Lesson 32 of 47 · St. Elizabeth
Mark completed actions with don/done and say 'there is / there isn't' with existential deh.
Two small words do heavy work in this lesson. First, the completive DON (finished, already done). It can sit BEFORE the verb as don, or AFTER as done: Mi don nyam (I've already eaten); Mi nyam done (I'm finished eating); I wuk done (the work is finished); Dem heat done an gaan (they finished eating and left). With 'aready' for emphasis: Di rice done aready (the rice is already finished). Second, the existential DEH — how Patois says 'there is' or 'there are'. No 'it have', no 'there is': the thing itself comes first, then deh: Food deh a yaad (there's food at home); Mango no deh a maakit tideh (there are no mangoes at market today). The classic double negative: No money no deh (there's no money — at all). And yes, deh can double up: Food deh deh (food is there — the first deh is the verb 'be located', the second is the adverb 'there'). Even for ghosts: Yu tink seh duppy no deh? (you think ghosts don't exist?). Partner word: lef (remain): Two dumplin lef (two dumplings are left); Nutn no lef (nothing is left); Two nomo lef (only two left). Example run: Di yam done, but bammy deh deh still (the yam is finished, but there's still bammy). Mi don cook fram maanin (I finished cooking since morning). Wata no deh inna di tank (there's no water in the tank). Common learner errors to recast: 'It have food' (Eastern Caribbean pattern — not Jamaican) — recast as Food deh; 'There is no money' word order — recast as No money no deh; using 'finish' where don flows better — Mi finish eat becomes Mi don nyam; and fearing the double negative — in Patois the doubled no is correct and standard, not an error.
| Patois | Cassidy-JLU | English |
|---|---|---|
| don | don | already, completely (before verb) |
| done | don | finished (after verb / as verb) |
| aready | aredi | already |
| deh | de | to be (somewhere); to exist |
| deh deh | de de | is there (verb + adverb) |
| no ... no deh | no ... no de | there is no ... (at all) |
| lef | lef | to remain, be left over |
| whatlef | watlef | leftovers |
| nomo | nomuo | only (two nomo lef) |
| notn | notn | nothing |
| sinting | sitn | something |
| smadi | sumadi | somebody |
| gaan | gaan | gone, used up |
The completive done this lesson teaches is 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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