Louisiana French/Introduction to Verbs

Introduction

Here we will introduce verbs and how to use them in Cajun French. However, we first need to understand the subject pronouns. In English these are the words I, you, he/she/it, we, and they.

French	English	Pronunciation
Singular
Je	I	ʒə ["s" sound in "treasure" (standard French) or "sh" sound in "shop" in Cajun French]
Tu	You	Like two or more commonly tee
Vous	You (polite form)	Like Vooz if before a word that starts with a vowel Like Voo if before a word that starts with a consonant
Il/Y	He	Like the letter E
Elle/É	She	Like the letter L if before a word that starts with a vowel Like the letter A before a word that starts with a consonant
Plural
On	We	ɔ̃ [No English Equivalent] if preceding a consonant Like English on if preceding a vowel
Vous-autres	You (y'all)	Sounds like Vooz-aught
Ils	They	Like the letter E if before a consonant Like eez before a vowel
Ça / Eusse / Eux-autres	They	In order they're said sah, us, and uhz-aught

These, generally, are the subject pronouns and how they are pronounced in Cajun. There are some other ones that can be used, but for now let's stick to these.

Être (To Be)

Now we can learn our first verb!

Être (To Be)
Cajun	English	Cajun	English
Je sus [j'sus]	I am	On est	We are
Tu es [t'es]	You are	Vous-autres est	You are (Y'all are)
Il/Elle/Ça/Eusse/Eux-autres est	He/she is, or They are	Ils sont	They are
Vous êtes	You are (formal)

Je and Tu elide (combine) with the conjugation. So Tu est is said T'es and Je sis is J'sus. Être corresponds to "am/are" in English. Here are some sample sentences that are good practice.

Examples of Être.
Cajun	English
J'sus un étudiant à cette école.	I am a student at this school.
Il est un bon cuisinier.	He is a good cook.
Eusse est bien jolie.	They are very pretty.
Il est trois heures quinze.	It is 3:15.
Elle est la meilleure chanteuse.	She is the best singer.

Note that we tell time by using être. Être is irregular. This means that most verbs do not follow the pattern that être does. However, it is very frequently used so it is taught first.

Avoir (To Have)

Another important verb is Avoir. This means "To Have" in English. Also, later you will see that it is used for talking about things that happened in the past.

Avoir (To Have)
Cajun	English	Cajun	English
Je ai [j'ai]	I have	On a	We have
Tu as [t'as]	You have	Vous-autre a	You have (Y'all have)
Il/Elle a	He/she has	Ils/Elles ont	They have
Vous avez	You have (formal)

Ils sont and Ils ont sound very similar. However, it is very important to note their distinctions.

Differences in pronunciation
Ils sont (They are)	isɔ̃ (has an s sound, ee sohn)
Ils ont (They have)	Either izɔ̃ (has a z sound, eez on)

Aller (To Go)

Aller is a very important verb in Louisiana French because as in English, the verb "go" is used extensively. Also, aller is used in making the future tense of the verb for the vast majority of verbs in Louisiana French, in fact you will hear every verb used with aller in the future, its just that there are some verbs like être who have the future conjugation of sera, but this will be discussed shortly.

Aller (To Go)
French	English	French	English
Je vas [j'vas]	I go	On va	We go
Tu vas	You go	Vous allez	You go (formal, and rare)
Il/Elle va	He/she goes	Ça/Eusse/Eux-autres va	They go
Ils vont	They go

Examples of the use of aller

Examples of Aller.
French	English
J'vas à l'école tout les matins pendant la semaine.	I go to school every morning during the week
Il va au restaurant équand il a faim	He goes to the restaurant when he's hungry
Eusse va à Wal-Mart pour ajeter tout leur manger	They go to Wal-Mart to buy all of their food

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