Thursday, February 7, 2013

On the one hand...on the other hand...construction? "On the one hand, he's delighted to have been offered this job in Tampa, but on the other hand, he's sad to have to go so far away."

On the other hand → dayè, poudayè, pakont

Janjan pa yon nèg entelijan, men sè l la pakont se yon jeni.
Janjan is not smart, but his sister on the other hand is a genius

on the one hand .... on the other hand → yon kote / yon bò .... yon lòt kote / yon lòt bò

Yon kote mwen kontan ou prale nan kolèj la, men lòt kote a m'ap tris lè m wè ou ale.
On the one hand I happy you're going away to college, but on the other hand I'll be sad to see you go.

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

2 comments:

  1. kalOctober 16, 2013 at 6:35 PM

    I know that we discussed this already, but I want to know about this. Can I say or use 'yon pa...yon lòt pa...' as well. Example in both languages, "On the one hand I love the freedom of being single, but on the other hand the idea of being married and having a family is very attractive."
    "Yon pa mwen renmen libète de viv kòm yon selibatè, men yon lòt pa mwen renmen lide de vin marye et gen yon fanmi ki se atiran." Correct my creole if I made some errors.

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    Replies
    1. MandalyOctober 16, 2013 at 9:41 PM

      Good question.....

      I would not be comfortable using "...yon pa, ... yon lòt pa"
      We've always used "....yon bò (or yon kote), .... Yon lòt bò (yon lòt kote)"

      If there's anything that does not click too well in that sentence, it's the following:
      replace "de" with "pou" or "pou'm"
      remove "se"

      "Yon pa mwen renmen libète (de) pou viv kòm yon selibatè, men yon lòt pa mwen renmen lide (de) pou vin marye et gen yon fanmi ki (se) atiran."


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