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#2Sranan Tongo by John
Sranan TongoEnglish

Ai, Disi foto! Den singi nanga den bronki
Syen nanga moi fu en kafti en
Agen, Mi ben go abra dat' leki ini wan dreng
Ini a alakondre neti, di den faya ben brong
Ini a dungru, mi ben shi brenki tapun fu fesi
Tangitangi, tangitangi, dya - disi gudu - fa warti?
Ini a dungru, den fesi leki ini den anansitori moi
Waka psa, lafufesi - Bai!
Den bigimemre skotriki waka lekti
Den froyti dat' ben lafufesi, èn den gitara dat' ben dyeme
Wan prit'priti pikin, kibri ini a neti,
frei safri leki wan pikin fremusu
Wan weti umapikin tyari leki lalabrede
Klari den ede, pe den poku prei
èn leki ini a bigi nesi fu anansi
Den sma ini a draikolku kisi futu

Ah, this city! Songs and laurels(lit. flowers)
Her shame and beaty cover her(lit. of her cover her, thats how sranan works :p)
Again, I went throught that as in a dream
In the multicolored night, when fires burned
In the darkness, I saw shiny masks(masks lit. Cover of face)
Please please, here - this property - what worth?
In the darkness, faces like in beautiful fairytales(workaround word, sranan doesn't have fairytales, lit. Fable)
Passing by, smiling - Buy!!!
Proud soldiers march tactfully(Sranan doesn't have a word for tactfully, so easily was used in place)
Smiling flutes, and groaning bass
A Tattered kid, hiding in the night,
Quietly flying like a small bat
A white girl handles matters like dough
over heads, where music sounds(lit. plays, had to work around again)
and like in a huge spider web
People in the swirl(eddy) disappeared from me(Kisi futu is an idiom when something disappears)

  • Ai - Ah!
  • Disi - this
  • Foto - city
  • Singi - song
  • Nanga - with/and
  • Bronki - flower/laurel
  • Syen - shame
  • Moi - beauty/lovely/stunning
  • Kafti - to cover
  • Agen - Again
  • Abra - through
  • Dat' - that
  • Leki - like
  • Ini - In
  • Dren - dream (noun can also be used as a verb,(not here though) will explain more later)
  • Alakondre - multicolored/many colors
  • Neti - Night
  • Di - when
  • Faya - fire
  • Bron - to burn
  • Dungru - Darkness
  • Shi - to see
  • Brenki - Shiny
  • Fesi - face
  • Tapun - cover
  • Tangitangi - please
  • Dya - here
  • Gudu - Property/domain/land
  • Fa - How/what
  • Warti - Worth/Value
  • anansitori - fable/fairytale
  • waka - to walk
  • psa - by
  • Bai - to buy
  • Bigimemre - proud
  • Skotriki - soldier/warrior
  • lekti - easy/easily
  • Froyti - flute
  • lafufesi - smile
  • èn - and
  • Gitara - bass
  • dyeme - groan
  • Man - man
  • prit'priti - Tattered/beaten up
  • Frei - to fly
  • Safri - Quietly/softly
  • Fremusu - Bat
  • Uma - woman
  • -pikin - Suffix added on to words to denote the littler/younger version of it, can also be a seperate word by itself in front of another noun which means "small" or "child/kid"
  • Weti - White
  • Tyari - handles
  • lalabrede - dough
  • Klari - Over
  • Ede - head
  • Pe - where
  • Poku - song
  • Prei - play/sound
  • Bigi - big/large/huge
  • Nesi - Nest/Animal's home/Web
  • anansi - spider
  • Sma - person/human being
  • draikolku - Eddy/swirl/puff (see here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eddy_(fluid_dynamics) )
  • Kisi futu - Idiom used when something disappears (i.e. walks off)

Sranan (also Sranan Tongo or Sranantongo "Surinamese tongue", Surinaams, Surinamese, Suriname Creole, Taki Taki) is a creole language spoken as a lingua franca by approximately 500,000 people in Suriname. The grammar is easy to learn and there are no irregular verbs.

In Sranantongo there is no conjugation and verbs are also used as nouns, for instance:

  • To think - Denki
  • Thought - Denki
  • To rent - Yuru
  • Rent - Yuru

Articles:

  • House - Oso
  • The house - A oso
  • A house - Wan oso
  • Houses - Den oso
  • Note: 'Wan' also means 'one'.
  • 'Den' is the plural marker.

Pronouns(they are both Subject and Object pronouns, I'll explain the Possesive pronouns later)

  • Mi - I/me
  • Yu - You
  • En - He/she/it && him/her
  • Juli/Yuli - You(plural)
  • Den - They/them (also the indefinite plural article, context helps!!)
  • Wi - We/us

Possesive pronouns: For example, “fu mi” means “my”, and it is placed after the noun. “Fu” literally means “of”, so “ede fu mi” means “my head” or “head of mine”.

Why is there an extra "g" at the end of some of the lines? For example "Agen, Mi ben go abra dat' leki ini wan dreng". In Sranan tongo, an extra g is added to the end of a sentence (well in this case, stanza) when the last word of the sentence or stanza ends with the letter N. You don't do this to the pronouns, though.

For tenses, you add words before the verb:

To put a verb in the past tense you add 'ben' before the verb:

  • You worked - Yu ben wroko

Present tense adds no words

To put a verb into present continuous you add "e" before the verb:(i don't think i used this tense)

  • You are working - Yu e wroko

I think that that's all you need, if you have any more questions or if I forgot to explain something, PM me anytime and I'll be happy to explain it! Boeng koloku!