Papiamento · Tips

Small rules that make Papiamento click.

Fifteen short notes on spelling, grammar, and the words that trip people up — drawn from the island's own reference works.

Spelling

How the words are written.

Why “c” in cas but “s” in sino?

Papiamento keeps the etymological spelling principle — the letter c stays where the word's origin used it (cas, haci), even though it sounds like Spanish or English “c” would elsewhere.

§5, letter c

One word, or two?

Bon dia and bon nochi stay separate — but combos like bonbini and bonbida fuse into one word. The rule: once a phrase has its own fixed meaning, it's written as one.

§11.9

The apostrophe marks a missing sound

When a sound drops out, Papiamento marks it with an apostrophe instead of silently deleting it: mi a bay → m'a bay, tecla ta cumpra e auto → tecla ta cumpr'e auto.

§10

Numbers 11–99 are one word

Bintiseis, trintidos — no space, no hyphen. Above 100 they split apart again: dos shen y trintiseis.

§11.8

“sh” vs. “ci” — same sound, different job

The [sh] sound is spelled two ways depending on grammar: sh in native words (shon, cushina), but ci in nouns ending in -cion (accion, educacion).

§5, sh

Double vowels are rare, but real

A handful of words keep a double vowel because it's genuinely pronounced that way: creencia, posee, provee — and their forms poseedo, proveedo.

§2.1

The letter “g” can sound two ways

Before a, o, u it's a hard [g]: garganta, gosa. Before e or i it softens toward Spanish “j”: gesto, gitano, mag.

§5, letter g

“au” vs. “ou” — one sound, one rule

Both spell the same [ɔu] sound. Use au in the first syllable of a word (aumento, clausura) — ou everywhere else (cambou, dou, blous).

§3.2

Grammar

How the words fit together.

The plural “-nan” isn't always needed

Papiamento often skips the plural suffix when a noun already implies “many” — general statements, indefinite amounts, or a number attached: porco ta gusta come sushi (pigs, generally), hopi auto (many cars).

§2.3.1

So when do you add “-nan”?

Mainly three cases: the noun follows e (the), it follows a possessive (mi cosnan), or it follows a demonstrative (e cosnan ey).

§2.3.2

Where does “-nan” go in “the big houses”?

Either spot works: e casnan grandi or e cas grandinan. But string more than one adjective together, and it only goes on the noun: e casnan grandi, bunita y barata.

§2.3.4.1

Papiamento mostly skips gender

Unlike Spanish, nouns aren't grammatically masculine or feminine. Gender only shows up when talking about people or animals — and even then, it's a separate word or ending, not a noun class.

§2.4

Compound nouns can split the plural two ways

For words like mashin di cose (sewing machine), -nan can attach to either half: e mashinnan di cose or e mashin di cosenan.

§2.3.4.3

Spelling and grammar entries follow the official Ortografia di Aruba (2009) and the Manual di Gramatica. The section reference appears on each card.

False Cognates

Words that look familiar, and aren't.

These two entries are awaiting orthography sign-off before they are considered final.

14Pending review

“Once” isn't “once”

It looks like the English word — but in Papiamento, once is simply the number 11.

15Pending review

“Embarazá” isn't embarrassed

As in Spanish, embarazá means pregnant — not embarrassed.