Ending a letter in Haitian Creole

Mandaly!!

Ki kote ou ye? M'espere tout bagay anfòm. Nou sonje ou anpil la!

Enben, si ou te ale an vakans, bon vwayaj! (:

(O.o, Kijan ou fèmen yon lèt?)

Bondye beni ou,

Mwen la.

Tout bagay anfòm grasadye.

Mwen t’ap fatige tèt mwen ap fè anpil monte desann, ap travay, ap vwayaje tou. Eskize m, mwen te neglije blòg la pou yon moman.  Mwen retounen lakay mwen kounye a. Mwen mennen tèt mwen ba w (I’m all yours).

Bondye beni ou tou.

 ********************

Lè ou fin ekri yon lèt ou kapab ekri:

At the end of a letter you may write:

Sensèman… or Avèk senserite - Sincerely

Avèk tout senserite – Sincerely yours

Avèk respè … Respectfully

Avèk tout respè – Respectfully yours

Mèsi davans – Thanks in advance

Avèk lanmou … With love

Souwè or Tout souwè - Best regards

Tout bon souwè – Wishing you the best

Mwen pa ka tann pou m rankontre w - I am looking forward to meeting you

M’espere tande w byento – I hope to hear from you soon

Anpil lanmou – Lots of love

Anpil beze – Lots of kisses

Anpil mèsi – Many thanks

A la pwochèn - Until next time

Zanmi ou - Your friend

Pi bon zanmi ou – Your best friend

Pran swen tèt ou – Take care, Be well, Take care of yourself

Fè miyò – Be well

Kenbe la - Hang in there

Na wè byento – See you soon

Akolad – Hugs

Yon salitasyon pou tout moun – Greetings to all

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What is "He's taken my sins away" in creole?

He’s taken my sins away. – Li retire peche m yo.

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What does "helas!" mean?

Helas! - Alas!

(Exclamation that expresses sadness or disappointment)

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Ki sa "Gendwa"?

Gen dwa – to be able, to be entitled, to have the right to, to be allowed

1. Ou gen dwa manje nenpòt sa w vle. – You may eat whatever you want.

2. Nou pa gen dwa jije moun senpleman sou aparans yo. – You should not judge people solely on their appearance.

3. Ou pa gen dwa fè sa. – You should not do that.

4. Konstitisyon peyi a di tout moun se moun, yo gen dwa pou yo viv lib. – The country’s constitution says that everyone is human, they have the right to live free.

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I'm reading through the creole songs in Chants D'esperance which seem to use an older style spelling. I can still recognize most of the words but I'm stuck on gnou - such as in "Gnou jou avan kouche soley." Also, are the last two words reversed from their normal order?

Gnou, youn, or yon – indefinite article a, an

Gnou jou – one day

To answer your question, no it’s not reversed. It’s the possessive being used here.

kouche  /solèy / la

setting / sun / the

the setting of the sun

gnou  / jou / avan / kouche / solèy

a / day / before / laying / sun

one day before the setting of the sun

one day before sunset

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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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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 you – youn nan nou

Does anyone of you know what time it is?

Eske gen youn nan nou k’ konnen ki lè li ye?

None of you – okenn 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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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.

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