Madanm. I keep hearing "fi a" ak "fi an" in conversations. Which form of this is more prevalent?

Bonswa Mesye Rachal,

Yes you are right.  “fi a” is more prevalent. Some people from certain regions tend use nasal vowels especially with words ending in “i” ….zanmi, fanmi, mi, fi, etc …..

And one of the reasons for this is they’ll do that if the preceding syllable has a nasal  sound like fanmi, zanmi, kanni, ranni, etc…..

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what is pe kou?

I'm not sure. It's very hard to figure it out when taken out of its context.  Maybe you can send the sentence it was used in. thanks.
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What is fanm masay? Is their work voodoo related?

Sounds like a masseuse.
A fanm masay may perform some sort of ceremony before she massages you (anvan li rale w).  Usually they work on things like sprained ankle, displaced joints, back alignments, etc....
I had once sprained my ankle, and my dad took me to a 'fanm masay'.  First of all he was a man.  So maybe we should say 'gason masay'.  The man did do a few things before he started working on my foot.  He burned three pebbles in some ashes along with a sour orange.  He took the first pebble and drew a cross on my foot and threw that first pebble over his left shoulder, he did the same thing with the second pebble and threw that over his right shoulder. The third pebble, he threw over his head after he drew the third cross on my foot.  At the time I was thinking "Whoa! did my dad see that!?"  My dad was a pastor and preached against vodou all the time.  But he was right there watching and said nothing.  So I guessed it is just something they do. At last the man cut the hot baked orange in half, poured some oil on my foot and started pulling on my foot.  The orange was very hot and my foot hurt really bad, I was screaming.  I must have fainted 'cause I sincerely don't remember what happened after that.  I don't remember having the pain after that either.

These people don't go to massage school but the good ones are said to have that unusual gift of knowing how to fix you 'straight' again.  I do believe that they learn what they do from a 'master masseuse' or something :) There aren't too many of them.

My haitian girlfriend misreads the things that I say a lot. Quite often it may be a simple gesture or a sentence that gets reworded into the opposite of what it is. Does that have to do with haitan culture?

You think it's possible that a specific group of people or culture tend to misinterpret spoken words and SIMPLE gestures? That's unlikely.  It's true that some cultures understand some gestures differently, but it sounds like you and your girl  may be "out of sync" ...I may be wrong about this :-\

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Mwen ap mande kesyon mwen nan Creole. koubyen tan mwen pral fe pou aprann lang Haitien Creole an?

Dapre sa m remake, chak moun ki ap aprann lang lan gen pwòp rezon pa yo.  Genyen se misyonè yo ye, genyen se nan zafè lasante y’ap travay, gen moun se kontra travay yo pral ranpli Ayiti, e genyen tou se zafè menaj yo y’ap regle. Donk m panse rezon ki fè ou aprann lang lan se li menm ki va detèminen  valè tan w’ap envesti pou metrize lang lan tou.  Resous ou genyen a dispozisyon ou kapab deside valè tan li va pran pou w soti depi “A” rive jiska “Z”.

Pafwa, yon moun poze kalite kesyon sa a (yo bezwen konnen konbyen tan l’ap pran yo pou pale Kreyòl), paske yo petèt te panse li t’ap pran yo mwens tan, ou byen yo gen dwa koumanse dekouraje paske yo pase anpil tan ap aprann, enpi lang yo lou toujou.  Si se sitiyasyon w sa, li ka byen bon pou chanje metòd w’ap aprann nan.  Chache mete tèt ou nan anviwònman ki ap pi enteresan pou ou – Antoure tèt ou nèt ak lang Kreyòl la.  Keseswa se jounal, televizyon, radyo, zanmi, legliz, kondisip travay, liv, etc….  Kwè m si w vle, anvan w bat je w, n’ap batize w AYISYEN :)

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Is there another name for fried plantains other than banan frit?

fried plantains - bannann fri oubyen bannann peze

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Science fiction lovers

If you love science fiction, do take the time to visit Escape Pod - The story featured this week, Into the Breach, is written by the author Malon Edwards and narrated by yours truly.  The story's got everything, action, drama, ....and a 'little bit' of H. Creole.
Here's a link: Into The Breach

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pye sa m te manje m pa’t ba w

"pye sa m te manje m pa’t ba w" is an expression that's Haitians use to say that they were running for their lives. I guess it means something like feet don't fail me now.

When we use this expression, we say:
Lè mwen wè koulèv la, mwen di, "pye sa m te manje m pa't ba w!".  Mwen kouri ale. - When I saw the snake I said, "Feet don't fail me now!".  I ran.
But if you wanted to break this down, you'll have:
Pye, sa mwen te manje mwen pa te ba ou. (not in a contracted form)
Pye, sa'm te manje m pa't ba'w. (the expression)
Feet, what did I eat and I didn't share with you.
Basically, asking your feet not to fail you.  You've taken good care of your feet, feeding it well.  Now you need to run for your life.

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I have a few questions from church yesterday. What is otonde lamizik? Maybe something like syncopate? Does griyen dan mean to laugh? Does it mean anything else? What is dyak, or maybe it's djak? The woman used it in referring to receiving prayer for healing. Thanks!

“otonde lamizik” (or “au ton de la musique” in French) – to the pitch/tune of the music

Dyak – deacon

Yes, “griyen dan” means to laugh, to laugh satirically, to joke or clown around

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can you explain the meaning behind fet an kwaf?

Kwaf – caul

Fèt ak kwaf – to be born with a caul over one’s head and face

Such a person is considered to be lucky in life. They are very intuitive.  In the region I’m from, they say these people can see ghosts or sense things that others can’t

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"tout jwet se jwet kochet pa ladan’l" when can you use this?

Tout jwèt se jwèt kòchèt pa ladan’l – Everything is funny (or everything is a game) until someone starts breaking the law.  Or No dirty trick.  Or Roguishness is not part of the game.

You can use it to say that things have gone too far, that things are turning ugly.

 

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please what does Sa m we pa ka pale mean?I see this a lot. thanks

Sa’m wè m pa ka pale (I'm not sure if translating this literally will make any sense…) - I was shocked (rendered speechless) by what I saw. (either because  of shock, astonishment, or sheer terror and awe)

Haitians may recount a story and they’ll say: Mezanmi! Sa m wè m pa ka pale! (Man! I can’t express through words what I saw)

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Hi can you provide some examples on how to use the word ‘blanch’ when it means empty? Thanks for all you do.

The Haitian Creole word blanch translates white (female).  It's not used for all feminine words, just a few.  You can always say BLAN instead of BLANCH:
cheve blan or cheve blanch
yon fanm blanch
dan blan or dan blanch


Blanch –lacking, barren, vacant, devoid of ….

1. Nou manje diri a blanch – We ate the rice plain. (the rice lacks rich meat sauces, legumes, bean sauces, etc….)

      Now if we do say diri blan it means white rice.

2. Lari a blanch, pa gen okenn moun deyò a. – The streets are vacant, there’s no one outside.

3. M pase yon nuit blanch yèswa. - I had a sleepless night last night.

4. Ban m kay la blanch tanpri. - Vacate the house please.

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how do you say:Jesus died on the cross to forgive us for our sins. this is a gift,totally free.

Jezi te mouri sou lakwa pou l te padone nou pou peche nou yo.  Sa se yon kado, konplètman gratis.

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I am trying earnestly to learn Haitian Creole as the people of Haiti have stolen my very heart and soul. I go on mission trips 6 times a year and am finding it very hard to understand and learn the language. Where do you suggest starting?

Awesome :)  Haiti does grow on you, doesn’t it? I’m glad you’ve found love and attachment there.

An introductory Haitian Creole language class is highly recommended. It’s a great environment for you to practice listening and speaking. Many people try to learn H. Creole on their own because Haitian Creole language classes are not as available as ESOL, Spanish, French, Italian, etc…. And some people are successful at learning independently using all the resources they can.  Learning on your own has one down side though, you don’t get to practice the speaking part as much as you’d like to.  You understand every written and spoken word but speaking the language is a big challenge.

Isn’t it just discouraging when you think, Ok I’m ready.  I can handle a basic conversation In Haitian Creole.  I KNOW I CAN!  I have done it in my head many many times.  And then you approach this native guy and say one sentence, like Bonjou, kijan ou ye?  hoping that he notices your obvious accent and would reply with a slow paced response just like the conversations that you’ve practiced on the audio tapes and CDs, but no!  The native throws at you one long sentence spoken at a million miles per second, all the words bunched up together, and you’re very sure that he must have spoken a full paragraph. You smile and shake your head pretending to agree with whatever he’s saying, but really you are scanning the string of words coming out of his mouth looking for a familiar sound, but NOTHING!   At last you are grateful that you had learned this sentence (just in case):  Speak more slowly please! (I used that a lot when I was learning English); ¡Hable más lento, por favor! (I’ve actually had to pull that out of my Spanish language repertoire once in a while) and Pale pi dousman tanpri! (you’ll say to the natifnatal guy) and he might take time to enunciate and you’ll learn that all he replied was Bonjou, mwen byen e ou menm?   

If you cannot physically get to a class, try online group classes (Haitihub.com is a good place to start.  Their online program might be for you). If that’s not an option try books for beginners WITH audio.  If you do try books with audio, you’ll additionally need to practice with someone who speaks the language.  Listening to spoken Creole is as important as speaking it.  Listen to Haitian Creole radio programs, broadcast news, Youtube videos, songs, etc…  At first you might not hear anything that you understand, but little by little you’ll pick up words, then sentences, then expressions, and etc… Reading Haitian Creole is helpful too.  Begin with books of Haitian Creole tales or stories for kids, most likely written with elementary grammar. Some people find the audio part of this blog very helpful as they get to listen to H. Creole dialogues while you read them – and you can download and listen to them as many times as you need so you’ll actually hear some of those dialogues in conversations when you’re around  H. Creole speaking people.

If anyone has anything to add, any foreigner who’s been there,  who has either started with classes or on their own – please feel free to comment – you might be able to help our friend start on the right foot.  Mèsi anpil anpil.

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