

Ita is the polite singular "you", and ó is the familiar one; this app's card for Ita translates it as "You" and notes that Ó is the familiar form. Ita can be used between adult strangers and adult acquaintances, while ó, if used too freely, is interpreted negatively, for instance as emphasising the speaker's superior status. Timorese usually interpret the English word "you" as equivalent to o, and hence as impolite. The dictionary lists ita, ita boot and o as words for "you" to one person. Ita-Boot, literally "big you", is a favoured form of address in formal media interviews and meetings, and can also be used for adult strangers and for adult friends and work colleagues, particularly amongst professionals and other high status people; this app uses Ita boot in Ita boot bele hatudu mai hau? ("Could you please show/tell me?").

Titles are very important in Timor, and are very often used where English would say "you". Kin terms such as Maun ("older brother") and Mana ("older sister") can be used with strangers, even if they are somewhat younger than the speaker. Because subjects and objects can be left out, the common greeting Di'ak ka lae? can be addressed to complete strangers without choosing any word for "you". For "thank you", men say Obrigadu and women say Obrigada; most speakers choose the ending by the speaker's gender, not the listener's. The expression is used far less often in Tetum than in English.

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