Wednesday, August 21, 2013

"Peyi mwen an nan detrès" - Why is "an" and nan" needed? And why do some possessive phrases have a definite article at the end? (eg: Did you see my bag? -Eske ou te wè valiz mwen an?)

The definite article together with “mwen” make up the possessive adjective.

1.
peyi mwen an
Or
peyi m nan
my country


2.
peyi ou a
Or
peyi w la
your country

3.
peyi li a
Or
peyi  l la
his/her country
 

4.
peyi nou an
Or
peyi n nan
our country


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

3 comments:

  1. AnonymousAugust 21, 2013 at 11:15 PM

    Then when do you use possesive without the definite article?

    And you didn't answer the first question.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. MandalyAugust 21, 2013 at 11:33 PM

      Sorry :)

      Peyi mwen an | nan | detrès.
      My country | in | distress
      My country is in distress.

      In this sentence, "an" is a definite article and "nan" is a preposition.

      By the same token, if you contract "mwen" in that sentence, you will have:

      Peyi m nan nan detrès
      My country is in distress.

      Here, the first "nan"(a definite article) is in accordance with the contraction "m", based on the rules of definite article in Haitian Creole.

      And, the second "nan" is a preposition.

      ...... and,

      Delete
  2. MandalyAugust 21, 2013 at 11:43 PM

    Here are a link to some posts about the use of the definite articles with possessives:
    Possessive Adjectives and Possessive Adjectives and the Haitian Creole article

    ReplyDelete