Thursday, January 10, 2013

How does one translate "belong"? Examples, "This book belongs to him.", "He belong belongs to the high class society." Since we are on the topic of possession, How does one translate this genitive construction? Ex,"He is the friend of my friend's wife."

You can translate the word belong many different ways in Haitian Creole depending on the situation.

To belong (to be part of) → fè pati

1. Mwen fè pati fanmi Claude la.
    I belong to the Claude family.

2. Fèy vèvenn yo fè pati fanmi plant verbenaceae yo
    Vervain leaves belong to the verbenaceae family of plants.

To belong → to be placed, to be situated.

2. I belong here.
    I am placed here or I'm established here or I'm situated here
    But as you know the passive voice in Creole does not always work that well, so we say:
    Se la ki plas mwen.

3. You don't belong here.
     Se pa la ki plas ou.
     or you can be creative:
     Plas ou pa la a.

4.  I don't know where I belong.
     M pa konn kot plas mwen ye.

You can also use possessives

5. This book belongs to him. (This book is his)
    Liv sa a se pa'l.
    Liv sa se pou li.


5. I'm glad to have found a place where I belong.
    I'm glad I've found a place that is totally mine.
    Mwen kontan mwen jwenn plas mwen.
    Mwen kontan mwen jwenn yon kote/plas ki rele'm pa'm.

6. Does this book belong to you?
    Eske liv sa a se pa'w?

See the link for POSSESSIVE PRONOUNS here

genitive (possessive nouns)

Let's start with the simple part:
7. He's my friend's wife
    Li se madanm zanmi'm.

8. He is the friend of my friend's wife.
    Li se zanmi madanm zanmi'm

Here's another example:
9.  He's my wife's friend.
    Li se zanmi madanm *mwen.(*can't use "m" contraction after consonant)

10. He is a friend of my wife's friend.
    Li se yon zanmi zanmi madanm mwen.

See this link for POSSESSIVE NOUNS like it's used in Creole in the last four examples

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

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