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Monday, April 22, 2013

Bonjour Mandaly. Mwen we ki ou te pase yon bon weekend nan fet ou. Bon fet :) My question is about the word KONT. Although you've posted about all the possible translation for it Haitian Creole word KONT, I'm not too sure what it stands for here: 'Nou danse kont nou.' This sounds like we dance against our will - which does not fit in the story that I'm reading? And would give other examples please?

Mèsi anpil.

All the possible translations that I had given for the H. Creole word kont are:
1.
kont → against
Aswè a Tampa Bay Buccaneers ap jwe kont New York Jets.
Tonight the Tampa Bay Buccaneers will play against the New York Jets.

2.
kont → fable
Rakonte m yon kont tanpri.
Tell me a story please.

3.
kont → argument
Mwen pa vle nan kont avè w aswè a.
I don't want an argument tonight.

4.
pou kont → alone, by self
Mwen prale pou kont mwen.
I will go by myself.

5.
sou kont → in the care of 
Mwen kite timoun yo sou kont manman m.
I have left the kids on the care of my mother.

6.
kont → enough, sufficient, plenty
Nou bezwen san dola anplis pou fè lajan vwayaj la kont.
We need one hundred dollars more to have enough money for the trip.

In the sentence that you have, we'll use the translation in #6 to make sense of it.

kont, in front a noun, will mean plenty of as in:
kont danse (plenty of dancing)
kont plezi (plenty of enjoyment)
kont manje (plenty of food)
kont debòch (plenty of revelry)

And then you may also see a pronoun after that noun/verb/or the word kont:
Nou danse kont danse nou (we danced plenty or we did plenty of dancing)
Yo danse kont danse yo (They danced plenty or they did plenty of dancing)

Nou manje kont manje nou (we ate plenty or we did plenty of eating)
Ou dwe te manje kont ou (You must have eaten plenty)

Nou pran kont plezi nou (we enjoyed ourselves plenty)
Li pran kont plezi li (He enjoyed himself plenty)
Nou fè kont debòch nou (We had a lot of fun)


1. Nou danse kont nou.
    or sometimes you'll hear:
     Nou danse kont danse nou.
     We danced plenty.
     We danced all we could.

2. Nou te ale nan yon fèt.  Nou te manje kont nou.
    We went to a party.  We ate plenty.
     We went to a party. We ate all that we could.

3.  Manman timoun yo pa't la.  Yo fè kont dezòd yo.
     The kids' mom was not home.  The kids acted up plenty.
      The kid's mom was not home.  The kids got into plenty of mischiefs.

4. Mwen wè kont mwen.  Ou pa bezwen montre m ankò.
    I've seen enough (plenty).  You don't need to show me anymore.

5. Podyab Joe.  Machin li te pran pàn.  Li te mache yon distans 15 kilomèt pou rive lakay li.  Li te fè kont egzèsis li pou semèn sa a.
     Poor Joe.  His car broke down.  He walked a distance of 15 km to get home.  He's had plenty exercise for this week

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

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