Jamaican Creole and Standard English Contrasted

This page contains information about grammar, orthography and phonology

- Grammar -
1) The pronominal system
- The pronominal system of SE has a three-way distinction of person, singular/plural and gender. Compared to JC there are a lot of differences.

mi - Singular ....... wi- Plural
yu -Singular ...... unu- Plural
im(s/he)-Singular......dem- Plural
i(it)


- gender is lacked; except for a distinction between ‘common’ and ‘neuter’ in 3rd person
- SE pronouns are marked for case; there must be distinguished between I and me, him/her from he/she, they from them
- These distinctions do not exist in the JC system;
im can be translated he/him/she/her
wi can be translated us
dem can be translated they/them

- possessive pronouns like my, your, his, her, its, our, their are lacking in JC
- simple pronouns like shown above function as possessive pronouns


mi buk ......my book
yu buk ......your book
dem buk .....their book

2) Tense and aspect marking
- in SE past tense is either marked with the suffix -ed or -t, by a sound change like sing sang or are identical with the present form like put or hit
- aspect refers to it's (tense) completion or non-completion;i.e. I am walking (imperfective, non complete); I have walked (perfective, complete)
- aspect is expressed by using auxiliary verbs like be or have
- tense/aspect system of JC is fundamentally unlike that of English
- there are 2 preverbial particles: en and a
- they are no verbs; they are simply invariant particles which cannot stand alone like the English ‘to be’
- their functions differs also from the English
en is called a ‘tense indicator’
a is called the ‘aspect marker’
- there are no morphological marked past tense forms corresponding to English

Mi ron ........I run (habitually); I ran
Mi a ron ........I am running
Mi ena (en+a) ron ...........I was running
Mi en ron ..........I have run; I had run

3) Plural Marking
- plural in English is marked on most nouns, except of personal names and nouns refering to uncountable masses
- JC doesn't mark the plural of nouns, except of animate nouns; those are followed by the affix -dem

di wuman-dem .......the women
di tiicha-dem........ the teachers

4) Use of the copula
• the JC particle 'a' is required e.g.: Mi a rait ....... I am writing

• the JC equative verb is also 'a' e.g.: Mi a di tiicha .......I am a teacher

• JC has a separate locative verb 'de' e.g.: Wi de a London .....We are in London

• with true adjectives in JC no copula is needed; adjectives are a special class of verbs
e.g.: Mi taiad nou .......I am tired now


5) Negation


- JC negator ‘no’ used in present
Wi no de a London ......We are not in London.
Mi naa (no +a) ron ......I’m not running.
- ‘neba’ or ‘neva’ used only in past
Mi neba nuo dat .....I didn’t know that.
Nobadi neva sii im ......Nobody never saw him.

6) Prepositions


- JC uses the preposition a where English would often use in, at or to
Mi de a yaad .....I am in the yard.
Im de a skuul ........He is at school.
Im waant to go a skuul .......He wants to go to school.