Afrikaans grammar

This article covers the grammar of Afrikaans , one of the eleven official languages in South Africa and a recognized minority language in Namibia . Originally it was the language of the Afrikaans-speaking white immigrants from Europe, who referred to themselves as Boers . Today, Afrikaans is mostly the mother tongue of the so-called Coloreds ("colored people"). To distinguish between the terms colored and black see Demography of South Africa .

Verbs

Present

There is no difference in Afrikaans between the infinitive and the present tense of the verb . The verb forms are the same in all persons and numbers . There are only two verbs in the present tense that differ from the infinitives: wees (to be) and hê (to have):

infinitive	loop	wees	hê	to run	be	to have
Present	Afrikaans			German
1. Sg.	ek loop	ek is	ek het	I walk	I am	I have
2nd Sg.	jy loop	jy is	jy het	you run	you are	you have
3rd Sg. (Mask.)	hy loop	hy is	hy het	he runs	he is	he has
3rd Sg. (Fem.)	sy loop	sy is	sy het	she runs	she is	she has
3rd Sg. (Neutr.)	dit loop	dit is	dit het	it runs	it is	it has
1st pl.	ons loop	ons is	ons het	we run	we are	we have
2nd pl.	julle loop	julle is	julle het	you're walking	you are	do you have
3rd pl.	shell loop	hulle is	hulle het	they run	you are	They have
Courtesy form	u loop	u is	u het	they run	you are	They have

Perfect

There is only one past tense, the perfect tense . This is formed with the auxiliary verb hê and the prefix ge , which precedes the infinitive.

Afrikaans	German
Ek het ge loop.	I ran. (or I ran. )
Ek het ge gaan.	I walked. (or I left. )

For verbs with the prefixes verb , be , ont- and her- , the ge is omitted :

Afrikaans: Hulle het verkoop.

German: They sold. (or you sold. )

In verbs with other prefixes, the ge is placed between the prefix and the stem.

Afrikaans: Ek het af ge haal.

German: I picked up. (or I picked up. )

With exactly eight verbs, there is also a past tense in addition to the perfect tense:

infinitive	past	infinitive
Afrikaans		German
wees	What	be
hê	had	to have
can	con	can
moet	moes	have to
wil	wou	want
sal	sou	become
weet	wis	knowledge
dink	dog	think

Future tense

The future tense is regularly formed with the auxiliary verbs gaan (for intentions) and sal (for events that cannot be influenced) and the infinitive :

Afrikaans	German
Ek gaan môre lees.	I will read tomorrow.
Ons sal sien.	We will see.

Conditional (subjunctive)

The conditional is regularly formed with the past tense of the auxiliary verb sal and the infinitive:

Afrikaans	German
Ek sou wees.	I would.
Ons sou sien.	We would see (or We would see. )

imperative

The affirmative imperative corresponds to the infinitive , both in the you form and in the you form.

Afrikaans	German
Wees bly!	Be happy! (or be happy! )
Gaan nou ate!	Go now please! (or go now please! )

The negated imperative is formed by inserting moenie ... nie (similar to the English don't ).

Afrikaans	German
Moenie never!	Do not go! (or don't go! )
Moenie vra hoe sy dit never doen!	Do not ask (or Do not ask ) how she did it!

passive

In the present tense the passive is formed by word 'to be' + ge + infinitive, in the perfect by is + ge + infinitive:

Afrikaans	German
Julle word gesien.	You are seen.
Julle is gone.	You have been seen.

In the written language, even a past perfect is possible here:

Afrikaans: Julle was gesien.

German: You were seen.

Participles

Which is as already mentioned participle perfect passive formed by overall as a prefix to the infinitive depends (only exception: Hê - gehad ).

The present participle is formed by adding -ende to the infinitive. The spelling rules must be observed here:

sing - singers 'sing'

hang - hanging 'hang'

sien - sienende 'see'

loop - lopende 'run' ( aa, ee, oo, uu become a, e, o, u when followed by a single consonant and vowel)

lag - laggende 'laugh' (a single consonant at the end of a word is doubled if it is preceded by a, e, o, u )

Irregular

wees - synde 'to be'

hê - lifting 'have'

These forms are only used adjectivally :

Afrikaans: the lagging child

German: the laughing children

For adverbial use, the infinitive is doubled:

Afrikaans: The kinders het lag-lag the straat afgegaan.

German: The children went down the street laughing.

Nouns

items

Afrikaans has no grammatical gender . There is only one specific article ( the ) for singular and plural (see English the ):

the child - the children

The indefinite article 'n , (pronounced as an unstressed e ) is comparable to the English a or an . It is also immutable. Like its German translation (ein / ein) it is only used in the singular.

Plural formation

The most common plural ending is -e :

voet - voete 'foot'

aarbei - aarbeie 'strawberry'

mountain - mountains 'mountain'

Similar spelling rules apply here as for the formation of the present participle: The long vowels aa, ee, oo, uu become a, e, o, u when followed by a single consonant ; a single consonant at the end of a word is doubled if it is preceded by a simple a, e, o or u :

keel - kele 'throat'

oor - ore 'ear'

minuut - minute 'minute'

sap - sap 'juice'

wet - bet 'law'

stuk - stukke 'piece'

Nouns that end in the singular with a long vowel + -d or -g usually lose this:

oog - oë 'eye'

vlieg - vlieë 'fly'

vfluguig - vflyuie 'plane'

tyd - tye 'time'

vraag - vrae 'question'

also: oorlog - oorloë 'war'

A -f at the end of the word after a long vowel becomes -w- :

olyf - olywe 'Olive'

Some nouns form their plural on -s . This includes all diminutives :

voël - voëls 'bird'

table - table 'table'

koppie - koppies 'cup'

liedjie - liedjies ' little song'

Few nouns form the plural with -ers or -ere :

kind - kinders 'child'

egg - egg 'egg'

song - song 'song'

Case system

In Afrikaans there is no longer a morphological case system for nouns . Instead of case endings on the noun, Afrikaans marks the direct and indirect object, sometimes with prepositions (vir) , and the relationship, which corresponds to a genitive assignment , with a subsequent se . In the personal pronouns there is also the distinction between the subject case and the object case , e.g. B. ek 'I' (subject case) - my 'me' or 'me' (object case).

Afrikaans	German
Hy het dit (vir) my gesê.	He told me .
Leer (vir) my the name van die bome .	Teach me the names of the trees .
The man se hond.	The man's dog .
My seun se naam.	My son's name .

Adjectives

Adjectives always precede the noun in the attributive position. They are then usually appended with an -e taking into account the same spelling rules as for the plural formation of the noun:

swart - swarte 'black'

vinnig - vinnige 'quickly'

stupid - dowe 'deaf'

koud - koue 'cold'

breed - breë 'broad'

laag - lae 'low'

hoog - hoë 'high'

Also note:

Adjectives on a single vowel + -g are attached to -te (exception is the ending -ig ):

sleg - sleg 'bad'

Adjectives on single vowels + -f , add -e , the f becomes -ww- :

laf - lawwe 'stupid'

Irregular

goed - goeie 'good'

oud - ou / oue 'old'

nuut - nuwe 'new'

In the predicative position, the adjective remains unchanged.

The lawwe child. 'The stupid kid.'

The child is laf. 'The child is stupid.'

increase

In the comparative of the adjective , -er is added to it, taking into account the same spelling rules as in the predicative form of the adjective. Adjectives in r depend -the of, adjectives in -ig and -lik not double the final consonant. In the superlative, -ste is always appended, a possible -t at the end is omitted:

positive	comparative	superlative	German
mooi	mooier	mooiste	beautiful
bly	blyer	blyste	glad
lekker	lekkerder	most delicious	enjoyable
duur	duurder	thirsty	expensive
lelik	leliker	likste	ugly
foolish	vinnier	most sensible	fast
skeef	skewer	skeefste	crooked
laf	lawwer	let	stupid
sleg	slegter	slegste	bad
laat	later	load	late
koud	kouer	koudste	cold
may	moeër	like	tired
dik	thicker	dikste	thick

Words with three or more syllables, usually with a prefix, are increased as follows:

positive	comparative	superlative	German
tevrede	sea tevrede	mees tevrede	satisfied

positive	comparative	superlative	German
Irregular forms of increase
goed	prayers	best	Well
baie	sea	most	much
min	less	minste	little
well	nuwer	nutste	New
naby	nader	naaste	close

Pronouns

When it comes to personal pronouns, a distinction is made between subject pronouns and object pronouns (a last remnant of the inflection). The possessive pronouns come before the noun and remain unchanged.

	subject	object	possessive pronouns
1st person Sg. ("I")	ek	my	my
2nd person Sg. ("You")	jy	jou	jou
3rd person Sg., Male ("he")	hy	hom	sy
3rd person Sg., Female ("she")	sy	hair	hair
3rd person Sg., Neuter ("it")	dit	dit	sy
1st person Pl. ("We")	ons	ons	ons
2nd person Pl. ("Her")	julle	julle	jul / julle
3rd person Pl. ("She")	shell	shell	hul / hulle
Politeness ("you")	u	u	u

negation

The word never denies 'not'.

Ek never understood it. 'I do not get it.'

A specialty of Afrikaans is the double negative. This rule says that the last word never has to be in a negative sentence .

Ek het dit never understood. 'I did not understand it.'

Ons het niks gesien never. 'We didn't see anything.'

Hy sal nie kom nie, omdat hy siek is. 'He won't come because he's sick.'

Hy sal never come, omdat hy never will never. 'He won't come because he doesn't want to.'

Individual evidence

^ The Grammatika van Standaard-Afrikaans, JL van Schoor, Kaapstad en Johannesburg 1983, p. 353
^ A Grammar of Afrikaans, Bruce C. Donaldson, Berlin - New York 1993, p. 123

[1] The Grammatika van Standaard-Afrikaans, JL van Schoor, Kaapstad en Johannesburg 1983, p. 353

[2] A Grammar of Afrikaans, Bruce C. Donaldson, Berlin - New York 1993, p. 123