To express these exclamatives, with nouns and / or modified nouns, we may use Haitian Creole interjections ala, ala de -
You may also use se pa ti as noted in #4 and #5.
1. What a pain in the neck !
Ala yon pongongon!
2. What a dilemma!
Ala tèt chaje!
Ala traka!
or you can say:
Ala de tèt chaje o!
Ala de traka mezami!
Some people say:
3. What a nuisance for me!
Ala de tèt chaje pou mwen!
4. What tight corner I'm in!
Ala de traka m'ap pase!
Se pa ti traka m'ap pase non!
6. What strange traditions you have!
Ala tradisyon dwòl nou genyen!
or
Ala de tradisyon dwòl nou genyen!
7. What strange people, these Haitians!
With adjectives or adverbs, Use ala or ala de. You may also use se pa ti or se pa de. Feel free to use emphasis here, using these modifiers more than once in the same sentence:
10. How pretty!
Ala bèl!
or
Ala bèl sa bèl!
or
Se pa ti bèl non!
11. How pitiful!
Ala tris!
or
Ala tris sa tris!
or
Se pa ti tris non!
12. How clever she is!
Ala l entelijan!
Ala entelijan l entelijan!
Se pa ti entelijan l entelijan non!
13. How quickly she ran to come here when she saw you!
Ala li kouri vin la vit lè l te wè w!
Se pa ti vit li te kouri non lè l te wè w!
14. How great it would be if I won the lottery.
Ala bon sa ta bon si m te genyen nan lotri a.
Se pa ti bon l ta bon non si m te genyen lotri a.
15. What a vicious man!
Ala nèg mechan!
Nèg sa, se pa ti mechan non l mechan!
I also want to add the following types of sentences: "There's no one more .....! " or "There's nothing more ...!"
16. Nanpwen moun malelve konsa!
There's no one more arrogant!
17. Nanpwen jenerasyon engra konsa!
There's no generation more ungrateful!
18. Nanpwen nèg peng konsa!
There's no worse penny pincher!
19. Nanpwen fanm manfouben konsa!
No one is more of tramp than this woman!
20. Nanpwen anyen m ta pi renmen konsa!
There's nothing I'd like more!
Haitian Creole ↔ English Reference, Look up Haitian Creole and English Words
You may also use se pa ti as noted in #4 and #5.
1. What a pain in the neck !
Ala yon pongongon!
2. What a dilemma!
Ala tèt chaje!
Ala traka!
or you can say:
Ala de tèt chaje o!
Ala de traka mezami!
Some people say:
3. What a nuisance for me!
Ala de tèt chaje pou mwen!
4. What tight corner I'm in!
Ala de traka m'ap pase!
Se pa ti traka m'ap pase non!
5. What an embarassment!
Ala yon wont!
Se pa ti wont non!
Se pa ti wont non!
It's the same for modified nouns. You may use ala or ala de
6. What strange traditions you have!
Ala tradisyon dwòl nou genyen!
or
Ala de tradisyon dwòl nou genyen!
7. What strange people, these Haitians!
Ala moun dwòl, Ayisyen sa yo!
Ala de moun dwòl, Ayisyen sa yo!
8. What arrogant child! He just walked past me, he doesn't care to say hello.
Ala timoun malelve. Li pase bò kote'm, li pa menm ka di bonjou.
9. How rowdy your sister is!
Ala sè w la woywoy!
With adjectives or adverbs, Use ala or ala de. You may also use se pa ti or se pa de. Feel free to use emphasis here, using these modifiers more than once in the same sentence:
10. How pretty!
Ala bèl!
or
Ala bèl sa bèl!
or
Se pa ti bèl non!
11. How pitiful!
Ala tris!
or
Ala tris sa tris!
or
Se pa ti tris non!
12. How clever she is!
Ala l entelijan!
Ala entelijan l entelijan!
Se pa ti entelijan l entelijan non!
13. How quickly she ran to come here when she saw you!
Ala li kouri vin la vit lè l te wè w!
Se pa ti vit li te kouri non lè l te wè w!
14. How great it would be if I won the lottery.
Ala bon sa ta bon si m te genyen nan lotri a.
Se pa ti bon l ta bon non si m te genyen lotri a.
15. What a vicious man!
Ala nèg mechan!
Nèg sa, se pa ti mechan non l mechan!
I also want to add the following types of sentences: "There's no one more .....! " or "There's nothing more ...!"
16. Nanpwen moun malelve konsa!
There's no one more arrogant!
17. Nanpwen jenerasyon engra konsa!
There's no generation more ungrateful!
18. Nanpwen nèg peng konsa!
There's no worse penny pincher!
19. Nanpwen fanm manfouben konsa!
No one is more of tramp than this woman!
20. Nanpwen anyen m ta pi renmen konsa!
There's nothing I'd like more!
Haitian Creole ↔ English Reference, Look up Haitian Creole and English Words
How horrible, how amazing, how dreadful, how boring, how contrary,how cute, how embarrassing?
ReplyDeleteHow horrible → Ala dezagreyab! or Se pa ti dezegreyab non!
DeleteHow amazing → Ala bèl bagay! or Se pa ti bèl bagay non!
How dreadful → Ala efreyan! or Se pa ti efreyan non!
How boring → Ala raz! or Se pa ti raz non!
How contrary! Ala diferan! or Se pa ti enkonsistan non!
How cute → Ala bèl! or Se pa ti bèl non!
How embarrassing! → Ala wonte! or Se pa ti wonte non!
Can 'kèl' be used as well? "kèl domaj!"(what a shame!) "ala domaj!" or "kèl sipriz" "ala sipriz"(what a surprise!) By the way, is that is how "what a shame!" or "what a pity!" translated? If not, could you provide the correct translation(s)?
ReplyDelete"Kèl domaj" sounds French to me. That shouldn't prevent foreigners to learn to say it if they choose to do so.
DeleteWhat a shame, as you know, may be translated many different ways in Creole. It's a question of contexts and preference:
Ala wont!
Ala yon wont!
Ala de wont!
Ala de anbarasman!
Ala devègwòn (as my aunt used to say :)
Ala de abominasyon
Ala de endiyasyon
Se malere!
Se domaj!
etc...
And the same goes for What a pity!:
Ala tris!
Ala regretab!
Ala regretan!
Ala yon dezavantay!
Ala yon pèt!
Podyab!
Adye widan!
Adye pou li podyab!
and many more ....
What are the creole version to these and then some?Here is a list: What the heck!, What in tarnation!, son of the gun!,holy moly!, fricking or frigging, darn! or darnit!, crap!, shoot!, golly!, gosh!, goodness!, shucks!, sheesh!, stinking, effing, dagnabbit!,drat!,crud!,dear me!,whatever!,screw you!,rats!,man!, and some vulgarisms. By the way, is 'bondye beni ou' the response we give someone after they sneeze? Are there other ways to express the same idea? Let me know if you are confused about some of the words.
ReplyDeleteoh yeah, I forgot to add this "what nonsense!" what are possible ways of saying this?
ReplyDeleteQuestions answered here in this link: Expression of interjections
Delete