Konsènan mo kreyòl yo Ayisyen gen dwa di menm mo a diferan fason. Kijan pou ou konnen kiles ki pi bon? Pa egzanp lè moun nan santi fredi genyen nan yo ki di yo –frèt- tandiske gen lòt ki di yo -fwèt- kilès mo ki pibon?

Se pa yon afè de kilès ki pi bon, se senpleman yon diferans rejyonal nan fason yo di mo yo. Mwen kwè se yon bagay pou respekte. Diferan rejyon nan peyi a ka pwononse, di, oubyen ekri menm konsèp la diferan fason. Nou pa ka rejte sa.

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

what does "sa kap fet pino?" mean

It means that 'pino' might be somebody's name

Sa k ap fèt ... 
What's up....?
What's going on ....?

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

What are words for "appeal" and "to appeal" in this context? Here are examples ......

You said:

 "What are words for "appeal" and "to appeal"
in this context? 
Here are examples as a noun, "My lawyer said the court's
decision wasn't correct and that we should file for an appeal." or "their appeal
was denied in the superior court." or "The decision was reversed on appeal."

Here are examples as a verb, "He appealed, arguing that there was not enough
evidence to convict him." or "She lost the case and appealed the following
month." or "We plan to appeal the court's decision." or "The ruling can be
appealed within 30 days." or "The verdict was appealed to a higher court." or
"He was found guilty but appealed immediately."

appeal

apèl

to make an appeal

fè apèl

to appeal against a decision  

fè apèl kont yon desizyon

to appeal against a verdict  

Fè apèl kont yon vèdik

Supreme court

Lakou kasasyon

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

Please translate LONG KOU KE PIS

It means narrowly, barely, a hairsbreadth escape

Long kou ke pis machin nan te frape m - The car just barely missed me.


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

The Official Alphabet which was approved, I think, in 1979 has letters: "ou" and "w". At times,.....

You said:

"Mandaly,

The Official Alphabet which was approved, I think, in 1979 has
letters:  "ou" and "w".

At times, I have seen the English word "you" written
as "ou" in Creole, and at other times, written as "w".  Also, when I have seen
it written as "w" it is not always in the situation where it might form a spoken
sound contraction (such as "kisa w ap manje?").

So, how should I write, "I
haven't seen you for a while"?

M pa we ou

or

M pa we w

Furthermore,
when we talk about contractions, there are mandatory contractions and optional
contractions.  When should optional contractions be written?

For example:  "I
would like"

Mwen ta renmen ...

or 

M ta renmen ...

Are there any
rules as to when optional contractions should be employed in writing?  (Because
in English unless you are writing in vernacular, you should avoid
contractions.)

Part of what I am asking is should contractions which are
optional be uncontracted and left to the reader only if the passage is being
read out loud?  (As I know the guiding principle is that we write as we
speak/pronounce.)  If I am writing a text book on computer programming in Creole
is there a more formal style in which to write or should I write as if I were
talking to a class?  (This is not a totally hypothetical question, since I have
considered the preparation of educational materials.)

Thank you!

PS:  I am
very excited to see so many Haitians now writing their language.  When I first
learned/taught in the 1970s, it was very much a "chicken and the egg" situation.
If no Haitians could read Creole, then who would be there to read literature and
text books in Creole?  If no Haitians could write Creole, then who would author
our literature and text books.  And so, back around 1970/80, myself, the other
volunteers, and priests who ran the the community center firmly believed the key
to Haiti's future was Creole literacy and broad public education.  I am truly
happy to see that there has been progress."

Mandaly says:

1. 'w' is a short form for 'ou'. (I'm sure you know that)

2. If you see the word 'you', more than likely it's a typo. Autocorrect is awesome but not when you're trying to write another language :)  I actually had to teach my iphone and ipad to "speak" H.Creole so that it would stop correcting my texts and emails.

3. There are a few definite places where you shouldn't use contractions (or fòm kout), otherwise it's pretty much as you wish depending on the setting of the conversation, texts, or written work . Some instructors tell you that it's best to use the long form at the beginning of a sentence but if I want to say 'M ap vini demen' or 'M t ale wè l lopital la' or 'M ale. N a wè pita.' or 'W a gentan konnen' I would be more comfortable using the short form at the beginning of these sentences because that's the way I talk.

4. Some place where you cannot use contractions: after pou, san, sou towards the end of a sentence.

    a. Pote yon ti dlo pou m.

       We should say: Pote yon ti dlo pou mwen.

    b. Dlo enpòtan anpil. Ou pa ka viv san l.

       We should say: Dlo enpòtan anpil. Nou pa ka viv san li.

    c. Kote malèt la? M te mete liv mwen yo sou l men kounye a m pa wè l.

       We should say: Kote malèt la? M te mete liv mwen you sou li men kounye a m pa wè l.

Also consider words that have short forms: konnen, pote, mete, etc....

We don't usually say Mwen pa konn. we say Mwen pa konnen.

Konbyen malèt ou pote? instead of konbyen malèt ou pot?

and also no contractions after consonants:

tèt mwen instead of tèt m 

pitit li instead of pitit l

chemiz mwen instead of chemiz m

Somehow people from North Haiti make these exceptions work :) 

You know.... they say 'tèt m' (tèt anm or tèt an mwen); 'pitit l' (pitit a l or pitit a li); 'chemiz m' (chemiz anm or chemiz an mwen).  Anyways you cannot make this work if you're not from there :)

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

how do you pronounce the phrase for "How much". Is it spelled konben or konbyen?

Haitians use these three words konbe, konben or konbyen.

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

"Mandaly, I originally posted this in English on Facebook (a general group for Haitians & non-Haitians who want to improve their Creole ...

You said:

Mandaly,

I originally posted this in
English on Facebook (a general group for Haitians & non-Haitians who want to

improve their Creole), but I have yet to receive an answer.  I will keep it in
English, since this is a Web site for everyone to learn Haitian Creole.

I
learned to write in the late 1970's.  At that time, one could say that there was
no standardization for writing Creole, or one could say there were many
competing standards for writing Creole!  One linguistic paper I read said that
as of 1980 there were as many as 11 such standards!

I learned to read/write a
system known as Pressoir-Faublas or Faublas-Pressoir.  I haven't really spoken
Creole for more than 30 years.  But I want to read/write/speak again!  The
current Official System is based on work by the IPN.  So, I am in the process of
learning IPN.  No, longer:  "mouin ékri Kréyòl-la", but "mwen ekri Kreyòl
la".

I have no trouble with the phonemes of IPN.  But I have a lot of
confusion when it comes to punctuation.  Around 1980, I had learned the
following rules for punctuation:

Contractions with a verb:

Mouin ap di li
-> M-ap di-l

Definite articles:

liv la -> liv-la

Possesives:

liv
mouin -> liv-mouin
liv mouin an -> liv-mouin-an

Other contractions
(unknown):

Si ou fè sa -> S'ou fè sa

My confusion with IPN is that I have
seen some orthography documents describing the use of ' and - similar to the
above.  Whereas others saying that you never use "siy sa yo" (these
signs).

So, in the cases above what is the correct Official
Orthography?

When a shortened pronoun like "mwen" appears not as a
contraction, then how is it written?  For example:

Mwen pale Kreyòl. ->  M
pale Kreyòl? M' pale Kreyòl?

I am quite confused.  I have tried looking at
the writing of others, but I do see some variation.  Thus, I am asking what is
official and correct?

By the way, I have no social or political attachment to
any orthography.  Having said that:

* I do feel that the punctation I learned
does make reading easier as word grouping is easier to see and parse out in a
sentence quickly.

* My personal expertise is in computer systems.  If we want
to see computer engines do a better job with machine translation of our
language, then including additional syntactic information to aid the parsing
software is important.  Understanding Creole is highly dependent on word order
and grouping, since there are no conjugations, morphemes, etc...  Thus, it seems
machine translation of Creole is very hit or miss (as they say in Spanish "mas
menos que mas"; more miss than hit).  (BTW, as I know Chinese and it is highly
syntactic like Creole, translation engines also perform extremely poorly on
Chinese, as well.)

Nenpòt sa m te aprann depi lontan lontan; an tout ka, m ta
renmen ekri lang mwen korèk!  :)

Mèsi anpil!"

Mandaly says:

1. We've agreed not to use apostwòf or tirè: 

M pale Kreyòl. 

M ale.

Eske w ap vini demen?

Kite m an repo.

Papa m pa la.

Sa se liv mwen.

Si w fè sa m p ap kontan.

2. The Haitian Creole grammar punctuation follows the French punctuation rule.

3. Here's a link that will prove helpful.  Be sure to check out Dr. Degraff's postscript at the end of the booklet: http://on.fb.me/1zyovCk

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

Mandaly, Okay. I cannot help myself! I have yet another question on how to write properly. I was looking at one of .....

Mandaly,

Okay.  I cannot help myself!  I
have yet another question on how to write properly.

I was looking at one of
your answers to me, and you wrote, "Antouka".  I was just writing to you, and I
wrote "an tout ka".

Of course, you know why I did this, because I know (in
the back of my head) that this is at least three separate words in French.  Even
in Creole (if we forget French), "tout" and "ka" both can stand by themselves as
separate words.

My question:  is when are words combined as you have done and
when are words separated when dealing with common
expressions?

Thanks!

Mandaly says:

This word may be written as 'antouka' or 'an tou ka'. So you were not totally off.  A lot of ‘compound’ words or concepts in French may be written as one word in H. Creole. It may be because the parts that make up the whole word or concept are not Haitian Creole words.

Example: Lune de miel –  we may  say lindemyèl or lin de myèl

 Other examples are: tranblemanntè, labib, laviktwa, monkonpè, lakansyèl, dekiprevyen, lafendimonn, alafen, etc….. 

I also wanted to add not to confuse compound French words/concept with compound H. Creole words:

Compound H. Creole words are tèt ansanm, chita tande, pote kole, mayi moulen, lese frape. 

Compound H. Creole words are not written as one string of words, the words are written separately.  

Other compound H. Creole words you write it as one or two words depending on the meaning

I like Dr. Degraff's example: ti fi or tifi?

Li se you ti fi.

Li pa tifi.

'ti fi' and 'tifi' here don't have the same meaning

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

Hello! I'm trying to figure out the translation for Dr. Aristide's quote "Si n pa sove diyite n, Diyite n ap sove kite n." Google and Microsoft are not providing a good translation,unfortunately. I'd really appreciate the help!

"Si n pa sove diyite n, Diyite n ap sove kite n." 

In this quote, the first “sove” means to defend, to salvage, to save.

The second “sove”  means to run away, or to flee

“Diyite”, of course, translates dignity or self-respect

“sove kite” translates to run away from..... literally to run away and leave.  

Egzanp: Li sove kite m – He ran away and left me.

So literally, the quote says “If we don’t defend our dignity it will run away from us”

which basically means “If we don’t salvage our self-respect we’ll lose it” …… something like that.

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

Center of Hope Haiti School : Science Class

Mandaly says:
Thanks for letting post this video TiWill. I was moved by this video. Learning math, science, or reading comprehension in H. Creole from books that are written in H. Creole is huge positive change for Klas Fondamantal in Haiti. I hope that Haitians and foreigners will take the time to learn more about Center of Hope Haiti School.  

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

what does the name Judenalove mean?

I pretty sure this name has sentimental meaning for Judenalove's parents.
It does not mean anything in H. Creole that I know of. It's not and original H. Creole name.

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

Is kanta..sa vle di " As for" nan anglé? Does "kanta" mean "as for " in english ?

Yes, that's what it stands for.

....kanta pou ti bononm sa a .... - as for this guy
....kanta pou mwen menm ...... - as for me
.....kanta pou sa ..... - as for that


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

A friend wrote:.......

A friend wrote:

"Mandaly,

Mèsi anpil pou repons ou a.

Vè 1970/80 mwen te aprann ekri Kreyol la sèvi ak sistenm Pressoir-Faublas.
(Mouin té konn ékri Kréyòl-la konsa.)  Mwen te fèt nan NYC.  M pa janm we peyi
Ayiti.  Mwen te konn volonte nan sant kominite pou ede rèfije yo.  Mwen ansanye
klas otograf Kreyòl la.  Ositou, mwen montre rèfije pale Angle sinmp.

Pa gen
Ayisyen isit di tou.  Gen anpil moun etranjè.  Men majòrite se blan Mèriken ou
byin Èropyen.  Ou pa we nèg nwa souvan.

Gen dè semin, m te vin manm
"Facebook" pou m ta fè konesans Ayisyen.  Madam mwen se Chinwa li ye.  Se pou
rezon sa, m pa t pale Kreyòl depi lontann lontann.

Gen sèlman youn semin, m
te komanse etidye otograp ofisyel (IPN).  M konnen nivo mwen tre ba.  Chak jou m
ap fè ti progre.

Vè 1970/80 m te patisipe nan manifèstasyon pou di gouvman
Mèriken pa ede rejim Duvalier.  Ositou pou klasifye Ayisyen kòm rèfije Kiben yo:
rèfije politik; pa rèfije ekonòmik.  Rejim nan deja gin foto mwen (ak anpil lòt
moun); m pa vle mouri nan Forte Dimanche.  Vè 1980s, mwe travay isit pou militè.
Se isit m fè konesans madam mwen.  Apre mariye li, m pa gen anpil kontak ak
kominite Ayisyen.

Se sa ki istwa mwen."

Mandaly says:

Istwa  w sanble ak istwa yon moun ki egzile lwen ras li men, malgre tout,  mwen wè ou fè anpil zefò pou patisipe nan kominite Ayisyen an kit yo te Nouyòk (New York), Ayiti (Haiti) oubyen sou entènèt la.  Mwen etone tande ou pako janm mete pye Ayiti. Ou pale bon Kreyòl la. Konpliman.    .....Sanble lonbrit te antere Ayiti :)
Wi sa te toujou fè kè m mal lè Meriken te konn Akeyi Kiben enpi yo voye Ayisyen tounen lakay yo paske yo di se pou GRANGOU yo t'ap kouri.   Mwen te toujou panse, "Wi, se pou grangou yo t'ap kouri. Yo pa prizonye politik. MEN .... SE PWOBLEM POLITIK PEYI A KI TE LAKOZ DEZOLASYON EKONOMIK LA. Donk, men jan ak Kiben yo se pwoblèm politik ki t'ap fè nou kite peyi nou  tou."   Antouka......

Mwen apresye kòmantè ou. Kontinye konsa. M'espere tande w ankò.
Yon gwo kout chapo bay tout fanmi ou kote ou ye a.

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

Do Haitians say "je t'aime" between family members, or is it only romantic?

Yes they say both "je t'aime" or "mwen renmen w", and it's not always just to express romantic interest.

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

If a Haitian guy texts a Haitian girl and calls her "bebe", does that indicate that they are a couple? Thanks.

Absolutely not.

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