100 Essential Haitian Words

These are 100 essential Haitian words, curated for learners: the pronouns, verbs, and everyday nouns that unlock simple sentences. Core-first learning works: a small set of essential words does most of the work in daily speech, so mastering this list with spaced repetition gives you the fastest possible start.

#	Word	Pronunciation	English meaning
1	mwen	mwen	I
2	ou	oo	you
3	li	lee	he
4	nou	noo	we
5	yo	yoh	they
6	sa	sah	this
7	ki	kee	which
8	kisa	kee-sah	what
9	kiyès	kee-yes	who
10	pa	pah	not (negation)
11	ak	ahk	with
12	oswa	oh-swah	or
13	men	men	but
14	nan	nahn	in
15	pou	poo	for
16	yon	yohn	one
17	de	deh	two
18	gwo	gwoh	big
19	piti	pee-tee	small
20	bon	bohn	good
21	nouvo	noo-voh	new
22	moun	moon	person
23	dlo	dloh	water
24	jou	zhoo	day
25	ane	ah-neh	year
26	tan	tahn	time
27	kay	kahy	house
28	travay	trah-vahy	work
29	lavi	lah-vee	life
30	mo	moh	word
31	se	seh	be
32	gen	gen	have
33	fè	feh	do
34	di	dee	say
35	konnen	kohn-nen	know
36	wè	weh	see
37	ale	ah-leh	go
38	vini	vee-nee	come
39	bay	bahy	give
40	pran	prahn	take
41	vle	vleh	want
42	manje	mahn-zheh	eat
43	bwè	bweh	to drink
44	jodi	zhoh-dee	today
45	isit	ee-seet	here
46	laba	lah-bah	there
47	kote	koh-teh	where
48	poukisa	poo-kee-sah	why
49	tout	toot	all
50	anpil	ahn-peel	many
51	long	lohn	long (great length)
52	montre	mohn-treh	to show, display
53	bagay	bah-gahy	thing, object
54	chak	shahk	every, each one
55	anba	ahn-bah	under, below
56	trè	treh	very, to a high degree
57	panse	pahn-seh	to think
58	gade	gah-deh	to look, watch
59	plis	plees	more, a greater amount
60	ede	eh-deh	to help
61	kapab	kah-pahb	can, to be able to
62	liy	leey	line (long thin mark; row)
63	anvan	ahn-vahn	before, earlier than
64	menm	menm	same, identical
65	diferan	dee-feh-rahn	different, not the same
66	son	sohn	sound, noise
67	non	nohn	no (opposite of yes)
68	pifò	pee-foh	most, the majority
69	nimewo	nee-meh-woh	number (numeric quantity)
70	dwat	dwaht	right (direction, opposite of left)
71	anwo	ahn-woh	over, above
72	vye	vyeh	old (worn; aged)
73	tou	too	also, too
74	pase	pah-seh	than (comparison)
75	rele	reh-leh	to call (summon; be named)
76	premye	prem-yeh	first (ordinal 1st)
77	fraz	frahz	sentence (grammatical unit)
78	twa	twah	the number 3
79	desann	deh-sahn	down (to go down)
80	bò	boh	side (left/right side)
81	lè	leh	air (what we breathe)
82	kounye a	koon-yeh ah	now, at this moment
83	jwenn	zhwen	to find, discover
84	nenpòt	nen-poht	any (no matter which)
85	jwe	zhweh	to play (games; music)
86	fen	fen	end, final part
87	pati	pah-tee	part, portion
88	mete	meh-teh	to put, place
89	lakay	lah-kahy	home (where one lives)
90	plas	plahs	place, location
91	deplase	deh-plah-seh	to move (relocate)
92	viv	veev	to live (be alive)
93	tè	teh	land, earth
94	apre	ah-preh	after, following
95	tounen	too-nen	back (to return)
96	ti kras	tee krahs	a little, a small amount
97	sèlman	sehl-mahn	only, no more than
98	wonn	wohn	round, circular
99	nonm	nohnm	man, adult male
100	dwe	dweh	must, to have to

Show all 100 wordsShow the first 20

Curated for learners: Haitian has no reliable public frequency corpus, so this list is ordered by usefulness, not by measured frequency. Pronunciation is a respelling guide, not phonetic notation.

Turn this list into flashcards Learn Haitian online How spaced repetition works

Frequently asked questions about Haitian words

How many Haitian words do you need for a basic conversation?

Across languages, a small core of words does most of the work in everyday speech: the first few hundred words carry the bulk of simple conversation. You can manage basic exchanges with a few hundred words; this list is the foundation to build on.

What is the fastest way to memorize these 100 words?

Spaced repetition: review each word just before you would forget it, at growing intervals. It moves vocabulary into long-term memory far faster than rereading a list. Turn the 100 words into flashcards and review a small batch daily; the whole list fits into two to three weeks.

Are 100 words enough to speak Haitian?

No. One hundred words let you recognize the skeleton of most sentences, but not hold a real conversation. They are the right starting point: after this list, keep growing your core vocabulary and start speaking practice early, even with simple phrases.

Where does this Haitian word list come from?

It is curated for learners rather than corpus-ranked: Haitian has no reliable public frequency corpus, so we selected the words that unlock everyday sentences and ordered them by usefulness. These are essential words, not a measured frequency ranking.