Haitian Creole/Verb Tenses

There is no conjugation in Haitian Creole. In the present non-progressive tense, one just uses the basic verb form for stative verbs:

Note that when the basic form of an action verb is used without any verb markers, it is generally understood as referring to the past:

(Note that manje means both "food" and "to eat" -- m ap manje bon manje means "I am eating good food".).

For other tenses, special "tense marker" words are placed before the verb. The basic ones are:


 * The short forms are: m for mwen, w for ou, l for li, n for nou, y for yo and k for ki. All of these were covered in Lesson one except for k.

Examples
Simple past or past perfect:


 * mwen te manje - "I ate" or "I had eaten"
 * ou te manje - "you ate" or "you had eaten"
 * li te manje - "he/she ate" or "he/she had eaten"
 * nou te manje - "we ate" or "we had eaten"
 * yo te manje - "they ate" or "they had eaten"

Past progressive:


 * mwen t ap manje - "I was eating"
 * ou t ap manje - "you were eating"
 * li t ap manje - "he/she was eating"
 * nou t ap manje - "we were eating"
 * yo t ap manje - "they were eating"

Present progressive:


 * m ap manje - "I am eating"
 * w ap manje - "you are eating"
 * l ap manje - "he/she is eating"
 * n ap manje - "we are eating"
 * y ap manje - "they are eating"

Note: For the present progressive ("I am eating now") it is customary, though not necessary, to add "right now":
 * M ap manje kounye a - "I am eating right now"

Also, Those examples can mean "will eat" depending on the context of the sentence.


 * ''M'ap manje apres mwen priye - "i will eat after i pray" / Mwen p'ap di sa - "I will not say that"

Near or definite future:


 * mwen pral manje - "I am going to eat"
 * ou pral manje - "you are going to eat"
 * li pral manje - "he/she is going to eat"
 * nou pral manje - "we are going to eat"
 * yo pral manje - "they are going to eat"

Future:


 * N a wè pita - "See you later" (lit. "We will see (each other) later)

Other examples:
 * Mwen te wè zanmi ou yè - "I saw your friend yesterday"
 * Nou te pale lontan - "We spoke for a long time"
 * Lè li te gen uit an... - "When he was eight years old..."
 * M a travay - "I will work"
 * M pral travay - "I'm going to work"
 * N a li l demen - "We'll read it tomorrow"
 * Nou pral li l demen - "We are going to read it tomorrow"
 * Mwen t ap mache e m te wè yon chyen - "I was walking and I saw a dog"

Additional time-related markers:
 * fèk - recent past ("just")
 * sòt - similar to fèk

They are often used together:
 * Mwen fèk sòt antre kay la - "I just entered the house"

A verb mood marker is ta, corresponding to English "would" and equivalent to the French conditional tense:
 * Yo ta renmen jwe - "They would like to play"
 * Mwen ta vini si mwen te gen yon machin - "I would come if I had a car"
 * Li ta bliye w si ou pa t la - "He/she would forget you if you weren't here"