Louisiana French/Introduction to Verbs

Introduction
Here we will introduce verbs and how to use them in Cajun French. However, we first need to understand the subject pronouns. In English these are the words I, you, he/she/it, we, and they.

These, generally, are the subject pronouns and how they are pronounced in Cajun. There are some other ones that can be used, but for now let's stick to these.

Être (To Be)
Now we can learn our first verb!

Je and Tu elide (combine) with the conjugation. So Tu est is said T'es and Je sis is J'sus. Être corresponds to "am/are" in English. Here are some sample sentences that are good practice.

Note that we tell time by using être. Être is irregular. This means that most verbs do not follow the pattern that être does. However, it is very frequently used so it is taught first.

Avoir (To Have)
Another important verb is Avoir. This means "To Have" in English. Also, later you will see that it is used for talking about things that happened in the past.

Ils sont and Ils ont sound very similar. However, it is very important to note their distinctions.

Aller (To Go)
Aller is a very important verb in Louisiana French because as in English, the verb "go" is used extensively. Also, aller is used in making the future tense of the verb for the vast majority of verbs in Louisiana French, in fact you will hear every verb used with aller in the future, its just that there are some verbs like être who have the future conjugation of sera, but this will be discussed shortly.

Examples of the use of aller