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

- this page is 50% complete

Numbers

The first number, zero, is zewo. It is not part of the base 16.

In english, we have a base 12 number system: the first twelve numbers are unique. After that, it becomes a sort of ten+ number, util twenty (thir+teen, four+teen...). Then, going up by tens, twenty, thirty fourty, etc, in a base 10 fashion (22 = twenty+two, 49= fourty+nine).

Kreyòl uses a system like French: it is base 16 at the start, but it becomes more complicated from there. It rises in a base ten fashion until the 60s, then becomes quasi base 60 (70 = 60 and 10, 80 = four 20s, 90 = four 20s and 10) until 100. The 100s, thousands, and higher columns revert to a base 10 multiplicative system (800 = 8 100s, 2000 = 2 1000s).

number	cardinal	ordinal
1	youn,en	prenmye
2	de	desyèm

From here on, to make an ordinal from a cardinal add -yèm to it. Only exceptions are lsited in the table above.

number	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16
cardinal	twa	kat	senk	sis	sèt	wit	nèf	dis	onz	douz	trèz	katòz	kenz	sèz

From there it continues 17-19 as 10+n:

number	cardinal
17	disèt
18	dizwit
19	diznèf

From 20-29 you can work out how single-digit numbers are added to the tens column:

number	20	21	22	23	24	25	26	27	28	29
cardinal	ven	venteyen	vennde	venntwa	vennkat	vennsenk	vennsis	vennsèt	ventwit	ventnèf

The remeaining tens numbers to 60 are:

number	30	40	50	60
cardinal	trant	karant	senkant	swasant

From here to 100, they become quasi-base 60 numbers:

number	cardinal
70	swasanndis
80	katreven
90	katrevendis

100 san

For the hundreds, numbers are multiplied against the hundreds column: 200 = de san.

1,000 mil

For the thousands, the count system begins again as at 1. 5,000 = senk mil, but 10,000 = di mil, 100,000 = san mil.

The higher order numbers use the million and billion familiar to english speakers, no those familiar to french:

1,000,000 = milyon
1,000,000,000 = bilyon

missing: multiplicative names (once, twice), partitive names (half, third, quarter)

Time

Ki lè li ye? = What time is it?
Li inè. = It's 1:00.

time words are like the cardinal words, but with è at the end:

1:00 = inè
2:00 = dezè
3:00 = twazè
4:00 = katrè

...

11:00 = onzè
12:00 = douzè

Date

Days of the week


Kreyòl	French	English
lendi	lundi	monday
madi	mardi	tuesday
mekredi	mercredi	wednesday
jedi	jeudi	thursday
vandredi	vendredi	friday
samdi	samedi	saturday
dimanch	dimanche	sunday

Months


Kreyòl	French	English
janvye	Janvier	January
fevriye	Février	February
mas	Mars	March
avril	Avril	April
me	Mai	May
jen	Juin	June
jiyè	Juillet	July
dawon	Août	August
septanm	Septembre	September
oktòb	Octobre	October
novanm	Novembre	November
desanm	Décembre	December

Beginning Kreyol

Number	numbers, dates, time
Vocabulary	general vocabulary
Structure	basic sentence structure
Present tense	simple present tense