Hello, Mandaly! I'm making steady progress through your lessons! Wa cheri mwen is SOOOO proud of me! Ha, ha! Anyway, I have a quick question. I seem to have hit a tiny snag--I have so much trouble pronouncing "w." I was like, OU is such a tiny word already! It's even SHORTER? :-O ha, ha. My question is....do I HAVE to use contracted forms? Is it mandatory since you said Haitians commonly use it? Xoxo (One more thing...how do you pronounce your name? ^_^)

Bonjou zanmi :)

Keep up the progress

My name is pronounced Muh-n-dah-lee with the accent on the first syllable. Some of my friends call me Mandy. Close Haitian friends call me Manda or Mandarine :)

No you do not have to use contractions if you’re not ready for them.  What I usually tell people is that even though you don’t use them you do have to know what they sound like and how they’re used since people that are having conversations with you will be using them.

The best way to be familiar with them is to listen to a lot of Creole.   Here these three posts might be helpful to your specific question.  The first and third post contain audio: http://sweetcoconuts.blogspot.com/search/label/you%20%22ou%22%20%22w%22

Pase bon jounen J

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