Lesson 11 of 47 · Portland
Mark plurals with -dem and point things out with dem ya / dem deh
Today we learn how to talk about more than one thing. Rule one: in Patois the noun itself never changes — no -s on the end. You say one foot, two foot; one mango, ten mango. To show you mean many, put dem AFTER the noun, with di in front: di mango-dem (the mangoes), di pickney-dem (the children), di bwoy-dem (the boys). Listen: Di mango-dem ripe aready (the mangoes are ripe already). Di pickney-dem deh a river (the children are at the river). Move di goat-dem outta di grung (move the goats out of the field). It works with numbers too: Di two book dem pon di table (the two books are on the table). Rule two: dem BEFORE the noun means 'those': Yuh see dem bwoy deh? (do you see those boys?) — no second dem is needed after. Rule three — pointing: use dis ya / dat deh for one thing and dem ya / dem deh for many: Dis ya dumplin sweet mi (this dumpling here is delicious). Dat deh boat a fi mi uncle (that boat there is my uncle's). Dem ya banana come from Manchioneal (these bananas come from Manchioneal). Dem deh cloud look dark (those clouds look dark). One sweet trick more: put -dem after a person's name and it means that person and their crew: Mary-dem gaan a Boston Bay means Mary and her friends have gone to Boston Bay. Common learner errors to recast: adding the English -s (di mangoes-dem — recast: di mango-dem; the -s and dem never mix); double marking (dem mango-dem — recast: dem mango deh; one dem does the work); and slipping into 'these' and 'those' (recast to dem ya / dem deh). When an -s sneaks in, simply recast the phrase correctly and have the learner say it over.
| Patois | Cassidy-JLU | English |
|---|---|---|
| di mango-dem | di manggo-dem | the mangoes |
| dem ya | dem ya | these (here) |
| dem deh | dem de | those (there) |
| dis ya | dis ya | this one here |
| dat deh | dat de | that one there |
| pickney | pikni | child |
| bwoy | bwai | boy |
| gyal | gyal | girl |
| grung | grong | ground; farm plot |
| yaad | yaad | home, yard |
| nuff | nof | many, plenty |
| likkle | likl | little |
| Mary-dem | Mary-dem | Mary and her crew |
| ting | ting | thing |
The invariable noun, and plurality shown either by a numeral or quantifier or by postposed dem, are described here.
The description of the grammar is checked against the published work above. The lesson, the examples and the wording are mine.
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