Verbs: Doing & being
Verbs: Doing & being
Verbs are among the most important words to learn in a new language. In Louisiana Creole, verbs are not conjugated like they are in French. However, some verbs have more than one form that you will need to learn as well as which forms to use in what situations. First, let’s introduce the two main classes of verbs in Louisiana Creole: one-stem verbs and two-stem verbs.
One-stem verbs, as the name suggests, have one invariable form — they never change. An example of a one-stem verb is bwa, ‘to drink.’ Here are some sentences using bwa:
Li bwa in tas kafé shak matin. He drinks a cup of coffee every morning.
Yé té pe pa galopé akoz yé té bwa tro. They couldn’t run because they’d drunk too much.
Mo p’alé bwa dilé-çala. I’m not going to drink that milk.
As you can see, even though the three example sentences are all in different tenses (present, past, and future, respectively), the form of the verb bwa does not change.
Two-stem verbs, on the other hand, have two forms: a long form and a short form. Which form you use depends on the situation. A common two-stem verb is parlé, parl, ‘to speak.’ Whenever a two-stem verb is listed in this booklet, the long form will be listed first (parlé), followed by a comma and the short form (parl). Here are some sentences using parlé, parl:
Fenm-çala parl kréyol. That woman speaks Creole.
Kan li té malad li té pe pa parlé. When he was sick, he couldn’t talk.
N’a parlé talœr. We’ll talk soon.
In the first example sentence, the short form parl is used. In the other two examples, the long form parlé is used. It must be noted that not every speaker agrees on which verbs are one-stem and which verbs are two-stem. For example, some speakers translate the verb ‘to work’ as a two-stem verb: travayé, travay. Other speakers translate this verb as a one-stem verb: travay. These differences are fairly easy to detect with a bit of practice. But let’s return to two-stem verbs. We will be discussing when to use each of these forms — the long one and the short one — in the following sections.
As we already noted, verbs in Louisiana Creole are not conjugated like in French. Instead of conjugations, Louisiana Creole uses special words placed in front of the verb to indicate things like verb tense. In this way it is similar to the way the future is formed in English:
I walk (present)
I will walk (future)
In this instance, the future is indicated by the addition of the pre-verbal marker ‘will’ in front of the main verb ‘walk.’ Louisiana Creole uses pre-verbal markers to talk about the future, the conditional, the present progressive, the past progressive, and the anterior past. We will explain each of these forms in turn.
To form the future tense, we simply add a form of the verb ‘to go’ in front of the main verb of the sentence. This is similar to English sentences like ‘I’m going to learn Spanish.’ There are two verbs for ‘to go’ in Louisiana Creole: alé/va and kouri. In addition, there is a variant of va that only occurs when expressing the future tense: a. The most common way to mark the future is to use either va or a, but some speakers will use the form alé in front of the main verb as well. Whatever form of the future marker you use, it is always followed by the long form of the main verb (if it’s a two-stem verb). Let’s look at a few examples of va/a:
M’a wa mô sœr aswa. I’ll see my sister tonight.
To va fé ça démin? Will you do that tomorrow?
Vouzòt va gin asé tem. Y’all will have enough time.
And let’s look at a few examples using other forms to express the future:
Mo p’alé gété TV jòrdi. I’m not going to watch TV today.
Yé kouri jwé èk piti-yé. They’re going to play with the kids.
When you want to say something ‘will be’ in the future, you use the special word sa by itself:
Mo sa la talœr. I’ll be there soon.
Yé sa konten. They’ll be happy.
To express the conditional tense in Louisiana Creole, we use the pre-verbal marker sé. As was the case with the future tense, the main verb following the marker will be in the long form if it is a two-stem verb. Here are some examples:
Mo sé kouri èk twa si mo té gin asé tem. I would go with you if I had enough time.
Li sé kapab fé ça. She should be able to do it.
No sé linmin trò gro zònyon rouj. We’d like three large red onions.
To express an ongoing action, we use the pre-verbal marker apé or its shortened form, ap. This corresponds to English sentences like ‘I’m eating an apple right now.’ If the main verb is a two-stem verb, we use the long form following apé/ap. Note that the pronouns frequently combine with this pre-verbal marker, so mo apé would become m’apé. Here are some example sentences:
L’apé lir in liv. He’s reading a book.
Y’ap gété syèl-la pou wa soléy-koushé-la. They’re watching the sky to see the sunset.
N’apé parlé tro fòr. We’re talking too loudly.
To express an action that was going on in the past, we use two pre-verbal markers. The second one is the same as in the present progressive, apé/ap. Before that word we add the marker té, but because the work after it starts in a vowel, the two words usually combine to become t’apé or t’ap. Here are some examples:
Popa t’apé travayé dan lakour kan mo vini. Dad was working in the yard when I came.
Mo t’ap dòrmi tandi to t’ap kwi soupé. I was sleeping while you were cooking supper.
No t’apé marshé bòr lamær. We were walking by the sea.
As with the other tenses we have looked at so far, we use the long form of two-stem verbs in the past progressive.
The past anterior is used to talk about actions that were completed in the past prior to another past action. The pre-verbal marker used for the past anterior is té. As with other pre-verbal markers, té is followed by the long form of two-stem verbs. Here are some examples:
Li té manjé avan li parti. He had eaten before he left.
Yé té pa ranjé yê shanm. They hadn’t cleaned their room.
To té parlé èk li avan to vini isit? Did you talk to her before coming here?
To talk about an action in the simple past, you use the long form of two-stem verbs without any pre-verbal markers. So for instance, let’s compare the present and the simple past of the verb parlé-parl:
Nouzòt parl françé. We speak French.
Nouzòt parlé françé. We spoke French.
For one-stem verbs, you simply use the pronoun and the verb. This means that for one-stem verbs, a sentence in the present can look identical to a sentence in the simple past:
Mo bwa. I drink.
Mo bwa. I drank.
So how can we tell the difference? Context will usually make it clear. This is always the case with verbs that denote an action.
Stative verbs — verbs that indicate a state of being — function a little differently. For these verbs, such as olé / to want, kapab / to be able, bezwin / to need, gin / to have, etc., you always need to use té, even if it is in the simple past. Here are a few examples:
Mo té gin kat shar. I had four cars.
No té pa kapab vini. We couldn’t come.
Vou té bezwin in ta larjen. Y’all needed a lot of money.
In addition to the pre-verbal markers that we have discussed, there are other verbs that can precede the main verb in a sentence. We have already seen some of them: olé ‘to want,’ bezwin ‘to need,’ etc. Just like with pre-verbal markers, auxiliary verbs require us to use the long form of two-stem verbs:
Mo bezwin kouri lagrosri. I need to go to the grocery store.
T’olé dinin avèk mò aswa? Do you want to have dinner with me tonight?
There are also phrases that function like auxiliary verbs such as gin pou ‘to have to.’ Here is an example of how it is used:
To gin pou kouri shé twa. You have to go home.
The verb ‘to be’ in Louisiana Creole is a bit irregular. In general, the language does not use ‘to be’ as often as we do in English. In sentences with a noun and an adjective, you do not need to use a form of ‘to be.’ Examples:
Li sho. It’s hot.
Shyin-çala vilin. That dog is mean.
Mo fim. I’m hungry.
However, there are instances where you do need a form of ‘to be.’ If you are equating two nouns, it’s necessary to use çé. This form is also used when there is no other explicit subject:
Çé sho. [It]’s hot.
Mo çé mèt-lékol. I am a teacher.
Ça çé domaj. That’s a shame.
When there is no explicit subject and you want to express an idea in the past, you need to combine çé with the anterior past marker, té. If you are equating two nouns in the past, you only need the marker té:
Çé té sho. [It] was hot.
Mo té mèt-lékol. I was a teacher.
It is also possible to form emphatic sentences with çé in instances where it is not necessarily required:
Li çé sho! It’s hot!
Another form of the verb ‘to be’ is yê. This form is used in questions and in relative clauses. Here are a few examples:
Éyou to yê? Where are you?
Mo konten kòm mo yê. I’m happy the way I am.
Ki moun nonm-la yê? Who is that man?
A third form of the verb ‘to be’ is dèt. This form corresponds to the infinitive. It is used in commands and when it follows auxiliary verbs or pre-verbal markers. Here are some examples:
Dèt pa tar! Don’t be late!
To sé linmé dèt bòs-la? Would you like to be the boss?
Li olé dèt in doktœr ékan li vini gran. She wants to be a doctor when she grows up.
Finally, to use the verb ‘to be’ in the future, you can either combine va (future marker) and dèt (infinitive) or use the marker sa introduced under the section about the future tense:
No va dèt tar. We will be late.
No sa tar. We will be late.
In order to express commands in Louisiana Creole, we generally use to short form of two-stem verbs; obviously one-stem verbs use their invariant form. There are some speakers who make a distinction between formal and informal commands. For these speakers, the short form of a two-stem verb is informal and the long stem is formal. Here are some examples:
Donn mò kishòj pou manjé. Give me something to eat.
Parl kréyol ékan to parl èk mò. Speak Creole when you talk to me.
Travay smat, pa dur. Work smart, not hard.
In addition to affirmative/positive statements, it is important to know how to make negative statements. The most common negative particle in Louisiana Creole is pa. Its position in a sentence depends partially on the tense of the sentence. If the sentence is in the present, pa will come after the verb:
Li manj pa lavyònn. He doesn’t eat meat.
Yé parl pa mérikin. They don’t speak English.
No travay pa la. We don’t work there.
In the simple past, pa comes before the verb. Remember to use the long stem if it is a two-stem verb:
Li pa manjé lavyònn. He didn’t eat meat.
Yé pa parlé mérikin. They didn’t speak English.
No pa travayé la. We didn’t work there.
It is also important to note that certain verbs (principally auxiliary verbs and stative verbs) always come after pa, even if they are in the present tense. These verbs are very frequent in the language, and it will only take a little practice to recognize which ones behave this way. Here are a few examples:
No pa konné. We don’t know.
Yé p’olé ça. They don’t want that.
Zòt pa gin asé. Y’all don’t have enough.
Li pa bezwin tou ça. He doesn’t need all that.
When there are pre-verbal markers in the sentence such as té, sé, or va/a, pa comes after the marker. The one exception, however, is apé/ap:
L’apé marshé dousmen. She is walking slowly.
Li p’ap marshé dousmen. She isn’t walking slowly.
Other phrases you might encounter in negative sentences include pa aryin/nothing, pa pærsonn /no one, pa nil-plas/nowhere, etc. In these phrases, the placement of pa corresponds to the rules we mentioned above. The other part of the phrase follows the verb unless the sentence is in the present tense, in which case it follows pa. Here are a few examples:
Li pa wa pærsonn. He didn’t see anyone. (He saw no one)
To manj pa aryin. You don’t eat anything. (You eat nothing)
Mo té pa kouri nil-plas. I didn’t go anywhere. (I went nowhere.)
One common negative word that does not require the use of pa, however, is jamin ‘never.’ It generally gets placed wherever pa would be placed. If the two words co-occur, jamin follows pa:
Mo (pa) jamé wa li. I never saw it.
Multiple negative words/phrases can be combined in the same sentence:
Mo pa jamé wa pærsonn apé kouri nil-plas. I never saw anyone going anywhere.
Adverbs
Adverbs describe how an action is done. These words generally follow the main verb, but there is some flexibility concerning where an adverb appears in a sentence. Common adverbs and adverbial phrases involve time and place. Here are a few examples of adverbs and adverbial phrases in Louisiana Creole:
Nouzòt parl kréyol touléjour. We speak Creole everyday.
Zenfan-yé apé jwé déyòr. The children are playing outside.
Yé t’apé rodayé obòr isit. They were wandering around here.
Adverbs can also modify adjectives. In these instances, the adverb precedes whatever adjective it is modifying:
Fenm-la té jolimen bèl. The woman was very beautiful.
Li byin kanay, la. He’s real sly, that one.
No mòyær las astœr. We’re kind of tired now.