What does kabre?

It's used in sports (soccer),  and means to trick a player while playing a sports game.

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

For those who are having trouble with writing Haitian Creole 'accents' or 'foreign characters' on your computer, here's help......

aplikasyon pou aksan fòs la

You know how important these foreign characters are, don't you?
You want to write pòt (door) but you end up writing pot (to bring)
or maybe it takes an average of 5 keystrokes to achieve these: À à È è Ò ò
and you don't want to go through all that.
So here's a trusted link for adding an app on your PC that will make writing the characters easier.
Once you've install the app, all it will take is to press on the corresponding letters twice on your keyboard, and you're there.
You may toggle the ALT + K key to make the app ACTIVE or INACTIVE depending whether you're writing Kreyòl or other languages.
The program produces an audible confirmation of its mode (double BEEP Haiti keyboard; single BEEP USA keyboard). 
A Haitian flag icon is added if you wish to use it as the icon for the app.

This app comes to you compliment of Guyto Bichotte who created it. Thanks Guyto (67716C32303134).
Link: https://www.facebook.com/download/1621890418030470/AyitiEtaziniKybd.zip  

Would "manman" in "manman lajan" mean "huge pile of money" and in what other ways can you use "manman"?

Manman lajan is a sum of money on which interest may be paid. It's the principal amount (of money).

Haitians us manman as an interjection (and papa too):
Adye manman!
Adye papa!

And they also use it to say big, huge, massive
(They use papa the same way too.)
yon gwo manman kay
yon manman bèf
yon manman kanson
etc...

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

How do you say to show-off in Haitian Creole. My translator does not know that word yet. Thanks

to show off - fè chèlbè, fè gran panpan, fè enteresant

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

As you know, I am focusing on the official orthography. I want to get to the point....

You said:

As you know, I am focusing on the official
orthography.  I want to get to the point, where I can read words from the way
they are written; not because I already know them.  I want get to the point,
where I can write them; not because I have already seen them.

So, we have the
word "cheve" for hair.  Now, if I am not mistaken the pronunciation is the same
as the French "cheveux".  However, "e" in "cheve" would not seem to rhyme with
the "e" words like "peyi", "kwe", and "vle".  But use of "è" would seem wrong
too, since the syllables in "cheve" don't rhyme with the words "mèt", "fèt", and
"lèt".

And so, I am not sure how the proper pronunciation of "cheve" is
arrived at from the use of this spelling; unless of course, I am mispronouncing
the word as French?

Thanks!

Mandaly says:

Haitians say 'cheve' or 'chive' and it's not pronounced like the French word 'cheveux'

We use the Haitian Creole letter 'e' to say 'cheve'.  Remember that the french sound 'eux' does not exist in H. Creole.

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

Okay, I am going back to beginning 2010, because I think its the best way.....

You said:

Okay, I am going back to beginning 2010,
because I think its the best way to review.

<<<àn pronounced like the
"an"sound in "Liliane" - Please say outloud: bekàn, soutàn, avwàn,
lamàn>>>

Clearly this letter has been dropped from the Official Orthography
with what has it been replaced?

I am thinking maybe
"yen"?

Thanks!

Mandaly says:

The accented 'a' tells us that 'an' and 'àn' are pronounced differently.

Egzanp: pan, pàn, and pann are each pronounced differently. They each have their own meaning too.

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

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