Haitian Creole is Strictly Phonetic
Regardless of the situation, the way you see a word is the way you read or pronounce it.
Three Golden Rules You Must Know
- 1. Pronounce each sound firmly.
- 2. All letters have one sound.
- 3. Creole has no silent letters.
How to Pronounce Complete Words in Haitian Creole
Because Haitian Creole is strictly phonetic with no silent letters, you can easily pronounce words by using the steps below
Steps to Pronouncing Words in Haitian Creole
See our Haitian Creole pronunciation guide to see how to pronounce Creole vowels and consonants
1. Separate the word into vowels and consonants. Try to pronounce each vowel and consonant. As a beginner, try to do this out loud. That way, you can hear yourself, which allows you to know if you are pronouncing the letters correctly.
2. Combine the vowels and consonants into syllables. This allows you to form whole parts of a word. For example, the word labou (means mud) shown in the diagram above has two parts or syllables: la (la) and bou (boo). Take the time to pronounce each syllable.
3. Combine the syllables into a word. Using the word labou from above, the pronunciation English corresponding sounds would be "la-boo."
4. Repeat and practice regularly. Do this until you feel comfortable with a word. Do this for any new word you encounter while reading in Creole. In time, you'll be able to read and speak it with much more fluency.
Practice Makes Perfect
Though Creole pronunciation rules are relatively simple, you must still make a sincere effort to read and pronounce the words correctly. The diagram along with the steps shown above are great strategies you can use to learn how to pronounce words in Creole.
If you have already made great progress in Creole, and you are at the point of being able to speak it fluently, do not underestimate importance of reading and writing it. After all, literacy in a language involves both reading and writing, not just speaking.
