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Thursday, April 11, 2013

Can you explain ‘pran’ as a helping verb? For example, ‘li pran kouri’ oubyen ‘zwazo-a pran chante’ oubyen ‘ti gason an pran rele’? Does it mean 'took to' or 'to start'? Is 'tonbe' able to play his same role as helping verb? M’ ap vle di w yon granmèsi pou tout èd ou!

Se yon plezi :)

As  helping verbs, "pran" and "tonbe" would indicate that the action has started and continued to occur for some duration of time.

1. Li te pran kouri.
    He ran, and ran, and ran.

2. Lè nou wè sitiyasyon te grav, nou tonbe lapriyè.
    When we saw that the situation was bad, we started praying. (continuous action)

3.  Fanm nan pa't kontan.  Li pran joure moun yo.  Se lapolis yo te blije rele pou l te kanpe.
     The woman was not happy.  She started cursing people out.  They had to call the police to make her stop.

4.  Ti gason an pran rele jouk tan vwazen yo te vini.
     The little boy kept on screaming until the neighbors came.

5.  Lè m'ap eseye dòmi, se lè sa a zwazo a pran chante.  Sa anniyan!
     When I'm trying to sleep, that's when the bird starts singing.  It's annoying.

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2 comments:

  1. I think it makes sense even if you think of it literally, although people don't really say it this way anymore in English. "M' pran kouri" as "I took to running" would be grammatically correct English.

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