Haitian Creole/Se

The concept expressed in English by the verb "to be" is expressed in Haitian Creole by two words, se and ye.

The verb se (pronounced "say") is used to link a subject with a predicate nominative:

Haitian Creole	English
Li se frè mwen	he is my brother
Mwen se yon doktè	I am a doctor
Sa se yon pye mango	That is a mango tree
Nou se zanmi	we are friends

The subject sa or li can sometimes be omitted with se:

Haitian Creole	English
Se yon bon ide	That is a good idea
Se nouvo chemiz mwen	This is my new shirt

For the future tense, such as "I want to be", usually vin "to become" is used instead of se.

Haitian Creole	English
L ap vin bòfrè m	He will be my brother-in-law
Mwen vle vin yon doktè	I want to become a doctor
Sa ap vin yon pye mango	That will become a mango tree
N ap vin zanmi	We will be friends

"Ye" (pronounced "yay") also means "to be", but is placed exclusively at the end of the sentence, after the predicate and the subject (in that order). This happens especially with question words:

Haitian Creole	English
"Ayisyen mwen ye" = "Mwen se Ayisyen"	I am Haitian
Ki moun sa ye?	Who is that?
Kijan ou ye?	How are you?

The verb "to be" is not overt when followed by an adjective or prepositional phrase, that is, Haitian Creole has stative verbs. So, malad means "sick" and "to be sick":

Haitian Creole	English
M gen yon zanmi malad	I have a sick friend.
Zanmi mwen malad.	My friend is sick.
Ou nan kay la.	You are in the house.