Sunday, January 20, 2013

Are there words or expression equivalents to these below? BE ABOUT TO BE BOUND TO BE DUE TO BE LIKELY TO BE ON THE EDGE/POINT/VERGE/BRINK/ OF (doing) something BE TO BE IN THE MIDDLE/PROCESS OF BE READY TO BE SOON TO BE NEAR TO

to be close to (to be in the brink of) ?
There are a few Haitian words that can translate that:

Preske (almost, on the verge of, on the brink of)
Pran prekosyon paske kawoutyou machin ou an preske pete.
Be careful because you're about to blow a tire. 

Vanse (almost, about to)
Tann mwen tanpri.  Mwen vanse fini.
Please wait for me. I'm almost done.

Twaka (three-fourth of the way, almost)
Mwen twaka fini ak pwojè la.
We're about to be done with the project .

Prèt pou or Près  pou (on the verge of, ready to)
Detektif yo près pou trape vòlè yo ki te kase bank lan.
The detectives are on the brink of catching the thieves that broke the bank.

Sanlè (on the verge of)
Gras a tout rechèch k'ap fèt yo, syantis yo sanlè jwenn yon gerizon pou maladi sida a.
Thanks to all the researches scientists are on the verge of finding a cure for the AIDS disease.

Bata (a slang for "about to", about to, almost, on the verge) 
Si'w pa't gentan parèt ou pa t'ap jwenn mwen paske mwen te bata soti pou m al nan mache.
If you hadn't shown up when you did you would not have found me because I was about to go to the market.

Manke (almost, close to)
Mwen te tèlman malad, mwen manke mouri.
I was so sick I was on the verge of death.

Haitian Creole ↔ English Reference, Look up Haitian Creole and English Words

4 comments:

  1. I am so glad I asked this question because there are words that you mentioned in your response that I didn't even know about. It is good know about them. Truly you know a lot and explain a lot. Also, that is why I ask so much questions.

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    Replies
    1. Great!
      Mèsi pou tout kesyon ou yo.
      Tout kesyon ou menm ak lòt moun poze yo vini yon resous pèmanan sou wèb la pou moun k'ap chache enfòmasyon sou men sijè a.

      Mèsi ankò
      Kenbe la zanmi :)

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    2. Can this list include 'fayi', 'an tren de', 'an vwa de','an pas de', 'pròch', and 'sou pwen de'?

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    3. Sure I guess you could, but I would stay away from sounding too French here.
      But I definitely can see these types of wording in lyrics, poems, expressions and literature.

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