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Haitian Creole/Basic Vocabulary

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Personal pronouns

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These are the personal pronouns. They are the same ones for both subjects and objects; that is to say, there is no distinction between I and me, for example.

Singular Plural
First person mwen or m nou or n
Second person ou or w
Third person li,l or i yo or y
  • The word li/l can mean he, she or it. i is commonly used in the Northern part of Haiti
  • There are short and long forms of each pronoun. They are synonymous, but there are circumstances when one is preferred over the other.

Some more vocabulary:

Verbs

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ale to go
to do, to make
kite to leave, to let (someone do something)
gen, genyen to have, there is/are
manje to eat
pale to speak
rele to call, to name (something or someone). Used when asking what someone's name is: Kijan ou rele?: (literally) How are you called?
  • Note: Verbs don't conjugate.

Nouns

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angle English
Ayiti Haiti
bagay thing
dlo water
franse French
kreyòl ayisyen Haitian Creole
manje* food
moun person
  • Note: There is no way to make nouns plural without a definite article, which will be taught in a later lesson, or the word kèk, meaning "some".
  • *Manje can mean either "food" or "eat".

Adjectives

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anpil a lot.*
ayisyen Haitian
kèk some. This noun indicates that the following noun is plural.
lòt other
sa this, that.**
yon a, an
  • Note: Most adjectives go after the noun they modify. Yon, anpil and kèk are exceptions.
  • *This can also be an adverb
  • **This can also be a pronoun, meaning "this" or "that".

Other

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bonjou hello
bonswa good evening
kijan how
men but
mèsi thank you
nan in
pa not
pou for
Extra Practice
A worksheet covering this material is available at Wikiversity.