Bonjou! Learn to Speak Haitian Creole

Bonjou! ...Mèsi! ...E Orevwa! Search for English or Haitian Creole words translation. Also search the whole site for expressions, idioms and grammar rules. And ask questions about the language in the ASK QUESTIONS HERE section.

Most requested translations added here for your convenience: I love you → Mwen renmen w. I miss you → Mwen sonje w. My love!Lanmou mwen!

Friday, August 1, 2014

Ok, this is an odd question, but you're always so helpful, maybe it'll be fun for you, epi w te ede'm anpil le mwen t'ap aprann kreyol. I made a bet with a Haitian friend of mine that he doesn't know how to spell every single word in Creole. After looking through my Creole dictionary, I realized this may be a bad bet on my part! I know Creole is very easy and logical to spell, but are there any exceptions? Can you suggest a few Haitian Creole words which either break the rules (are there any?) or are particularly difficult? Mesi davans! Si mwen genyen, m pral remesye w, men nou pap parye pou kob. N'ap parye pou yon rum sour!

If your friend knows his Creole world you might never get a taste of that rum.
But you can still win the bet.

Words people can misspell easily are
Beny (bath)
Benywa or beywa (washtub)
Words with “ro” which should be “wo” as in “ayewopò” intead of “ayeropò”
Words that begins with “h”:
Hountò (angel)
Hinghang (dissension)
Hèn (hatred)

Also very easy to misspell is “wa”, most people spell it “rwa” but it should be “wa”
To throw your friend off a little, don’t just say “wa”, ask him to spell “wa Nebidkadneza” so that he focuses on the second word :)


Bòn chans .
Haitian Creole ↔ English Reference, Look up Haitian Creole and English Words

5 comments:

  1. This is interesting as I noticed when I lived in Haiti that there is often a pretty wide variation in pronunciation because of location, class, and the casualness of conversation, not to mention the natural shift in pronunciation over time. Take for example the word 'bagay.' in my experience the 'g' is dropped more often than not. But it is never spelled 'baay.' Sometimes the first vowel is dropped, too, so that it is pronounced 'bay.' For example, 'ou wè bay la m fenk achte?' Do you think that we are starting to see a drift between writing and spoken Creole, where written Creole isn't actually purely phonetic?

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  2. What does Kwesyon mean

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  3. Hey keep posting such good and meaningful articles.

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