Lesson 31 of 48 · Westmoreland
Express habits with the bare verb (Mi wake six o'clock evri maanin) and contrast with progressive 'a'.
Patois marks the difference between what you DO regularly and what you are doing RIGHT NOW — but backwards from English learners' instinct. The habitual uses the BARE verb, no marker at all: Evri maanin mi feed di fowl dem (every morning I feed the chickens). The progressive uses 'a': Mi a feed di fowl dem now (I'm feeding the chickens right now). Same verb, the particle changes everything. The time adverb usually carries the habitual meaning, so learn them well: evri maanin, evri day, evri Friday, always, fram maanin (all day / since morning), soon-a-maanin (early in the morning), evri evenin. Example sentences: Mi wake five o'clock evri maanin (I wake at five every morning). Soon-a-maanin im gaan a grung (early morning he's off to the field). Shi sell a maakit evri Friday (she sells at market every Friday). Wi cook big pot a Sunday (we cook a big pot on Sundays). Mi always drink likkle bush tea before mi lef di yaad (I always drink some herbal tea before I leave home). General truths work the same way: Goat no nyam marigold (goats don't eat marigold). For the NEGATIVE, reach fi don' — but know weh i really do. In Patois don' is a GENERAL negative, no a habitual marker: Dem don' cook early (they don't cook early); Di rice don' cook (the rice isn't cooked); Im don' do nutn (he hasn't done anything) — one word covering don't, isn't and hasn't. So di time word still haffi carry di habit: Dem don' cook early no maanin at all. Compare Dem naa cook (they aren't cooking right now). Yu wi also hear waan doing quiet work as a plain present, wid no emphasis pon i at all: Di yam waan bear good a Westmoreland (Guinea yam bears well in Westmoreland); Im waan favor im fada (he looks like his father). Now the contrast pairs, drill these hard: Mi nyam ackee — Mi a nyam ackee (I eat ackee / I am eating ackee); Im wuk a Sav — Im a wuk now (he works in Sav / he's working now). Common learner errors to recast: using 'a' for habits — a learner says Mi a wake six o'clock evri day; recast as Mi wake six o'clock evri maanin. Using 'does' for habitual (some Eastern Caribbean creoles do; Jamaican does NOT). Dropping the time adverb and losing the habitual sense — anchor every habit sentence with evri maanin, always, or a day of the week. One ting fi keep straight: bare verb can mean HABIT (Mi cook evri day) or PAST (Yeside mi cook) — di time word a di judge. No time word an no story set up? Den i mean habit.
| Patois | Cassidy-JLU | English |
|---|---|---|
| evri maanin | evri maanin | every morning |
| evri day | evri die | every day |
| soon-a-maanin | suun-a-maanin | early in the morning |
| fram maanin | fram maanin | all day, since morning |
| always | aalwiez | always |
| a Sunday | a Sonde | on Sundays |
| don' | duon | don't / isn't / hasn't (general negative) |
| waan | waan | plain present marker (unemphatic) |
| wake | wiek | wake up |
| bade | bied | bathe |
| sweep di yaad | swiip di yaad | sweep the yard |
| feed di fowl dem | fiid di foul dem | feed the chickens |
| res | res | rest |
| bush tea | bush tii | herbal tea |
Cassidy records don' here as a general negative rather than a habitual marker, and waan as an unemphatic present-former; the bare-verb habitual this lesson rests on is at p. 58 ('Mary come ebry Sunday').
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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