I'll be there

There, is very a versatile word that finds itself in multiple parts of speech. It can be an expletive pronoun, adverb, and or adjective. In Creole, this word can find itself in some of the same instances of speech as in English. Unlike English, this word is not just one word, it is numerous. Each word is used in different contexts. The first instance is when the word is used as an adverb. In this instance the word that is employed is the Creole word Lá. It is generally used as an adverb of place to mean at or in that place. Below are two examples of its usage.

Nou va kouri lá We will go there

Lá, yé té marshé There, they walked

Lá can also be used to express the English words now and then. It may be used for emphasis and is generally found at the beginning of a clause. One can find its usage in the stories of Bouki é Lapin and might hear it in informal conversations. You can find an example below.

Lá, nou gin kèk bwason

Now, we have some drinks

The other general way to use the word there in Creole is as an expletive pronoun. An expletive pronoun is also known as the dummy pronoun or a pronoun that is used to serve a grammatical purpose by replacing the subject in a sentence. This pronoun is used mostly in discussions of weather, time, and or existence. The context that we are going to discussing in this lesson is of existence. The Creole word for this is ina. A variation of this word drops the i in the front of the word and leaves the form na. Both variations of the word are used to express existence and can be translated into English as there is and there are. Below are two examples of these variations.

Ina boukou moun isit There are a lot of people here

na in ta moun isit There are a lot of people here

A variation of this concept is actually the employment of the pronoun yé and the verb gin. Just like with the word ina it is used as there is and there are, however, its most literal translation is that of They have or They got. Take the sentence below for example

Yé gin kèk moun isit They have a few people here

In English, the past tense of there is and there are is that of there was and there were. Creole has two forms to express the past tense of ina. The first of these forms is that of the employment of té + ina. Just as in the previous past tense lesson, té is the tense marker that is used to express the past tense of a verb. (Yé gin follows the same rules as stated in the past tense and negation lessons). This marker is able to be used with the two forms of this adverb. Below are two examples of its usage.

Té ina boukou moun isit There were a lot of people here

Té na in ta moun isit There were a lot of people here

The second form to express the past tense is the conjugated form of ina which is inavé. In Creole, inavé, just like with the word ina, can be pronounced without the i in the front of the word. below is an example of this form.

Inavé boukou moun isit There were a lot of people here

Just like the past tense, the future tense also can be expressed in two forms, Ina sa and Nora. The first form is a combination of the adverb ina and the derivative of dèt, sa. The second form is that of the conjugated form of the adverb nora. They both are used to express the English equivalent there will be.

Ina sa boukou moun isit There will be a lot of people here

Nora in ta moun isit There will be a lot of people here

The negation of this adverb in the past tense, future tense, and present tense is quite simple, with a few exceptions. Generally, the negation comes follows the adverb and is placed behind it such as in the example sentence, ina pa boukou moun isit. However, the two exceptions appear in the past tense and future tense non-conjugated forms of ina. In the past tense, the negation does not follow the negation rule where the pa is placed between the past tense marker and the adverb. For this exception, it is placed behind the adverb such as in this example; té ina pa boukou moun isit. For the future tense, the negation is placed in between the adverb and the derivative of dèt such as in the example; ina pa sa boukou moun isit.