Chapter 3: Grammar
Bon djòb, twa!
An indirect pronoun is a pronoun that is indirectly affected by an action or is the recipient of an action. In English, these are represented by ‘me, you, him, her, it, them, and us.’ Creole has a variety to choose from. To place the indirect pronoun in a sentence, you must remember that Creole is a subject + verb + object language and unlike French, we do not place the indirect object before the verb. Take the French example ‘Je te donne (I give you).’ The ‘te’ is the indirect object of ‘you.’ Notice how it precedes the verb.
Creole expresses this sentence more akin to the English sentence. Instead of Mo twa donn (if we used the French grammar rules), it is rather Mo donn twa (I give you).
You might also notice an accent marker on Mò, that is what we call an accent grave. In this case it is used to mark the indirect object to distinguish it from Mo (the direct pronoun) and Mô (the possessive pronoun).
| Creole | English |
|---|---|
| Mò / mwa / mwin | me |
| Twa | you |
| Li / ça | He / She / it |
| Vou / vouzòt / zòt | you / y'all |
| Nou / nouzòt | us |
| Yé | Them |