If you are learning Haitian Creole, you may have searched the Internet for a dictionary to look up words you don’t know. While a few of them are available, they tend to be incomplete or outdated. Thankfully, I came across an excellent dictionary made by the now-defunct Bryant C. Freeman from the University of Kansas. The last edition was published in the beginning of the 2010s and is available for free on the Internet. It is split into three volumes that make up over 1,000 pages and it is the closest thing I have found to an exhaustive dictionary for Haitian Creole.
- The Creole-English version can be downloaded by clicking here.
- The English-Creole version can be downloaded by clicking here.
Unfortunately, I have encountered two problems with this dictionary. The first one is that some computers might struggle to read the PDF files since they are so big. For instance, I cannot read them with Acrobat Reader on my Windows computer because it lags so much. Instead, I have to use a software called SumatraPDF. The second issue is that the search function doesn’t appear to work properly with the PDF files, so I have to browse them manually. That being said, the dictionary is so exhaustive that these issues are not a deal breaker to me.
Other resources
I must admit that the title of this article is somewhat of a clickbait. Yes, Freeman’s dictionary is extensive, but it has a few blind spots. Below, you will find the complementary dictionaries that I recommend. They are all much smaller in scope, but I have found them to be useful when Freeman’s dictionary couldn’t help me.
- Jean Targète and Raphael G. Urciolo’s dictionary. Translations are available in English.
- Haiti-Référence’s website. Translations are available in English and French.
- Creole101’s website. Translations are available in English, French, Spanish and Portuguese.
Master the basics of Haitian Creole
Do you need help mastering the basics of Haitian Creole? Then, I recommend that you go through Pimsleur’s program. They have courses for many languages, including Haitian Creole, for which they offer thirty lessons of about 30 minutes each. They will give you a solid foundation in the language and you will be able to challenge yourself with more advanced content. Pimsleur also offers a 7-day free trial.