Following are some examples of the way that Kriol and English grammars are different. These differences do not mean that Kriol is wrong, just different.

African Syntactic Structure

The following example shows how basic Kriol grammar more closely follows the grammar of the African languages from which it developed rather than English. Yoruba is one of many language spoken in West Africa which may have been a source for the origin of Kriol grammar.

While all three languages begin with a question word, Yoruba and Kriol add an emphasis marker (EMP) to emphasize that the phrase is a question. English follows with a verb (did) which established the tense for the verb, Yoruba and Kriol mark the tense right before the main verb. All three languages then insert a pronoun. Next, Yoruba and Kriol use a past tense marker preceding the verb, English uses an irregular verb that doesn’t show tense. All three languages end with a pronoun. Whenever Yoruba and English differ, Kriol follows the grammar of Yoruba.

Contrast of Copula Forms (the ‘to be’ Verb)

Kriol has two obviously related forms, English has five seemingly different forms:

Kriol makes the distinction of a locative copula, English doesn’t.

Elimination of Copula

In adjectival constructions, the copula can be eliminated in Kriol, but not in English.

 

Contrast of Prepositions

English uses three different prepositions for which Kriol would use one.

Contrast of Meaning for ‘fi/fo’

The Kriol word ‘fi’ (sometimes pronounced ‘fo’) is used to convey several different meanings for which English must use different words or phrases:

 

Contrast of Pronouns

For the following phrase Kriol uses what in English would be considered a subject pronoun, while English uses an object pronoun.

Contrast in Question Structure

In the structure of a question, as in the following example, Kriol puts the verb at the end of the question, but English puts the verb in the middle and a pronoun at the end.