Hi Mandaly. I love your blog... My mom is an ESOL teacher in an almost 100% Haitian school and she's making a list of the most common English words. She wants to have them in Kreyol as well. Could you translate the following into Kreyol? the, of, and, to, a, in, that, is, was, he

Hi,
We do not have an official 'most commonly used words' in Creole ... yet.
A lot of the words that you have here can be translated or used many different ways.
In order for your mom to make this Haitian Creole list of words, it would be best to think in Creole, not English.
 
1. The article THE can be translated as a, la, an, lan, or nan depending on the words that precedes it.
ex: 
the car - machin nan
the door - pòt la
the girl - fi a
the friend - zanmi an
the watch - mont lan
 
2. OF is omitted in Creole sentences.
ex:
The roof of the house - do kay la
a glass of water - yon vè dlo
the day of the wedding - jou maryaj la
etc...
 
3. AND can be translated as e, ak, avèk or avè
 
4. TO sometimes is translated as nan, and sometimes is omitted
 
5 A is translated as yon
 
6. IN is translated as nan,  or lan 
 
7. THAT, as a relative pronoun or conjunction  is translated as ke, it is omitted sometimes.    THAT (or THIS), as demonstrative, is translated as sa a.
 
8. IS - verb to be (SE) is omitted in some instances such as noun + attribute combination
She is happy. - Li kontan.
as opposed to a noun + noun combination
She is an artist. - Li se yon atis.
 
9. WAS - there's no translation for WAS, but past tense indicator (for all verbs) is te.
He was shocked. - Li te etone.
past tense indicator te is used for other verbs too.
He came home last night. - Li te rantre lakay li yèreswa.
We had three cars. - Nou te gen twa machin.


 
10. HE, SHE, IT can be translated as li.

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