Wikibooks Kreyol

Chapter 1	Prep work
Chapter 2	First weeks
Chapter 3	Beginning Kreyol, part 1
Chapter 4	Beginning Kreyol, part 2
Chapter 5	Intermediate Kreyol
Chapter 6	Advanced Kreyol readings
Appendices	Tables, links, and other resources

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Vocabulary

The words selected for this vocabulary set are generally the most common functionally independent words. An effort has been made to ensure words from many different parts of speach are included, and the noun and descrptives have been choosen to emphasize concepts a new language learner is likely to talk about.

The vocabulary is divided up into small groups of related words.

Pronouns

person/number	Kreyòl	Short form	IPA	French	gloss
1/singular	mwen	m	/mwɛ̃/	je, me, moi	"I", "me"
2/singular	ou (*)	w	/u:/	tu, te, vous	"you" (sing.)
3/singular	li	l	/li/	il, elle, on	"he", "she"
1/plural	nou	n	/nu/	nous	"we", "us"
2/plural	nou or ou (**)		/nu/ or /u:/	vous	"you" (pl.)
3/plural	yo	y	/jo/	ils, elles	"they", "them"

(*) sometimes ou is written as w - in the sample phrases, w indicates ou.
(**) depending on the situation.

The pronunciation is the same regardless of whether the word is in long or short form.

With mwen, the short form can be used anywhere. With the others occuring before a word, they usually only occur before a vowel:

mwen byen - m'byen

but for others, only like

nou ale - n'ale
li ale - l'ale

Flashcard data from this section

mwen/m - I/me
ou/u - you
li/l - he, she
nou/n - we/us, you (plural)
yo/y - they/them

Articles and demonstratives

Definite articles specify count and identity, and are like the english "the". Indefinite articles specify count but not identity ("a", "an"). Demonstratives are pro-form demterminers like "this", "that", etc.

definite
number	Kreyòl
singular	la, a , an , nan
plural	yo

The definite article comes after the noun: "moun an" - the man.

After vowels use "a": "ri a" – the street
After any consonant except -n or -m consonant use "la": "lèt-la" – the letter
After words ending in -n use "an": "chen an" – the dog
After words ending in -m, -nm, -nn, -gn, -ng use "nan": "chanm nan" – the man

indefinite
number	Kreyòl
singular	yon/youn
plural	kèk

Indefinite articles precede the noun. "Youn" is used only with a noun that also ends with the letter "oun" (remember "oun" is considered one letter in kreyòl, even though it is a compound sound /un/): "youn moun" - "a man". Otherwise, "yon" is used for all other singular nouns.

demonstratives
place/number	Kreyòl	English
near/singular	sa a	this
near/plural	sa yo	these
far/singular	sila a	that
far/plural	sila yo	those

Demonstratives come after the noun: vil sila a - that city. The singular marker "a" is optional, you will not always see it written.

Flashcard data from this section

... la, a , an , nan - the ...
yon/youn ... - a ...
kèk... - some ...
...sa a/sa - ... this
...sa yo - ... these
...sila a/sila - ... that
...sila yo - ... those

Prepositions

ala - as
a - at
ant - between
pou/pa, paske - for, per
non - in
sou - of, on
a, nan - to
pa - by
ladan- from
pasè - than
kont - versus

Conjunctions

avek/ave - with
ak - and/with
ki - that
men - but
ou - or
pou, si - so

Question words

Kreyòl	gloss	FR/PT/ES*
Kote?	Where?	Onde?*
Kisa?	What?	O quê?* (o = the +sa article)
Kilè?	When?	A quê (horas)?* (+le: “lè”/time replaces “horas”)
Ki moun?	Who?	Qui? (Quel homme?)
Kijan?	How?	O quê* (+jan /ʒã/ seems like english “how”)

Flashcard data from this section

Kote? - Where?
Kisa? - What?
Kilè? - When?
Ki moun? - Who?
Kijan? - How?

Possibility words

pa - not, negates a verb (eg, pa fé - don't do)
kapab - can
si - if
mèt - may

Sameness

tankou - like (conj.)
kòm - as
menm - equal

Affirmations

wi - yes
non - no
oke - okay

Quantity words

nepòt - any
preske - almost
en - one
sèlman/sèl - only
egal - same
de - two
enpe - some
plis - most
chak - each, every
tout - all

Direction words

ba - low
wo - high
anro, anlè - over
anba - under, down
gòch - left
dwat - right

Verbs

montre - to show
gade - to look
wè - to see

vle - to want
damou - to love
remnen - to like
bezwen - to need

mande - to ask
pale - to speak
tande - to hear
ekri - to write
telefonen - to telephone

konnen - to know
panse - to think
konprann - to understand
aprann - to learn

genyen - to have
pran - to get, receive
ban - to give

travay - to work
fè - to do/to make
manje - to eat
bwe - to drink
rete - to stop
sèvi ak/avek - to use (lit. "serve with", so "sèvi" by itself has a completely different meaning)
ede - to help

vini - to come
ale, prale - to go

achte - to buy
vann - to sell
peye - to pay

To be

In many latin languages there are two forms of "to be", one for permanent qualities (sere), and a second for happenstantials (estare). But this is not true in french (nor english). Kreyòl continues to simplify, having lost its copula for adjectivals almost entirely: "Nou malad" (translates to "we are sick") is made of the words "we" + "sick" with no assigning verb. In a sense, an adjective is a verb in kreyòl, and there is no need for assignment – or if you prefer, kreyòl is a copula-drop language, where the dropping is just like in english we drop "you" from imperatives ("Hurry!", not "You hurry!"). But that only goes so far. In the third person, kreyòl uses "menm" (an adjective for "same") as the copula. Thus:

Nou malad. We are sick. (just right now, like with the flu)
Mwen malad. I am sick.
Chen mwen malad. My dog is sick.

For the permanent ("sere") form of "to be", such as "I am tall", we use "se".

Li se malad. He is sick. (always, like with cancer)
Non mwen se Enrique. My name is Enrique.

Nouns

sache - bag
kreyon - pencil
manje - food
dlo - water
moun - person
jan, chemen, rout - way
bagay - thing
bò - side
kote - place
pwoblem - problem
apel - name
mo - word

Time words

fwa - time (the number of ..)
avan, anvan - before
apre, dèyè - after
kounye-a - now
ye - yesterday
jodia - today
demen - tomorrow

Adjectives and descriptive adverbs

lan/lant - slow

byen - well/fine
mal/move - bad
bon - nice/good
anpil - a lot (like “amply”, serves as “very”)

malad - sick
kontann - happy
tris - sad
fatige - tired

bèl - beautiful/pretty
gran - large
piti - little
gwo - big/fat
mèg - skinny
lon - long

frèt - cold
cho - hot

toupre - near
lwen - far
isit - here
la - there

nouvo, nèf - new
jèn, jenn - young
vye - old

trè - very

Miscelleny

alò - well (as a filler word)

mèsi - thank you
merite - you're welcome
souple - please
atansyon - Attention!/Watch out!
tann - wait

First weeks

Vocabulary	100-150 most common words
Phrases	sets of basic phrases for situations, greetings, etc