Afrikaans/Lesson 01

= Lesson One: The Basics #1 — Les Een: Die Grondbeginsels #1 = Welcome to Afrikaans Lesson One. This course will focus heavily on translation and reading in order to further your knowledge in a shorter span of time. In far later lessons, we will start the lesson with the dialogues, but for now, we shall start with the grammar of the language. The chapter vocabulary section is where one can find the stress markers of words that appear throughout the lesson. Still, if you still need to practice basic Afrikaans pronunciation or need to get familiar with the idea of stress markers, we recommend using the Pronunciation page. This lesson will cover similarities between English and Afrikaans, the use of articles, subject and object pronouns, and infinitive and present tense verbs.

I. Similarities Between English and Afrikaans
As both Afrikaans and English stem from the West Germanic family, obvious similarities exist in syntax, vocabulary and word formation. This fortune allows for Afrikaans to be a simple language for English speakers to grasp.

Spelling Comparison
Apart from direct cognates, spelling patterns can be ascertained too. Though none of these rules are etched in stone and each word should be studied carefully, these commonalities definitely make acquiring certain Afrikaans words much easier. Any word here indicated with a stress marker does not need immediate attention is not necessary, while some without a stress marker will reappear latter in this lesson.
 * The English suffix, -tion, often translates to the Afrikaans suffix, -sie.
 * Examples: poˈsisie (position), ˈaksie (action), konˈdisie (condition)
 * Some monosyllabic Afrikaans words containing the letter, g often correspond to an English, y. This trend continues with the particularly noticeable Afrikaans adjectival suffix, -ig.
 *  ' G ' Examples: geel (Yellow), dag (day), weg (way), vlieg (to fly), oog (eye)
 *  ' -ig ' Examples: ˈheilig (holy), ˈsonnig (sunny), ˈysig (icy), ˈbesig (busy)
 * Some Afrikaans words beginning with sk-, are akin to English, sh-.
 * Examples: skip (ship), ˈskaduˌwee (shadow), skoen (shoe)
 * If there are words that are the same in both languages, an English hard c is usually equivalent to an Afrikaans k with few exceptions:
 * Examples: kamoeˈflage (camouflage), kalaˈmari (calamari)

II. Determiners: Articles
The definite article in English is the, which in Afrikaans, is die.
 * "Die man." ('The man.'); "Die kind." ('The child.'); "Die rivier in die woud." ('The river in the forest.')

English's indefinite article, a/an both become ŉ (pronounced as [ ə]) in Afrikaans. Whenever a sentence begins with the indefinite article, the spelling rule associated declares that the noun, proper noun or adjective that directly follows must be capitalized.
 * "ŉ Vrou." ('A woman.'); "ŉ Tafel." ('A table.'); "ŉ Seun en ŉ meisie." ('A boy and a girl.')

A. Subject Pronouns (Nominative Case)
Afrikaans, like English, follows a simplistic SVO (Subject - Verb - Object) word order. The subject of a sentence refers to who/what is doing an action.


 * I know him. → Ek ken hom.

Though the subject rules are essentially the same as in English, there are two things to note on formality of conversation:


 * 1) When in an informal context, julle and hulle can be shortened to jul and hul.
 * 2) * They talk to him. → "Hulle praat met hom." is the same as "Hul praat met hom.", though the latter is more informal. (NOTE: speak/talk to → praat met)
 * 3) The formal, u (pronounced as [ œ]), functions like a plural, but refers to both singular and plural. This form is used to show respect and is used toward one's superiors (a boss or teacher, for instance), to a stranger, to older people or to the Christian God. When in reference to the Christian God, it is capitalized as U.

B. Object Pronouns (Oblique Case)
The object of a sentence describes who/what the action is directed towards. Unlike German or Russian, Afrikaans, like English, does not distinguish between the Direct Object (Accusative Case) and Indirect Object (Dative Case). Thus, all objective pronouns remain the same.
 * I know him. → Ek ken hom.

It should be noted that every plural object pronoun (including u) is the exact same as its subject form.
 * She forgets you. → Sy vergeet u.
 * He understands them. → Hy verstaan hulle/hul.

IV. Practicality: Greetings and Phrases
Afrikaans greetings are used in the exact same contexts as English ones, though with more attention to formality. When in an informal context, you might greet someone with a "haai" rather than a "hallo" or a "goeiedag". For instance, goeienaand is used when greeting a person during the evening while goeienag is used when leaving; No different from English.

A small thing to note is that the 'Good [x]' forms below exist as one word when posed as an interjection/greeting (Good afternoon! = Goeiemiddag!), but the form becomes two words when talking about a good part of the day (It was a good afternoon.' = "Dit was ŉ goeie middag.").

In later lessons, the different given forms in the notes will be expounded on and will make sense to the learner (eg. Why Good becomes Goeie). For now, just learn the forms as given.

The Infinitive
The infinitive, sometimes referred to as the verb's 'dictionary form', is formed in English by adding 'to' before the verb's present participle. The infinitive is the form of a verb without a subject or specific tense.


 * to walk, to sleep, to eat.

In Afrikaans, the infinitive form is formed by adding 'om te' before the participle.


 * om te loop, om te slaap, om te eet.

The Present Simple and Present Continuous
Fortunately, Afrikaans has extremely simple conjugation. If you look at every present form in every countable person, you will notice that the verb and its participle NEVER change. There is no direct distinction between verb forms of the present simple or present continuous.


 * I (am) eat(ing) an apple. → Ek eet ŉ appel.
 * I (am) sleep(ing). → Ek slaap.

However, it must be noted that there are literal ways to describe the continuous, and we shall cover it in future lessons. Another thing to know is that there are two very common verbs that deviate completely from the conjugation's common ruleset: "om te wees" (' to be ') and "om te hê" (to het' '), which we'll cover in the next lesson.

VI. Chapter Vocabulary
This is the chapter's main vocabulary. By the next chapter, you should well know these words as they are all quite common. Still, one should take note of the example words used in the grammatical explanations and try to keep them in mind as they will appear in the exercises too.

VII. Chapter Dialogues
Almost every lesson, two different dialogues related to the material of the lesson is provided to get the learner familiar with the material at hand. Having reviewed this lesson's notes, you should be able to understand the grammatical structure. If you must look at the vocabulary and its stresses above or at the translation below, do so as sparingly as possible.

Exercise A: Translate into English:
Translate these sentences into English.
 * Goeienaand en goeienag.
 * Die dag is sonnig.
 * Die woud is mooi in die somer.
 * My naam is Japie, en hier is my vriend, Valerie.
 * Hul werk op ŉ skip.
 * Waar is my ander skoen?
 * Een, Vyf, Nege, Ses, Sewe, Twee

Exercise B: Translate into Afrikaans:
Translate these sentences into Afrikaans.


 * Hello, my name is Sally. Pleased to meet you.
 * The river is icy in the winter.
 * The madam lives here.
 * You (plural) eat an apple.
 * We are sleeping.
 * Hi! Where is the boss?
 * You (formal) see him.

The Next Lesson
In the next lesson, we shall cover plurals, the past and future tenses, the verbs "om te wees" and "om te hê" and possessive pronouns and determiners. Good luck on your studies! On to Lesson Two!>>