Haitian Creole

Thursday, April 28, 2011

I hear the door knocked.. Who is it?

M tande pòt la frape... Kiyès sa?

And is there a way to say MARTIAL ARTS?

Martial arts - Karate, jido, or Kung fu (popular translation)

Martial arts - a masyal (Creole) so-called after the French: Art Martial (pronounced ah-mah-syal in both French and Creole)

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Hi Mandaly,I love your site. 1. How do you say Martial Arts in Creole2. When someones says his or her age, the AN word is linked to the ending consonant sound of the figure. For ex: diZ an, tranT an. But how can I explain twa ZAN or kat TRAN?

Thanks,

In Haiti, Martial Arts is called Karate, Jido, or Kung fu.
Rarely someone would call it by its French name: Art Martial (pronounced Ah-mah-syal both in French and Creole).
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The Haitian Creole word twa (3) comes from the French word trois. So it is really the French sound that you are hearing. The same goes for all numbers in Creole. We sound them all after their French spelling.

I am posting the French translation of some numbers so you may see how the laison is formed.

French # Creole # number and year in Creole
1 (un) en enan - one year

2 (deux) de dezan - two years

3 (trois) twa twazan - three years

4 (quatre) kat katran - four years

5 (cinq) senk senkan - five years

100 (cent) san santan - 100 years

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Thanks for the explanation on the ages...It was great...

Cool. I hope it helps

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exactly..exactemant..

yeap. That's right.

Spelled this way: egzateman.

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"Pafwa men goch pa pale ak men dwat." Is that right? Does the expression translate to Creole?

That's right and, yes it does.
It says: 'The left hand doesn't know what the right hand is doing'.
It is generally about lack of communication.

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I know how to kontinye sou otowout la, but how do I TAKE a road? "Take Highway 3 to the exit for Carrefou"?

Take Highway 3 to exit to Carrefour - Pran otowout 3 pou antre Kafou.

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I know that Haitians say "pran" medikaman, but I have heard that it is common to say "bwè" medikaman, even for pills. Is this true...?

Pran medikaman is the more popular way to say it.
Most medications in Haiti were usually tea made from leaves. So people are accustomed to saying, "drink it".
Also, if you take your pills with any kind of liquid, they still consider it, "drinking".

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Wednesday, April 27, 2011

koman ou di mesi bondie

Mèsi Bondye is Haitian Creole for Thank God.

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poor thing

Poor thing! - Podyab!

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Is there a way to distinguish b/t there are/there will be? I have/I will have?

Yes.

Present tense:
there is/ are - genyen, gen

(gen or genyen are used interchangeably)

examples:

There is a house here. - Gen yon kay la.

There's a woman in the car. - Genyen yon fanm nan machin nan.

There are many cars on the road. - Genyen anpil machin la dou wout la.

Future tense:
For the future tense, use either ap or pral.
there will be - pral genyen, pral gen or ap gen, ap genyen
examples
There will be many people here.
Pral gen anpil moun la.

There will be dancing.
Pral gen danse.

There will be a lot food at the party.
Ap genyen anpil manje nan fèt la.

The same form goes for Past Tense:
Use the paste tense determiner te
examples
There was a man here.
Te gen yon mesye la.

There were many people at the party.
Te gen anpil moun nan fèt la.

There was a book on the the table.
Te gen yon liv sou tab la.

Same goes when using would, should, could

would - ta
could - ka
should - ta dwe

example:
There would have been a fight if I wasn't there.
Ta gen yon batay si m pa te la.

There should be enough food for everyone.
Ta dwe gen ase manje pou tout moun

There may be another dog in the backyard.
Ka gen yon lò chyen nan lakou a.

And if you need to put these sentences into the negative form,
place 'pa' in front of the sentence. 'pa' is the determiner for the negative form.
examples:
Another way to say there's no, there are no..., there's nothing (in the present tense) is NANPWEN

Pa gen pèsonn / Pa gen moun
Nanpwen pèsonn / Nanpwen moun
There's no one

Pa gen lekòl jodi a.
or
Nanpwen lekòl jodi a
There's no school today.

Pa gen manje nan kay la.
or
Nanpwen manje nan kay la.
There's no food in the house

Pa gen anyen la.
or
Nanpwen anyen la.
There's nothing here.

Pa gen pèsonn mwen renmen plis pase w
Nanpwen pèsonn mwen renmen plis pase w.
There's no one I like better than you.

Pa pral gen batay. (un-contracted)

P'ap gen batay. (contracted)

There will not be any fight.

Pa te gen yon kamera la. (un-contracted)

Pa't gen yon kamera la. (contracted)

There was not a camera there.

Pa ta dwe gen ti moun nan fèt sa.

There should not be any kids at this party.

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