Translate Jamaican Patois (Patwa) to and from your language with AI. Slang and everyday expressions are read in context, not word by word.
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Patois is the everyday language of Jamaica. Linguistically it is an English-lexified creole: most of its vocabulary comes from English, but its grammar is its own and was shaped by West African languages. It is a language in its own right, not broken English.
It is a casual greeting, roughly "what's going on?" or "how are you?". Common replies include "Mi deh yah" (I'm here / I'm good) and "Everyting irie" (everything's fine). "Mi deh yah" is a good example of why context matters: on its own it means "I'm here", but as an answer to a greeting it means "I'm doing alright".
No. Patois has grammar English does not: tense and aspect are marked with separate words (mi a go = I am going), "fi" works like "to", and plurals and pronouns follow their own rules. Speakers also switch between Patois and English mid-sentence, which is why this translator reads a whole sentence instead of translating word by word.
It is AI translation, so treat it as a good draft rather than a verified answer. Everyday phrases and common slang come out reliably; rare slang, wordplay and very short messages are where it can slip. When a sentence is genuinely ambiguous the tool says so instead of guessing, and adding context usually fixes it.
Not in everyday use. Patois is mostly a spoken language and people spell it by ear, so "Mi deh yah", "mi deh ya" and "mi de ya" all appear. A systematic phonemic orthography does exist (the Cassidy-JLU system) and is used in academic work. This translator accepts spelling variants rather than rejecting them.
Natural gives just the idiomatic translation and is the default. Literal adds a word-for-word rendering, which helps when you are learning the grammar. Explain also adds tone, cultural nuance and a breakdown of any slang. You can also add a line of context — for example "a message from a friend" — which often changes the translation entirely.
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