This article describes the grammar of Afrikaans, a language in the Low Franconian family spoken primarily in South Africa and Namibia, which arose in the Dutch Cape Colony under the influence of various other languages and language groups.Afrikaans
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 word 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.
Standardised Afrikaans As is the case with many languages, there are regional spoken dialects of Afrikaans, but there is also a standardised written form. Standardised Afrikaans is the form used in dictionaries and most magazines and newspapers written in Afrikaans.
Lexical categories Adjectives Adjectives describe nouns, e.g. die nuwe skool (the new school).
In Afrikaans, adjectives can be inflected, e.g. nuut vs nuwe (both new', but in predicative vs attributive form). They can also have degrees of comparison, e.g. nuut; nuwer en nuutste (new (determinative); newer (augmentative) and newest (superlative)). They can also sometimes have intensive forms, such as splinternuut (brand new). Intensive forms are always written as one word.
The adjective can be attributive, coming before the noun, e.g. die nuwe skool (the new school), or predicative, coming 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 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 . For example, the adjective vas becomes vaste when inflected. Conversely, adjectives ending in "-d" (pronounced ) or "-g" (pronounced ) following a long vowel or diphthong, lose the "-d" and "-g" when inflected. For example, look at the inflected form of:
Predicative Gloss Attributive Notesgoed good goeielaag low laehoog 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,
oud (old) – ou (when it precedes a noun)
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 Adverbs are used with the following: Verbs, e.g. Die kind werk hard. (The child works hard.) Adjectives, e.g. Die boek is besonder mooi. (The book is particularly beautiful.) Counting words: e.g Daar was ongeveer twintig deelnemers. (There were about twenty participants.) Other adverbs, e.g. Refentse sing besonder mooi. (Refentse sings particularly beautifully.)
Articles 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 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.)
Types of conjunctions Coordinating conjunctions connect sentences without changing the word order after the conjunction from a regular sentence, e.g. Hy is moeg, want hy leer hard. (He is tired, because he is studying hard.) Subordinating conjunctions bring about a change in the word order after the conjunction, e.g. Sy rus, omdat sy moeg is (She is resting, because she is tired.)
Interjections Interjections 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 Nouns can be used with "‘a" and "the" and can have plural and diminutive forms.
Classification Proper noun is the name of a person or place or object and is written with a capital letter, e.g. Thuli, Pretoria. Common nouns can be plural or sometimes have a gender. Abstract nouns indicates concepts that cannot be touched, e.g. liefde (love), haat (hate). Collective nouns: indicates a collection, e.g. n swerm voëls (a flock of birds) or n skool visse (a school of fish). Uncountable nouns indicate something that cannot be counted, e.g. goud, sand, water, suiker (gold, sand, water, sugar). Measuring nouns are used with nouns to indicate quantity, e.g. 'n emmer sand, 'n koppie melk (a bucket of sand, a cup of milk).
Nouns in Afrikaans have no inflectional case system, 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 Dutchchild, children kind, kinders kind, kinderenwoman, women vrou, vroue (vrouens) vrouw, vrouwenshirt, shirts hemp, hemde hemd, hemden
Numbers Afrikaans has both cardinal numbers denoting quantity and ordinal numerals denoting the position of an item in a sequence.
Cardinal numbers: Definite cardinal number: Daar was tweehonderd gaste. (There were two hundred guests.) Indefinite cardinal number: Daar was baie toeskouers. (There were many spectators.) Ordinal numbers: Definite ordinal number: Die tweede klaskamer is gesluit. (The second classroom is locked.) Indefinite ordinal number: Die middelste vertrek is die personeelkamer. (The middle room is the staff room.)
Prepositions Prepositions are used to express a relationship between things.
Free prepositions: These are freely interchangeable, e.g. Die kleuter sit op/onder/by/langs die stoel. (The toddler is sitting on/under/by/next to the chair.) Fixed prepositions: Only certain words can be used in these fixed expressions, e.g. Die skelm is op heter daad betrap. (The crook was caught in the act.) Ek is besig met my werk. (lit. I am busy with my work.)
Pronouns
Pronouns can take the place of nouns. Personal pronouns replace the noun. e.g. Hy (in plaas van die seun) doen sy werk. (He (instead of the boy) does his work.) Dummy pronouns are often found with natural phenomena, e.g. Dit reën. (It is raining. ) Daar was eendag 'n liewe heksie. (There was once a dear little witch.) Possessive pronouns indicate possession, e.g. Ek lees jou boek.(I am reading your book. ) Myne is weg. (Mine is gone.) (Also: syne, hare, ons s’n, hulle s’n, etc.) Interrogative pronouns form questions: Wie is daar? (Who is there?) (Also: wat, waar, hoe, hoekom, waarom). Relative pronouns further describe the noun, e.g. Die stoel waarop ek sit, is hard. (The chair on which I sit is hard.) (Also: waaruit, waarmee, waarin, wie se, wat.) Indefinite pronouns do not refer to anyone or anything specific, e.g. Iemand het die deur gesluit. (Someone locked the door. (Also: niemand, almal, diegene). Reciprocal pronouns indicate that the person or thing performing and undergoing the action is the same, e.g. Ek vererg my. (I get annoyed.) Hy skaam hom .(He feels embarrassed) Reciprocal pronoun (only the word mekaar): Hulle help mekaar. (They help each other).
Remnants of the case distinction remain in the pronoun system. For example,
+Personal pronouns Subject pronouns Object pronouns Afrikaans Dutch English Afrikaans Dutch Englishek ik I my mij/me mejy/u jij/u/gij ye/you () jou/u jou/u you ()hy/sy/dit hij/zij/het he/she/it hom/haar/dit hem/haar/het him/her/itons wij we ons ons usjulle jullie/gij you () julle jullie you ()hulle zij 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,
my – my, me ons – our (the alternative form onse is now considered archaic)
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.
Verbs There are different kinds of verbs in Afrikaans.Independent verbs/main verbs can stand alone in a sentence.
With a 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 an 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.)Linking verbs 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.Auxiliary verbs cannot act alone in sentences, but must support the main verb. Auxiliary time verb: het, e.g. Ek het my werk gedoen. (I have done my work.) (het = auxiliary verb; gedoen = main verb) Auxiliary manner verb: kan, kon, wil, wou, sal, sou, moet, moes, mag (can, could, want to, would, would, would, would, must, must, might) e.g. Ek wil goed presteer. (I want to perform well.) (wil = auxiliary verb; presteer = main verb) Auxiliary form verb: word, is (becomes, is) e.g. Die kind word gehelp. / Die kind is gehelp. (The child is / was helped.) This is a way to indicate the passive form. There are only 3 main verb tenses (and a 4th that is sometimes used) in Afrikaans.
Present tense - When something is happening now, regularly or is a fact, e.g. Ons skryf toets. (We write a test.) Past tense - For something that has already happened, e.g. Ons het vanoggend toets geskryf (We wrote a test this morning.) Future tense - Used for something that has yet to happen, e.g. Ons gaan / sal môre toets skryf. (We are going to / will write a test tomorrow.) The present tense is often also used here, e.g. Ons skryf môre toets. (We are writing a test tomorrow.).