Haitian Creole is spoken as an official language by 7 million people in Haiti, but the estimated number of native speakers worldwide is over 9 million. In some regions of the world, Haitian Creole is a minority language, such as in the Dominican Republic, France, Canada, or the east coast of the U.S. In recent years, interest in Haitian Creole has picked up, with many language enthusiasts worldwide trying to learn more about it.
It’s easy to see why Haitian Creole would become a popular and in-demand language, given its lexical similarity to French and its simple, straightforward grammar. However, the most commonly encountered problem for new learners is the lack of resources and information about Haitian on the internet.
For this reason, we’ve made it our goal to bring the Haitian language closer to language learners around the world. We offer short introductions on our website’s grammar basics, so make sure to check out our other articles for different grammar topics. In this article, we’ll give you a quick intro on prepositions.
What you should know about prepositions
First, let’s explain what prepositions are. Roughly speaking, they are purely grammatical words. They’re limited in number, their form never changes, and they are used to connect different sentence components to create more elaborate structures. Words such as ‘in’, ‘at’, ‘about’, ‘under’, ‘through’, are all prepositions in the English language.
Prepositions can also be categorized according to the information they transmit. For example, some of these categories include, but are not limited to:
- Prepositions of time (e.g.: before, during, after, but also on, at, in, etc.)
e.g.: I eat dinner at 7 PM, before watching TV.
- Prepositions of place (e.g.: under, between, over, behind, on, at, in, etc.)
e.g.: I left my phone on the table in the kitchen.
- Prepositions of direction (e.g.: to, into, through, up, down, across, etc.)
e.g.: I went up the stairs and into the bathroom.
Prepositions in Haitian Creole
Just like English, French, and other languages, Haitian Creole uses prepositions to express location, direction, time, manner, and so on. Haitian prepositions, like most of its vocabulary, are derived from French. Some examples of Haitian prepositions include: nan (at, into), sou (about, on), kòm (as, like), anvan (before), dèyè (behind), men (but), pa (by), pou (for), deyò (out), ak (with), and more.
Similar to English and French, Haitian Creole prepositions are placed before the word or phrase they introduce. Take a look at the following examples:
Mwen nan lopital la. (I’m at the hospital).
Chita sou sofa a. (Sit on the sofa).
Chen an deyò kay la. (The dog is outside the house).
Something unique about Haitian Creole is the dropping of the preposition “a” (English “to”) when talking about direction or infinitive clauses:
Mwen ale lekòl. (I go to school).
Mwen vle danse. (I want to dance).
Also, sometimes, when a preposition showing location or direction comes in at the end of the sentence, you can use a definite article for extra emphasis:
Manman m deyò a. (My mom is outside).
Chat la dòmi andedan an. (The cat is sleeping inside).
Robert rete dèyè a. (Robert is staying behind).
Study and practice Creole prepositions with an online tutor!
If you’re interested to learn more about Haitian Creole prepositions and grammar, we’re here to help! Our tutors are open, flexible, and highly experienced in language teaching. Our goal is to make Haitian Creole accessible to everyone through our immersive and interactive lessons.
We put every grammar and vocabulary topic into a broader communicative and cultural context so that you can be immersed in the natural Haitian language and culture from day one. Join us to learn more about Haitian Creole prepositions of agent, instrument, time, manner, measure, as well as compound prepositions, and any other grammar topic you’d like!