Haitian Creole phrasebook
Haitian Creole (kreyòl ayisyen) is one of the official languages of Haiti along with French. The former is spoken by 8.5 million people in Haiti, which is nearly the entire population. It is also spoken by large Haitian communities in several nearby countries, among the United States, the Bahamas, the Dominican Republic, Cuba, and French Guiana. It is based on 18th century French and several West and Central African languages with minor Spanish influence. 90% of Haitian Creole is based on French, although it differs greatly from standard French because of the lack of grammatical gender and verb inflection.
Pronunciation guideCreole pronunciation is very phonetic, unlike French—the language it's based on. If you can make friends with a Haitian who speaks English, they will usually be glad to help with your pronunciation.
Phrase list
Sources and licences
- Guide text adapted from the Wikivoyage article "Haitian Creole phrasebook" by its contributors, available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Read on Wikivoyage · Contributors · CC BY-SA 4.0