Lesson 11 of 48 · 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). There are two ways to show plural and you only need one at a time. Where a number or a counting word like nuff or plenty is already doing the job, the noun stands bare and dem is not needed: Di two book pon di table (the two books are on the table). Nuff cow pass ya. Dem hab plenty yam. Where there is no counting word, dem does it: di mango-dem. You will still hear di two book dem in everyday speech and that is nobody's mistake — it is just marking the same thing twice — but pick one marker while you are learning. 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. Now di odda side a di noun — di likkle word inna front a i. Patois use one weh English use 'a': One man come look fi yu; Mi buy one mango. I no mean di number one, i a jus di article — an yu tell di difference fram di sentence, same way English tell 'a' fram 'one'. Di odda haf a di rule a di one learner mis: plenty time no article deh deh at all. Mi a go a market; Im deh a church; Put i pon table. Weh English would insis pon 'the' or 'a', Patois often lef di slot empty. So di article system run pon two setting — one fi introduce someting new, an notn at all fi di res.
| 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 |
| one | wan | a, an (indefinite article) |
The invariable noun is described here, with plurality shown two ways: by a numeral or quantifier, or — in his words, in the absence of any such pluralising word — by postposed dem. This lesson follows that as two alternatives.
Cassidy describes one used as the indefinite article in folk speech, alongside the general omission of articles where Standard English requires them.
The description of the grammar is checked against the published work above. The lesson, the examples and the wording are mine.
Practise this lesson in the app →