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Afrikaans grammar |
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This article describes the grammar of Afrikaans, a language spoken in South Africa and Namibia from the Indo-European, West Germanic, Low Franconiane language family, [1] which arose at the southern tip of Africa under the influence of various other languages and language groups. [2]
The article discusses, among other things, the various synonyms for Afrikaans concepts, common language errors, spelling patterns, the compound and non-compound spelling of words and writing and punctuation marks. It also discusses abbreviations and acronyms, the different types of parts of speech that one finds in Afrikaans, gender, plural and diminutive as well as intensive forms, loanwords and language concepts. The article also focuses on the different parts of speech found in the Afrikaans language, syntax and sentence analysis, gives an overview of literary terminology and finally focuses on figurative and rhetorical language and literary stylistic devices.
Like in a lot of languages, there are regional spoken dialects of Afrikaans, but a standardised written form. Standardised Afrikaans is also the form used in dictionaries and most magazines and newspapers written in Afrikaans.
Adjectives describe nouns, e.g. die nuwe skool (the new school).
In Afrikaans adjectives can be inflected, e.g. bv. nuut – nuwe; (new – new). They can also have degrees of comparison, e.g. nuut; nuwer en nuutste (new (determinative); newer (augmentative) and newest (superlative)) AND they can also sometimes have intensive forms, such as splinternuut (brand new). (Note: intensive forms are always written as one word)
The adjective can be attributive – it comes before the noun, e.g. die nuwe skool (the new school) - OR predicative – it comes after the noun. e.g. die skool is nuut (the school is new.)
Adjectives may, however, be inflected when they precede a noun. As a general rule, polysyllabic adjectives are normally inflected when used as attributive adjectives. Monosyllabic attributive adjectives may or may not be inflected, depending on the historical forms of the adjective. Inflected adjectives retain the ending "-e" and for some adjectives, word-final consonants that were lost in attributive uses are retained. For example, the final "t" following an /x/ sound that deleted in predicative uses in like reg (cf. Dutch recht), is retained when the adjective is inflected (regte). A similar phenomenon applies to the apocope of "t" after /s/. For example, the adjective vas becomes vaste when inflected. Conversely, adjectives ending in "-d" (pronounced /t/) or "-g" (pronounced /x/) following a long vowel or diphthong, lose the "-d" and "-g" when inflected. For example, look at the inflected form of:
Predicative | Gloss | Attributive | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
goed | good | goeie | |
laag | low | lae | |
hoog | high | hoë | (a diaeresis is used to mark a syllable break) |
In some exceptional cases, after the syncope of the intervocalic consonant, there is also an additional apocope of the inflection marker. For example,
Broadly speaking, the same morphological changes that apply to inflected adjectives also apply in the formation of the plural of nouns. For example, the plural of vraag (question) is vraë (questions).
Adverbs are used with the following:
No grammatical case distinction exists for nouns, adjectives and articles.
Definite Article(s) | Indefinite Article | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Gloss | Afrikaans | Dutch | Gloss | Afrikaans | Dutch |
the | die | de/het | a(n) | ʼn | een/ʼn |
Conjunctions join words and sentences together, e.g. Hulle werk soggens en saans. (They work in the morning and in the evening. ) Dit is koud, want dit is winter. (It is cold, because it is winter.)
These typically express feelings, e.g. Siestog, is jy siek? (Poor thing, are you sick?) Eina, jy trap op my voet! (Ouch, you are stepping on my foot!)
Nouns can be used with "‘a" and "the" and can have plural and diminutive forms.
Nouns in Afrikaans have no inflectional case system, [3] and do not have grammatical gender. However, there is a distinction between the singular and plural forms of nouns. The most common plural marker is the suffix "-e", but several common nouns form their plural instead by adding a final "-s". A number of common nouns have irregular plurals:
English | Afrikaans | Dutch |
---|---|---|
child, children | kind, kinders | kind, kinderen |
woman, women | vrou, vroue (vrouens) | vrouw, vrouwen |
shirt, shirts | hemp, hemde | hemd, hemden |
Afrikaans has both cardinal numbers denoting quantity and ordinal numerals denoting the order of an item in a sequence.
Cardinal numbers:
Ordinal numbers:
Prepositions are used to express a relationship between things.
These can take the place of nouns.
Remnants of the case distinction remain in the pronoun system. [3] For example,
Subject Pronouns | Object pronouns | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Afrikaans | Dutch | English | Afrikaans | Dutch | English |
ek | ik | I | my | mij/me | me |
jy/u | jij/u/gij [a] | ye [a] /you (SG) | jou/u | jou/u | you (SG) |
hy/sy/dit | hij/zij/het | he/she/it | hom/haar/dit | hem/haar/het | him/her/it |
ons | wij | we | ons | ons | us |
julle | jullie/gij [a] | you (PL) | julle | jullie | you (PL) |
hulle | zij [b] | they | hulle | hen | them |
No case distinction is made for the plural pronouns. There is often no distinction between object and possessive pronouns when used before nouns. For example,
An exception to the previous rule occurs in the third-person singular masculine and neuter forms, where Afrikaans clearly distinguishes between hom ("him") and sy ("his"). Similarly, the neuter pronoun dit ("it" as subject or object) is distinct from the possessive sy ("its"). Notably, the pronoun hy ("he") can also be emphatically applied to inanimate objects, much like the use of gendered language in English for instance, in the slogan of the Rooibaard hot sauce brand: "Hy brand mooi rooi" ("He burns beautifully red"), referring to the product's intense spiciness. For 3rd person plural pronouns, whereas hulle can also mean their, a variant hul is frequently used to mean "their" so as to differentiate between their and they/them. Similarly, julle when meaning your has a possessive variant jul.
There are different kinds of verbs in Afrikaans.
Can stand alone in a sentence.
With the transitive main verb the action of the doer is transferred to the recipient, e.g. Sy doen haar werk. The word doen (do) is the transitive main verb here, because the action of doing is happening to the work. You can test this by asking who (for people) and what (for things) together with the subject and predicate, e.g. Wat doen sy? (What is she doing?) The answer is haar werk (her work) and that is the object in the sentence.
With the intransitive main verb there is no recipient of the action, e.g. Die kind werk hard. (The child works hard.) Hence, there is no recipient of the work action.
Particle verbs/separable verbs can be used as one word or separated in a sentence. E.g. unseparated verb: Jy moet opstaan. (You have to get up.) Separated: Jy staan vroeg op; (You get up early) or jy het vanoggend vroeg opgestaan (you got up early this morning.) (Note that the word in the past tense gets the –ge- between the two parts.)
They cannot exist independently and are linked to a word or part of a sentence, e.g. Hy lyk vrolik. (He looks cheerful.) Sy is mooi. (She is beautiful.) More examples of inking verbs: is, was, word, lyk, blyk, skyn, klink, heet, bly, voel.
They cannot act alone in sentences, but must support the main verb.
There are only 3 main verb tenses (and a 4th that is sometimes used) in Afrikaans.
There is no distinction for example between the infinitive and present forms of verbs, with the exception of these two verbs:
infinitive form | present indicative form | English |
---|---|---|
hê | het | have |
wees | is | be |
This phenomenon is somewhat akin to English verbs, since infinitives are mostly equivalent to verbs in the simple tense, except in English singular 3rd person forms, in which case an extra -s is added.
In addition, Afrikaans verbs do not conjugate differently depending on the subject. For example,
Afrikaans | Dutch | English |
---|---|---|
ek is | ik ben | I am |
jy/u is | jij/u bent | you are (SG) |
hy/sy/dit is | hij/zij/het is | he/she/it is |
ons is | wij zijn | we are |
julle is | jullie zijn | you are (PL) |
hulle is | zij zijn | they are |
For most verbs, the preterite (e.g. I watched) has been completely replaced by the perfect (e.g. I have watched), or in storytelling by the present tense (i.e. the use of a historical present, which is sometimes also employed in Dutch). The only common exceptions to this are the modal verbs (see the following table) and the verb wees "be" (preterite form was).
Present form | Preterite form | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Afrikaans | Dutch (3SG) | English | Afrikaans | Dutch (3SG) | English |
kan | kan | can | kon | kon | could |
sal | zal | shall (will) | sou | zou | should (would) |
moet | moet | mote (must) | moes | moest | must (had to) |
mag | mag | may | mog (arch.) | mocht | might (was allowed to) |
wil | wil | will (want to) | wou | wilde / wou | would (wanted to) |
The following four full verbs also have (rarely used) preterite forms:
Afrikaans | Dutch (3SG) | English | ||
---|---|---|---|---|
present | preterite | present | preterite | |
dink | dag / dog | denkt | dacht | think |
het | had | heeft | had | have |
weet | wis | weet | wist | know |
word | werd | wordt | werd | become |
Several verbs have irregular perfect forms which are used alongside regular forms, sometimes with different meanings:
Afrikaans | Dutch (3SG) | English | |||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
present | perfect | present | perfect | ||
irregular | regular | ||||
baar | gebore | gebaar | baart | gebaard / geboren | bear, give birth |
dink | dag(arch.)/dog | gedink | denkt | gedacht | think |
oorly | oorlede | oorly | overlijdt | overleden | die |
sterf | gestorwe (arch.)/gesterwe | gesterf | sterft | gestorven | die |
trou | getroud | getrou | trouwt | getrouwd | marry |
The verb baar (to bear, to give birth) has two past participles: gebaar and gebore. The former is used in the active voice ("she has borne") and the latter in the passive voice ("she was born"). This is akin to Dutch, in which the verb baren has the past participles gebaard and geboren, with a similar distinction. Compare also the distinction between English born and borne.
Modern Afrikaans also lacks a pluperfect (e.g. I had watched). Instead, the pluperfect, like the preterite, is expressed using the perfect.
The perfect is constructed with the auxiliary verb het + past participle, which—except for the verb hê (past participle gehad), separable verbs such as reghelp (past participle reggehelp) and verbs with beginnings such as "ver-" and "ont-" (verkoop, ontmoet are both infinitive and past participle)—is formed regularly by adding the prefix "ge-" to the verb's infinitive/present form. For example,
An object is necessary in this case, otherwise it implies that the subject (ek) is broken.
The future tense is in turn indicated using the auxiliary "sal" + infinitive. For example,
The conditional is indicated by the preterite form "sou" + infinitive. For example,
Like other Germanic languages, Afrikaans also has an analytic passive voice that is formed in the present tense by using the auxiliary verb word (to become) + past participle, and, in the past tense, by using the auxiliary is + past participle. For example,
Formal written Afrikaans also admits the construction of was gemaak to indicate passive voice in the pluperfect, which in this case corresponds to had been made. The meaning of the sentence can change based on which auxiliary verb is used (is/was), e.g. is gemaak implies that something has been made and is still in existence today, whereas was gemaak implies that something had been made, but was destroyed or lost.
The present participle is normally formed with the suffix -ende (kom/komende), but sometimes it is irregular (wees/synde, hê/hebbende, sterf/sterwende, bly/blywende), although this is considered archaic for function verbs. Sometimes there is a spelling change to the root which does not affect the pronunciation (maak/makende, weet/wetende)
The verb wees uniquely has subjunctive forms, although they are seldom ever used in the present day: sy is the present subjunctive form, and ware is the past subjunctive form.
A morpheme is any of the smallest meaningful constituents within a linguistic expression and particularly within a word. [4] Many words are themselves standalone morphemes, while other words contain multiple morphemes; in linguistic terminology, this is the distinction, respectively, between free and bound morphemes. The field of linguistic study dedicated to morphemes is called morphology.
A root (also called root word, or radical) is the smallest part of a word that has independent meaning. It is the basic form of the word to which prefixes or suffixes can be added to form complexes.
Roots are composed of only one morpheme, but stems can be composed of more than one morpheme.
Affixes (prefixes and suffixes) only occur in compound words, e.g.heldedaad (heroic deed), kinderboek. (children's' book). Affixes have no meaning value, but only serve to connect words.
Affixes in Afrikaans can:
Diacritics form part of the word and punctuation marks are written between words.
Diacritical marks (or accents) used in Afrikaans are the diaeresis, hyphen, circumflex, apostrophe as well as other accent marks added to letters. Diacritics are used to indicate the pronunciation of certain letters.
The apostrophe is used with plural forms and diminutives :
In Afrikaans the circumflex (a cap or upwards arrow above a letter) is used on the vowels o, i, e and u:
The diaeresis (two dots above a letter) is used with:
A hyphenated word is still one word in Afrikaans.
Hyphens are used:
Punctuation marks make reading easier. Examples of punctuation marks used in Afrikaans are commas, periods / full stops, semicolons, quotation marks, exclamation marks, question marks, colons, parenthesis, and ellipsis.
The period is used at the end of a sentence and with abbreviations.
The comma is used:
The semicolon:
The colon is used:
Quotation marks are used:
The question mark is used after a question, e.g. Waar is jy? (Where are you?)
The exclamation mark is used after commands, exclamations, wishes and warnings, e.g. As ek net vroeër begin leer het! (If I had just started studying earlier!) Pasop! (Watch out!)
Parentheses are used to add something to or into a sentence, e.g. Hy sal die tiende (Dinsdag) hier wees. (He will be here on the tenth (Tuesday).)
The dash is used as a stylistic device:
The ellipsis consists of only three dots and is used to emphasize something that is dramatic or indicates doubt, e.g. Ek moes nooit alleen gegaan het nie... (I should never have gone alone...)
There are four fundamental principles for Afrikaans spelling or reasons why words are spelled in a certain way:
a, e, i, o, u
All the other letters of the alphabet
Also known as a gliding vowel or a vowel glide, is a combination of two adjacent vowel sounds within the same syllable. [5] You can feel your mouth changing the sound: ou, oei, ooi, y, ei, eeu, oi, ui, ai, aai
Sounds that look like diphthongs, but are only vowels: ie, oe, eu. Your mouth does not change when you pronounce the sounds. Remember the rhyme; ' die toe deur ' (the closed door). They look like diphthongs, but are vowels.
Open syllables end in a vowel or diphthong, e.g. dro-me (dreams), meeu-e (gulls).
Closed syllables end in a consonant, e.g. tuin (garden), skool (school).
The consonant doubled when:
When a short vowel does not carry the main stress, it is not doubled, e.g., huwelike (marriages), heerlike, (delightful).
In words like seunskool (boys' school) and meisieskoen (girls' shoe), only one –s is written, because it is seun+skool and meisies+skoen.
Words that are one concept are written as one word in Afrikaans (unlike in English), e.g. Afrikaansonderwyser (Afrikaans teacher).
A hyphenated word also counts as one word.
Thus, compounds are written as one word, e.g.
More rules:
Numbers can be written in a number of different ways, compound or not: drie en twintig OR drie-en-twintig (twenty-three); twee duisend twee honderd OR tweeduisend tweehonderd (two thousand two hundred)
Afrikaans has a strict word order, described in many South African textbooks using the so-called "STOMPI rule". The name of the rule indicates the order in which the parts of a sentence should appear.
S | v1 | T | O | M | P | v2 | I |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Subject | First verb | Time | Object | Manner | Place | Second verb | Infinitive |
Word order in Afrikaans follows broadly the same rules as in Dutch: in main clauses, the finite verb appears in "second position" (V2 word order), while subordinate clauses (e.g. content clauses and relative clauses) have subject–object–verb order, with the verb at (or near) the end of the clause.
Afrikaans | Dutch | English |
---|---|---|
Hy is siek. | Hij is ziek. | He is sick. |
Ek weet dat hy siek is. | Ik weet dat hij ziek is. | I know that he is sick. |
As in Dutch and German, infinitives and past participles appear in final position in main clauses, split from the corresponding auxiliary verb. For example,
Relative clauses usually begin with the pronoun "wat", used both for personal and non-personal antecedents. For example,
Alternatively, a relative clause may begin with a preposition + "wie" when referring to a personal antecedent, or an agglutination between "waar" and a preposition when referring to a non-personal antecedent.
A particular feature of Afrikaans is its use of the double negative. For example,
Both French and San origins have been suggested for double negation in Afrikaans. While double negation is still found in Low Franconian dialects in West-Flanders and in some "isolated" villages in the centre of the Netherlands (i.e. Garderen), it takes a different form, which is not found in Afrikaans. The following is an example:
Afrikaans | Dutch | English |
---|---|---|
Ek wil dit nie doen nie. | Ik wil dit niet doen. | I do not want to do it. |
*Compare with "Ek wil nie dit doen nie", which changes the meaning to "I do not want to do this specific thing." Whereas "Ek wil dit nie doen nie" emphasises the unwillingness to act, "Ek wil nie dit doen nie" emphasises the unwillingness to do the specified action.
The double negative construction has been fully integrated into standard Afrikaans and its proper use follows a set of fairly complex rules as the examples below show:
Afrikaans | Dutch | English |
---|---|---|
Ek het nie geweet dat hy sou kom nie. | Ik heb niet geweten dat hij zou komen.1 | I did not know that he would be coming |
Ek het geweet dat hy nie sou kom nie. | Ik heb geweten dat hij niet zou komen.² | I knew that he would not come. |
Ek het nie geweet dat hy nie sou kom nie. | Ik heb niet geweten dat hij niet zou komen.³ | I did not know that he would not come. |
Hy sal nie kom nie, want hy is siek. | Hij zal niet komen, want hij is ziek.4 | He will not be coming because he is sick. |
Dis (Dit is) nie so moeilik om Afrikaans te leer nie. | Het is niet zo moeilijk om Afrikaans te leren. | It is not so difficult to learn Afrikaans. |
The word het in Dutch does not correspond to het in Afrikaans. The het in Dutch means it in English. The Dutch word that corresponds to het in Afrikaans (in these cases) is heb.
Note that in these cases, most Dutch speakers would say instead:
No. | Dutch | English |
---|---|---|
1 | Ik wist niet dat hij zou komen. | I knew not that he would come. |
2 | Ik wist dat hij niet zou komen. | I knew that he would not come. |
3 | Ik wist niet dat hij niet zou komen. | I knew not that he would not come. |
4 | Hij komt niet, want hij is ziek. (or more commonly Hij komt niet omdat hij ziek is.) | He does not come because he is sick. |
A notable exception to this is the use of the negating grammar form that coincides with negating the English present participle. In this case there is only a single negation.
Afrikaans | English |
---|---|
Hy is in die hospitaal, maar hy eet nie. (lit. ...he eats not.) | He is in hospital, but he isn't eating. |
Certain words in Afrikaans arise due to grammar. For example, moet nie, which literally means "must not", usually becomes moenie; although one does not have to write or say it like this, virtually all Afrikaans speakers will change the two words to moenie in the same way as do not shifts to don't in English.
In many cases, gendered words are less significant now, as, for example, a director can be of any gender — male or female. However, there are still some terms in Afrikaans where gender distinctions are maintained, such as:
Most plurals in Afrikaans are formed by adding –e or –s to the singular form. Examples:
Diminutives can be created in Afrikans in several ways:
With most adjectives, the degrees of comparison are formed with the help of suffixes. The degrees are:
e.g. sag → sagter → sagste (soft → softer → softest) ; koud → kouer → koudste (cold → colder → coldest); mooi → mooier → mooiste (beautiful → more beautiful → most beautiful)
When a word is emphasised, an intensifier can be used. Intensifiers can be seen as grammatical expletives.
In Afrikaans the result is written as one word, e.g. bloedrooi (blood red), grasgroen (grass green), pikswart (pitch black).
Some words have more than one intensifier, but they don't have the same meaning, e.g. fyn (fine): ragfyn sydrade (delicate silk threads); haarfyn( deeglike) beplanning (hair-fine (thorough) planning); piekfyn uitgevat (looking amazing (in clothing)); papfyn perske (very fine peach).
Also helder (clear): glashelder rivier of argumente (crystal-clear river or arguments); kristalhelder water (crystal-clear water); klokhelder stem (bell-clear voice.)
All languages borrow words from other languages, which are then either used as is or slightly changed.
Afrikaans has borrowed many words from Dutch that we understand well; from the Khoi languages (e.g. karee (karee), dagga (marijuana), kwagga (quagga)); from Malay-Portuguese (bobotie (bobotie - a South African traditional dish), blatjang (chutney), piesang (banana), piering (saucer), spens (pantry)); from African languages (lobola (dowry), mamba (mamba - a type of snake), pasella (free)); from German (bank (bank), stoel (chair), poedel (poodle)); from French (garage (garage), restaurant (restaurant), plafon (ceiling)); from Latin (especially legal terms, such as modus operandi (mode of operation)); from Portuguese, Spanish, Italian, Persian, Greek and English: gholf (golf), trein (train), speaker (speaker), parlement (parliament).
are words that are new to a language, often as a result of new technology, such as internet terms eg. e-pos (email).
are no longer commonly used, but still exist in older writings, such as the words for items of use from the past e.g. Japons (archaic form of Japans (Japanese)).
occurs when two expressions that mean almost the same thing are used as one word or expression, e.g. betref (concerning): aangaan and betref; in pleks van (in lieu of): in plaas van + in plek van
is the repetition of the same concept in one word, e.g. kabeltou (cable rope): kabel = tou; brokstuk (fragment): brok = stuk
is the repetition of the same concept in a phrase e.g. dooie lyk (dead body), ronde sirkel (round circle). (This is not good language usage).
is the formation of words after the example of words that are related, e.g. hondmak (dog-tame) is the intensifier for mak (tame), but the word hond (dog) is also used as an intensifier in many other words, which have nothing to do with a tame dog, e.g. hondmoeg (dog-tired), hondsiek (dog-sick).
means that words sometimes have many meanings, but they still have something to do with each other, e.g. huis (house) can be the place where you live, it can be the church; it can be a royal house, it can be used in an idiom, like die huis op horings neem (taking the house by the horns). Or the word skool (school) and how many meanings the word can have: place of instruction, building, you hate or like school, sports teams, etc. (The word part poly- means many and –semy has to do with meaning)
Remember the following: the collective noun: 'n skool visse (a school of fish) has nothing to do with a school, therefore it is written as a separate word.
differ in meaning, but have the same pronunciation and spelling, e.g. a haas (hare) has two long ears and you have to haas (hurry) to be on time. Also: food is duur (expensive); something can also duur lang (take long). The stove works with gas (gas); you are my gas (guest) today.
are words that sound the same, but the spelling and meaning differ, e.g. something is as heavy as lood (lead); the twig has made a new loot (bud). More examples: verys/vereis (iced/required); vlei/vly (flatter/fly); vel/fel (skin/fierce); vier/fier (four/celebrate).
are words with the same meaning, e.g. basis/grondslag (basis/grounds); pragtig/lieflik/mooi (beautiful/lovely/pretty).
are words with the opposite meaning, e.g. aanval/verdedig (attack/defend); mooi/lelik (pretty/ugly); vroeg/laat (early/late).
are words that are derived from the same root, but the compound and meaning differ. These are also called stem-related words, e.g. We are bewoners (citizens) of the earth. They are inwoners (residents) of the home.
We are getrou (faithful) to our principles. We vertrou (trust) our parents to give us the best.
Reviewers give a kritiese (critical) judgment about movies. He is in a kritieke (critical) condition after the accident.
Doublets have two forms of the root word that do not have the same meaning, e.g. The old man smokes tabak (tobacco). You talk twak (nonesense).
The boom (handle) of the saucepan is uneven. The bodem (bottom) of the swimming pool is scabby.
We like to braai vleis (meat). His poor performance is a thorn in my vlees (flesh).
Traditionally, periods are used with abbreviations. However, there are exceptions.
Some guidelines for abbreviations in Afrikaans:
An acronym is a type of abbreviation consisting of a phrase whose only pronounced elements are the initial letters or initial sounds of words inside that phrase.
In Afrikaans acrononyms can be written in uppercase or lowercase, e.g. VIGS or vigs (verworwe immuniteitsgebreksindroom - AIDS (acquired immune deficiency syndrome)); SARVU of Sarvu (Suid-Afrikaanse Rugbyvoetbalunie - South African Rugby Football Union).
Many of the concepts you will learn in Afrikaans have synonyms. This will be indicated each time. This means you can use any one of the concepts:
Grammatical errors can be found in advertisements every day. One of the most horrible is uitmis (to miss out on). This is often used in sentences such as: Moenie uitmis op die geleentheid nie. (From the English: Don't miss out on the opportunity.) A much better sentence would be: Moenie die geleentheid laat verbygaan nie. (Don't let the opportunity pass you by.)
Some more common grammatical errors: