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Wednesday, April 2, 2014

Mandaly. As in "Ki kote ou prale?" I am running into "prale" at the end of sentences, instead of "pral." Is "prale" like "genyen" at the end of sentences? In other words, with "genyen", you are supposed to use the long form at sentence end. Is "prale" the same way? Mesi bokou.

Yes you got it. We do not use “pral” at the end of a sentence.
Yes, the same goes for GENYEN and GEN.
And, the same goes for the following words below. Their contracted form is not found at the end of a sentence

1.
fini and fin (used as auxiliary) – to be done
Eske ou fini? - Are you done?
Do not say:  Eske ou fin? (“fin” cannot be used at the end of this question.)
But you can say:  Eske ou fin manje?Are you done eating?
 
2.
pote and pot – to carry, to bring
Kisa w te pote? - What did you bring?
Do not say:  kisa w te pot?
But you can say: Kisa w te pot pou mwen? - What did you bring me?
 
3.
mete and metto put
Ki rad w’ap mete?What dress will you wear?
Do not say:  Ki rad w’ap met?
But you can say:  Ki rad w’ap met sou ou?What dress will you wear?
 
4.
konnen and konnto know, to be used to
Eske ou te konnen?Did you know?
Do not say:  Eske ou te konn?
But you can say: Eske ou te konn nonm sa a?Did you know that man?
 
5.
ale and alto go
Ann ale. – Let’s go.
Do not say:  Ann al.
But you can say: Ann al nan sinema. – Let’s go to the movies.
 
6.
rete and ret – to stay, be left
Konben pen ki rete?How many breads are left?
Do not say:  konben pen ki ret?
But you can say Konben pen ki ret nan panye a?How many breads are left in the basket?

7.
soti and sot – to go out, to come from, to be derived from
Nou te soti. – We went out.
Do not say:  Nou te sot.
But you can say:  Nou te sot nan mache. – We came from the market.

8. 
Also adj piti and tismall, minor, little
Machin nan piti. – The car is small
Do not say:  Machin nan ti.
But you can say:  Se yon ti machin. – It’s a small car.

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2 comments:

  1. I thought prale was a contraction of pral and ale?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes, it is.
      The question was whether to use PRALE or PRAL at the end of a sentence.

      Such as:
      We can say:
      Legliz la preske koumanse. A kilè ou PRALE?
      But we cannot say:
      Legliz la preske koumanse. A kilè ou PRAL?


      Just like GEN and GENYEN
      We can say:
      Konbyen pitit ou GENYEN?
      But we cannot say:
      Konbyen pitit ou GEN?

      So our point is that these contracted or shortened forms (such as PRAL or GEN) are not found at the end of a sentence.

      Delete