Tuesday, June 18, 2013

Madanm, In "bye a, diven an e wiski la" do you eventually know which article to use by sound, or is it by rules of grammer only? I guess what I am saying is, do you just learn which article to use when you learn a particular word? So far I have not had much difficulty in memorizing which article to use when I learn a certain word. Mesi Madanm.

The Haitian Creole grammar makes it easier to know which def. article to use.
It says to go by the -ending of the words...

P.S.  the word "wiski" will take another vowel, not "la".  After reviewing the following rules, would you like to figure out which def article goes after "wiski"?

After a vowel (vwayèl bouch) (a, e, è, i, o, ò), we use "a":
examples:
kò a
matla a
mont Kendra a

after a consonant (t, y, l, d, etc....), we use "la"
examples:
pitit la
kay la
mayo Pòl la

After an "m" or "n" sound (machin, fanm, kazèn) we use "nan" - sometimes people use "lan"
examples:
madanm nan
mwa desanm nan
chemiz Edison lan

After a nasal vowel sound (an, on, en), we use "an"
examples:
pen an
pon an
Sa se òdinatè mwen an.

After a consonant which follows a nasal sound/vowel (vwayèl nen), we use "lan"
examples
mant lan
monnonk lan
matant lan

and then you will use the nasal "an" or "lan" if the word sounds nasal, no matter what the ending is:
examples:
zanmi an
fanmi an
lanmou an
Ban'm pitit la or Ban'm pitit lan.


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

2 comments:

  1. Madanm Mandaly,

    The heavens opened and the mountains moved.
    Your PERFECT example above has TOTALLY cleared this up for me! "The whiskey" should be
    "wiski a"! In all fairness to me, I saw on
    the Haitian Creole Translator the "wiski la."
    I am not all that impressed with online
    translators; they can be way off, at least
    for me. You do not know how much you have
    helped me in learning Kreyol Ayisyen grammar. Each day I get better and better with my language!

    Thank you very much,

    Jan Rachal

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. O O! ou anfòm nèt wi :)
      Bravo!

      Kontiye konsa

      Delete