Nigerian Pidgin grammar
Generated from the engine's own marker tables and rule list, so this page cannot drift away from what the translator actually does. The “rendered” column is live output.
About the language
English-lexifier creole of Nigeria. Tense and aspect are carried by pre-verbal markers (dey, don, go, bin) rather than inflection; 'na' is the equating copula; 'no' is the all-purpose negator.
- Endonym
- Naija / Broken
- ISO 639-3
pcm- Speakers
- ~120 million (L1 + L2), Nigeria and diaspora
- Rules
- 64 forward, 30 reverse
Pronouns
| English | Subject | Object | Possessive |
|---|---|---|---|
| i | I | me | my |
| you | you | you | your |
| he | e | am | im |
| she | e | am | im |
| it | e | am | im |
| we | we | us | our |
| they | dem | dem | dem |
| you (plural) | una | ||
- e — 3rd-person singular subject, all genders
- am — 3rd-person singular object, all genders
- una — 2nd-person plural — 'you people'
- dem — 3rd-person plural, and the post-nominal plural marker
Tense, aspect, mood and the copulas
the core of the system| Slot | Marker | Meaning | English | Nigerian Pidgin (live) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Progressive | dey | ongoing action | I am eating | I dey chop |
| Completive | don | finished action, still relevant | I have eaten | I don chop |
| Future | go | action to come | I will eat | I go chop |
| Past | bin | anterior reference | I was eating | I bin dey chop |
| Habitual past | bin dey | used to do | I used to eat | I bin dey chop |
| Negator | no | all-purpose negation | I do not eat | I no chop |
| Negative perfect | neva | not yet | I have not eaten | I neva chop |
| Ability | fit | can / is able to | I can eat | I fit chop |
| Obligation | gats | must / have to | I must eat | I gats chop |
| Advisory | suppose | should | I should eat | I suppose chop |
| Desire | wan | want to | I want to eat | I wan chop |
| Equating copula | na | X is a Y | This is my house | Dis na my house |
| Locative copula | dey | X is at Y | He is here | E dey here |
| Existential | e get | there is / there are | There is food | E get food |
| Hortative | make we | let's | Let us go | Make we go |
| Complementizer | say | introduces a reported clause (English "that") | I think that he is lying | I think say e dey lie |
| Relative marker | wey | who / which / that after a noun | The man who came | Di man wey come |
| Plural marker | dem | post-nominal plural | the children | Di pikin dem |
| Intensifier | well well | placed after the adjective | very good | Fine well well |
| Comparative | pass | a serial verb: "X big pass Y" | bigger than | Big pass |
Every forward rule, in priority order
64 rulesThe engine tries these top to bottom at each position, after looking for a multiword idiom and before falling back to the lexicon. Negation sits above the positive forms deliberately, and the copula rules are ordered from most specific to least.
| # | Rule | What it does | Gloss shown |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | let-us |
"let us / let me" → hortative | hortative |
| 2 | a-lot-of |
"a lot of / lots of / plenty of" → bare quantifier | quantifier |
| 3 | too-many |
"too much / too many" → intensified quantifier | quantifier |
| 4 | neg-future |
"will not V" → negative future | negative future |
| 5 | neg-ability |
"cannot V / could not V" → negative ability | negative ability |
| 6 | neg-perfect |
"have not V-en" → not yet (negative perfect) | negative perfect |
| 7 | neg-obligation |
"must not / should not V" → prohibition | prohibition |
| 8 | neg-do |
"do/does/did not V" → bare negator (tense is unmarked) | negation |
| 9 | neg-do-bare |
imperative "do not V" → bare negator | negative imperative |
| 10 | neg-progressive |
"is not V-ing" → negated progressive | negative progressive |
| 11 | neg-there-be |
"there is no X" → "X <negative existential>" (the subject moves front) | negative existential |
| 12 | neg-cop-loc |
"is not <place>" → negative locative copula | negative locative copula |
| 13 | neg-cop-prep |
"is not in/at/on …" → negative locative copula | negative locative copula |
| 14 | neg-cop-np |
"is not a/the/my …" → negative equating copula | negative equating copula |
| 15 | neg-cop-adj |
"is not <adjective>" → bare negator, copula dropped | negation, zero copula |
| 16 | neg-have-possession |
"has no / have no" → negative possession | negative possession |
| 17 | fut-going-to |
"be going to V" → future | future |
| 18 | fut-will |
"will/shall V" → future | future |
| 19 | perfect-progressive |
"have been V-ing" → completive + progressive | perfect progressive |
| 20 | perfect-been-to |
"have been to <place>" → completive + go | experiential perfect |
| 21 | perfect-been |
"have been <here / sick …>" → completive + locative copula | perfect copula |
| 22 | perfect |
"have/has V-en" → completive | completive aspect |
| 23 | past-perfect |
"had V-en" → completive (anterior) | anterior completive |
| 24 | prog-present |
"am/is/are V-ing" → progressive | progressive aspect |
| 25 | prog-past |
"was/were V-ing" → past progressive | past progressive |
| 26 | used-to |
"used to V" → habitual past | habitual past |
| 27 | have-to |
"have to / has to / had to V" → obligation | obligation |
| 28 | need-to |
"need to V" → obligation | obligation |
| 29 | want-to |
"want to V" → desiderative | desire |
| 30 | able-to |
"be able to V" → ability | ability |
| 31 | modal-can |
"can/could V" → ability | ability |
| 32 | modal-must |
"must V" → obligation | obligation |
| 33 | modal-should |
"should / ought to V" → advisory | advisory |
| 34 | modal-may |
"may/might V" → possibility (expressed as ability) | possibility |
| 35 | modal-would |
"would V" → conditional | conditional |
| 36 | there-be |
"there is / there are" → existential | existential |
| 37 | relative |
"the man who / that / which …" → relative marker | relative clause marker |
| 38 | wh-subject-prog |
"what / who is V-ing" (wh-word as subject) → wh + progressive | progressive, wh-subject |
| 39 | wh-subject-prog-past |
"what / who was V-ing" → wh + past progressive | past progressive, wh-subject |
| 40 | wh-what-be |
"what is / what are" → interrogative with equating copula | interrogative copula |
| 41 | wh-who-be |
"who is / who are" → interrogative with equating copula | interrogative copula |
| 42 | wh-be-drop |
"where is / how is / when is" → copula dropped after wh-word | zero copula after wh-word |
| 43 | cop-locative |
"is here / is at …" → locative copula | locative copula |
| 44 | cop-locative-prep |
"is in / is at / is on …" → locative copula | locative copula |
| 45 | cop-stative |
"is finished / is broken" → completive (a resulting state) | resultant state |
| 46 | cop-adj-drop |
"is <adjective>" → zero copula | zero copula before adjective |
| 47 | cop-past-adj-drop |
"was <adjective>" → past marker, zero copula | past, zero copula before adjective |
| 48 | cop-past-locative |
"was here / was at …" → past locative copula | past locative copula |
| 49 | cop-equating |
"is a/the/my <noun>" → equating copula | equating copula |
| 50 | cop-equating-bare |
"is <noun phrase>" → equating copula (default) | equating copula |
| 51 | cop-past |
"was / were" → past copula | past copula |
| 52 | comparative-er-than |
"<adj>-er than X" → comparison | comparative |
| 53 | comparative-more-than |
"more <adj> than X" → comparison | comparative |
| 54 | superlative |
"the most <adj> / the <adj>-est" → superlative | superlative |
| 55 | very-adj |
"very / really <adj>" → intensifier | intensifier |
| 56 | indef-article |
"a / an <noun>" → bare noun (no indefinite article) | no indefinite article |
| 57 | possessive-s |
"<noun>'s" → bare juxtaposition (no genitive marker) | zero genitive |
| 58 | listen-to |
"listen to X" → "hear X" (no preposition) | transitive listen |
| 59 | infinitive-to |
"to V" (surviving infinitive) → infinitive marker | infinitive marker |
| 60 | comp-that |
"think / know / say that <clause>" → complementizer from "say" | complementizer |
| 61 | comp-bare |
"I think he …" (no "that") → the complementizer is still required | complementizer |
| 62 | comp-bare-ambiguous |
"I think you are / it is …" → complementizer before a finite clause | complementizer |
| 63 | know-how-to |
"know how to V" → knowledge verb | acquired skill |
| 64 | tag-right |
"…, right?" / "…, isn't it?" → clause-final tag | tag question |
Orthography and sources
Spelling is not standardised. This engine writes a widely-readable 'Naija' orthography and shifts towards phonetic spellings at the 'street' register.
- Faraclas, N. (1996) Nigerian Pidgin, Routledge Descriptive Grammars
- Mensah, E. (2011) Lexicalization in Nigerian Pidgin
- Naijá orthography proposals, Mazidi & Esizimetor (NAIJA Languej Akedemi)