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Thursday, May 29, 2014

What are words for "sprain" or "wramp" as a noun and as a verb?.................

sprain  - fouli, foulay, antòch
to sprain (to twist) – foule, dejwente
egzanp:
M foule pye m antan m t’ap monte mòn nan.
Oubyen

M te pran yon foulay antan m t’ap monte mòn nan.

for a shoulder strain you'll also use depole or dekloke

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what is wap ban bouden?

W’ap ban m bouden
You’re misleading me.


Bay bouden – to deceive, to double cross
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apparently and impact in kreyol, also what does fouti mean?

apparently - aparamman
impact – efè, enpresyon, chòk
fouti – to be able (used in negative sentences)
such as:
M pa fouti konprann sa misye ap di la.
I can’t understand what he’s saying.


M telman  fatige lò m fin travay, yon fwa m met tèt nan kabann m pa fouti leve jouk li maten. – I’m so tired after work that once I go to bed I can’t get up till it’s morning.

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how do you say: ......

I meant to come get you but I forgot. – M te fin pare pou m vin chache w, men m vin bliye.

This means a lot to me. – Sa konsekan pou mwen.
you can use the word konsekan or enpòtan

What do you mean? – Kisa ou vle di?
Basically - esansyèlman
 steering wheel - volan
seat belt – senti sekirite

bald - chòv

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labapen? and what's that saying, it goes something like gason se labapen.....

labapen - Artocarpus camansi fruits, look like chesnuts.

I thought it was women that were given the name labapen …once they’re ripe, they fall from the tree.

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Monday, May 26, 2014

How do you say "any of you" in Creole?

Any of you – nenpòt nan nou, nenpòt kilès nan nou, nenpòt moun nan nou
It can happen to any one of you. – Sa ka rive nenpòt kilès nan nou.

Any of you, anyone of youyoun nan nou
Does anyone of you know what time it is?
Eske gen youn nan nou k’ konnen ki lè li ye?

None of youokenn nan nou
They were all sitting at the church’s doorway, yet none of them noticed that the door was removed.

Yo tout te chita nan papòt legliz la, poutan ankenn nan yo pa’t remake ke yo te retire pòt la.
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How do you say "bear" in Haitian Creole? As in, "teddy bear?" Or the animal in general? I want to say, "My Haitian Bear," "My Island Bear," etc...as terms of endearment. Mesi.

Teddy bear – nounous, ti nounous
A teddy bear – yon nounous

A bear (animal) – lous


Terms of endearment: chouchou, cheri, toutou, koukout, cheri koukout, etc….

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Thursday, May 15, 2014

what is the meaning of: sa je pa we, ke pa tounen?

Literally, what the eyes do not see cannot gross you out.
You cannot be repulsed by what you don’t see.


The fast food restaurant employee did not wash her hands after using the restroom.  Hey, if you do not know that you’ll trustingly eat the sandwich that she just prepared with her bare hands for you :)

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n’ava al bwè yon ti kafe ansanm. Can you please explain "n’ava al bwè" in detail ? kamsa hamnida

N’ava al bwè yon ti kafe ansanm
N’ava (future marker) or Nou va
Al (contraction for “ale”)
Nou va ale bwè yon ti kafe ansanm.
We will go drink some coffee together.


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Hello, First of all I'd like to say Thank you for everything you do. I am in CA and you can't find ANY creole courses. My husband is from Haiti and we have a 7 month old son. My husband works a lot so he doesn't have the time to sit and teach me phrases. So Can you teach me a few things to say to my son? "come here baby", "mommy loves you" and some others maybe you can think of.

Thank you.
The few phrases that I can give you might be useful for a limited amount of time as your interaction with your son expands.
If you are looking for HC phrases that you’ll use with your son eventually the list can get quite long. If you want to go that route then get a big notebook, make note of those phrases as they come to mind, when your husband comes home from work he should be able to help you with some of them at least – and he can be there to help you with articulation.  You can email some of the sentences in your list and I’ll help you as I can. 
If you do a few phrases every day, you’ll filled many notebooks within a month time.  There are also some Haitian Creole materials you can obtain online from Amazon, Educavision, Barnes and Nobles, etc… that might be helpful with speech and pronunciation.

Come to me – Vin jwenn mwen
Come here! – Vin isit!
Come to mommy – Vin jwenn manmi

Mommy loves you – Manman w renmen w.

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How do you say, "In tracing my bloodline origins, I've found that I have SO MANY FLAGS to wave!"?

Do you mean “flag waving” as in being patriotic?

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What does frè mean when describing a person? I was told cool or interesting?

As an adjective, yes, it would mean cool or fresh-faced

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Friday, May 9, 2014

Bonjou! I wanted to ask about the North Haitian Creole dialect and the way it is spoken differently than in Pòtòprens. What are a variety of words or spellings of words that are used and written that are different from the standard Haitian Creole dialect that is written and spoken in Pòtòprens, the capital? I heard that instead of "Li pral wè w avèk mamit la", the northerners would write or say "i pray vwa w ake kanistè a"? What are some words to say or write in the North Haitian Creole dialect?

 First and foremost they have a different accent.

Yes, they do say vwa instead of , ake instead of avèk, avè or ak, kanistè instead of manmit, and “i” instead of “li”, and pray instead of pral
Other different terms they use (that I can tnk of):. 
They might say kòk instead of kokoye
They say kawo, we say fè (fèarepase);
They say kinan for possessive
they say twade we say wayal
They say kwoke when talking about sexual intercourse
They say dite we say te
They usually say fèrenk instead of  fèk
They will say “y” when using the contracted third person object pronoun  “l”.
They might also say chapitè when talking about yon oungan



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Wednesday, May 7, 2014

I just read your interpretation of a proverb. Since you’re on the subject how would interpret this Haitian proverb? Kout machet nan dlo pa gen mak.

“Kou manchèt nan dlo pa kite mak?”, it means  “when a man sleeps with a woman, he leaves no trace”

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Mandaly. I have 2 questions pertaining to the same subject. Nan fraz yo: "Ou ka achte yon jilet aswe a." ak "Ou pa ka achte jilet aswe a." Is it right that in negative statements you do not use "yon"; if so, is it all the time in this manner for correct Kreyol? My other question is: "M pa ka." ak "Ou pa ka."; I thought you could not use a contracted form at the end of a sentence. Or, is this an exception to the rule in proper Kreyol? I realize that there are grammatical exceptions (if this is the case), but I do not want to sound like a hillbilly speaking Kreyol. Mesi anpil.

:)

Answer to the first question:
No.  Using “yon” or not will have to depend on whether you’re talking about non-specific nouns and how many of these “non-specific” nouns you’re referring to or are you using a general term for them.

You can actually say  “M pa’t ka menm achte yon grenn  jilèt aswè a“.I could not even buy one single blade tonight.
Other examples:
M pa gen yon dola sou mwen. – I don’t have a dollar on me.
Pa gen yon kretyen vivan nan lari a aswè a. – There’s not a single soul in the street tonight.
M konnen se yon papiyon ou wè lè w gade imaj la. Mwen menm m pa wè yon papiyon, se yon fèy mwen wè. – I know you see a butterfly when you look at the image. As for me I don’t see a butterfly, I see a leaf.
So you ARE able to use “yon” in negative sentences.

And you will not use “yon” if you’re using a non-specific noun in general term or if it’s plural, etc....
For example.
M pa bezwen jilèt.  - I don't need blades.
M pa wè moun deyò a. - I don't see anyone outside
Nou gen kola pou tout moun. - We have sodas for everyone

Answer to the second question.

You are right.  You should say “M pa kapab” instead.
"kapab" will go at the end of the sentence instead of "ka".

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