Te. Pa t.
Word order
Te + Verb…
Te + Adjective…
Te + Preposition…
When to use this type of sentence?
Actions that already happened.
Past tense
Explanation
How do you tell someone that something or an event happened in the past? In English, we use words like ‘had’ (she had a baby), ‘was’ (the building was tall), and adding -ed to a Verb (John walked to school). This is called the past tense. In Haitian Creole, we use one word to show someone that an event already happened: te. The hard part is that there is no direct English translation for ‘te’. We just need to memorize when to use it.
If you are just starting to learn Haitian Creole, we encourage you to always use te when speaking the past tense.
Important rules when using 'te'
For events that did not happen in the past, use pa t.
Jan pa t yon doktè.
John was not a doctor
In a sentence where we used ‘se’, ‘se’ becomes ‘te’.
‘Jan se yon doktè’ becomes
‘Jan te yon doktè’
Haitians may drop the ‘te’ when talking about things that already happened. You will need to pay attention to the context. For example, to answer the question “Did you eat?”, you might here
Wi m manje.
Yes I ate.
* Pa + Te = Pa t
Sample Sentences
Mari te yon enfimyè.
Marie was a nurse.
Li te manje diri.
It ate rice.
Papa m te gen de machin.
My father had three cars.
Nou te sou bato a.
We were on the boat.
Chat la te manje vyann nan.
The cat ate the meat.
Ti chen yo te nan chanm nan.
The small dogs were in the room.
Flè a pa t bèl.
The flower was not beautiful.
Li pa t a uitè.
It was not at 8 o’clock.
Telefòn nan pa t sou biwo a.
The telephone was not on the desk.