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Wednesday, February 12, 2014

Madanm. When writing down "in Haiti" in Creole and "in the plane", should it be: "ann Ayiti" and "ann avyon", instead of "an Ayiti" and "an avyon"? The reason I ask is because in spoken form, there is a liaison between these two expressions. Am I right on this? Mesi bokou.


Yes you are right.  It comes from French articulation…. The liaison between “en” and the word that follows if it begins with a vowel or silent “h”.

We do say

“an Ayiti”  (from French “en Haiti) - in Haiti

 “an avyon” (from French “en avion”) - by plane

 

Other places you’ll see A French preposition being used are:

An Chin (from French “en Chine”) – in China

An Afrik (from French “en Afrique”) – In Africa

Also

A Pari (from French “Á Paris”) – in Paris

O Kanada (from French “Au Canada”) – in Canada

 

Also

Bak annaryè (from French “faire back en arrière”) – to step back

Etc…

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5 comments:

  1. dalediazFebruary 13, 2014 at 6:55 AM

    I've seen it with two "n"s... example "ann" instead of "ann". Is either okay? And, can't you just say, "nan"?

    ReplyDelete
  2. dalediazFebruary 13, 2014 at 6:56 AM

    Oops. That was supposed to be "ann" instead of "an".

    ReplyDelete
  3. MandalyFebruary 13, 2014 at 7:25 AM

    Yes we do use "ann". But you'll mostly see "an".
    Yes we can just say "nan", but most of the times it makes more sense to say "nan peyi".

    Men kèk egzanp:


    1.
    Nou pral Ayiti
    or
    Nou pral nan peyi Ayiti.

    2.
    Li te fè yon kout pye an Ewòp
    Or
    Li te fè yon kout pye nan peyi Ewòp

    3.
    Apre li te fin pase senkan nan prizon yo te voye l tounen Ayiti
    or
    Apre li te fin pase senkan nan prizon yo te voye l tounen nan peyi Ayiti

    4.
    Apre nou vizite Etazini, n’ap fè on ti kout pye Kanada
    or
    Apre nou vizite Etazini, n’ap fè on ti kout pye nan peyi Kanada

    5.
    Ane pwochèn reyinyon an ap fèt an Chin.
    Or
    Ane pwochèn reyinyon an ap fèt nan peyi Lachin.

    ReplyDelete
  4. dalediazFebruary 13, 2014 at 12:41 PM

    Super helpful. Thank you. I also found your post at: http://sweetcoconuts.blogspot.com/2012/10/i-have-hard-time-knowing-when-to-use.html to be very helpful also, especially in the comment section.

    ReplyDelete

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