No. 2 IN L.P.T. SERIES ON : ENJOYING GOOD KREOL

HINT: Learn to be Precise!
Let’s start with a question, just so you can check how precise you are. What is the Kreol for the French “la table”? Write down your answer? …
 Most people will say “latab”. But, however spelt, that would be wrong. So, think again, before reading on.
 In fact, “la table” is translated into Kreol by “latab la”.
 There are two important parts to the French expression “la table” and to the Kreol expression “latab la”: a meaning part – what the word relates to in the world – and a grammatical part. The noun “latab” (table in French) contains the meaning. The “la” after it, is the grammatical word. (In French the “la” is before the “table”.)
 And there is a huge conceptual difference between “latab” (that is to say the word “table” in English) which is an abstract symbol for a concrete object, and “latab la” (“the table”) meaning a specific one-and-only table.
 The Kreol “latab” is “table” in French. Again, “latab” does not mean “la table”, which is, as we are beginning to see, a very different matter.
 “Latab” (Kreol) or “table” (French and English) means the concept or idea of the thing, or the totality of all such things. It is very abstract. Whereas, “latab la” or “la table” or “the table” refer to a particular, mutually understood, actually existing table.
 
Background issues around Kreol “articles” (“the” in English), and how they affect spelling
One aspect of spelling (a phenomenon peculiar to writing) is knowing where to break language into words.
 In Kreol, the definite article, as we have seen, is “la” and it comes after the noun.
                               
            sez la = the chair
            mowsi la = the maternal aunt
            lipye la = the foot
            kompyuter la = the computer
            jip la = the jeep
            lafnet la = the window
            kurpa la = the snail
            latab la = the table

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