Tuesday, August 26, 2008
Tutorial: Afrikaans
Pronouns:
Subject/nominative:
I - ek
you - jy
he - hy
she - shy
it - dit
we - ons
you - julle
they - hulle
polite you - u
Object Pronouns
me - my
you - jou
him - hom
her - haar
it - dit
we - ons
you - julle
they - hulle
polite you - u
Possesive Pronouns:
mine - myne
yours - joune
his - syne
hers - hare
its - s'n
ours - ons s'n
yours - julle s'n
theirs - hulle s'n
polite yours - u s'n
Possesive Adjectives:
my - my
your - jou
his - sy
hers - haar
its - sy
our - ons
your - jul/julle
their - hul/hulle
your polite - u
Verbs
Present Tense:
In Afrikaans there is no difference between the infinitive and the present forms of the verb. The verb forms are alike in all persons and numbers. Only two verbs have irregular present forms: wees (its) and hê (have):
to be: wees
am/are/is - is
to have: hê
has/have - het
Past Tense:
There is only one past form, the perfect. This in an constructed with the auxiliary verb hê and the prefix ge, which precedes the infinitive.
I ran/I have run: Ek het geloop.
I went/I have gone: Ek het gegaan.
Verbs with the prefixes en, ont and ago don't take the ge.
They sold/They have sold: Hulle het verkoop.
Verbs with other prefixes push the ge between the prefix and the stem.
I got/I have got: ek het afgehaal.
The eight irregular past tense forms are:
to be - wees - was
to have - hê - had
can, to be able to - kan - kon
must - moet - moes
to want - wil - wou
to become (get) - sal - sou
to know - weet - wis
to think - dink - dog/dag/gedog/gedag (all acceptable)*
*Normally gedink but dog is used for an erroneous supposition (or to be under the impression) like "I thought you did it - Ek het gedog jy het dit gedoen"
Future Tense:
The future is formed usually formed with the infinitive an the auxiliary verbs gaan (with intentions) and sal (those without previous intentions):
I will read tomorrow - Ek gaan môre lees.
We will see - Ons sal sien.
Conditional Tense:
The conditional is formed with normally the infinitive with the past form of the auxiliary verb sal:
I would be: Ek sou wees
We would see: Ons sou sien.
Imperative (Commands) Tense:
The affirmative imperative corresponds to the infinitive, both in the you form and in the they form.
Be glad! - Wees bly!
Go now please! - Gaan nou asseblief!
The negative imperative is formed by placing moenie before the verb and nie after
Don't go! - Moenie gaan nie!
Don't ask how she made that! - Moenie vra sy dit gedoen het nie!
Passive Tense:
In the present the passive is formed with word + ge + infinitive, in the past with is + ge + infinitive.
You are seen - Julle word gesien
You were seen - Julle is gesien
*In formal written Afrikaans, was + past is posssible, as a pluperfect tense (he had seen).
You had seen - Julle was gesien.
Participle
to form the past participle (Look at the singing dog!) add -ende the infinitive
to sing - sing - singende
to hang - hang - hangende
to see - sien - sienende
to walk - loop - lopende (aa, ee, oo, and uu become a, e, o, or u if one consonant follows)
to laugh - lag - laggende (a final posiiton individual consonant is doublled if a, e, o, or u comes before it)
The irregular forms are:
to be - wees - synde
to have - hê - hebbende
Negation
Afrikaans is know for its double-nie (never) to say no (which must be the last word. 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.
I don't understand it - Ek verstaan dit nie.
We saw nothing - Ons het niks gesien nie.
He won't come because he is sick - Hy sal nie kom nie, omdat hy siek is.
He won't come becausse he is not well - Hy sal nie kom nie, omdat hy nie wil nie.
Conjunctions
There are three classes of Afrikaans conjunctions. Class 1 keeps the SVO word order. Class 2 changes the following clause to SOV. In the third class, the entire predicate is put to the end.
Conjunction 1 example:
My dogs run and my cats sleep - My honde hardloop en my kate slaap.
Conjunction 2 example:
You are mean thus I can't help you - Jy is laat daaroom kan ek jou nie help nie
Conjunction 3 example:
She is hungry because she didn't eat all day - Sy is honger omdat sy nie hele dag eet nie.
The conjuction because is represented by omdat and want. They are interchanged colloquially but formally the difference is that omdat links two parts of a sentence and want acts independantly (and want is a group 1 conjuction and omdat a group 3).
Jasper sleeps, because if he does not get some rest, he will get sick - Jasper slaap, want as hy nie rus kry nie, sal hy siek word
Jasper sleeps because he is tired - Jasper slaap omdat hy moeg is
Nouns
Gender:
Afrikaans has no gender.
Articles:
The indefinite article is 'n. The definite article is die.
Plurals:
Most words are pluralized by adding an e.
foot - feet/ voet - voete
strawberry - strawberries/ aarbei - aarbeie
mountain - mountains/ berg - berge
If the word has double aa, ee, oo, or uu and is followed by a single consonant. than the plural only has one vowel
ear - ears/ oor - ore
throat - throats/keel - kele
soap - soaps/ seep - sepe
minute - minutes/ minuut - minute
If the word ends in a consonant and is preceded by a simple a, e, o, or u, than the consonant is doubled
peice - peices/ stuk - stukke
juice - juices/ sap - sappe
law - laws/ wet - wette
Nouns, which end to g in the Singular on long vowel + - D or -, usually lose this.
eye - eyes/ oog - oë
fly - flies/ vlieg - vlieë
airplane - airplanes/ vliegtuig - vliegtuie
question - questionss/ vraag - vrae
war - wars/ oorlog - oorloë
An -f at the end of a word becomes a w
olive - olives/ olyf - olywe
Some nouns form plurals with -s
bird - birds/ voël - voëls
table - tables/ tafel - tafels
cup - cups/ koppie - koppies
A few nouns also take -ers/ere
child - children/ kind - kinders
egg - eggs/ ei - eiers
song - songs/ lied - liedere
Cases:
There are none.
Genitive:
Forming the genitive is done by adding se after the noun.
The man's dog - Die man se hond
My son's name - My seun se naam
Adjectives:
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 though, depending mostly on a set of rather complex phonological rules. When an adjective is inflected, it usually takes the ending -e and a series of morphological changes may result. For example, the final t following an /x/ sound, which disappears in uninflected adjectives like reg (cf. Dutch recht), is restored 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:
Adjectives come before nouns. A plural noun gets a plural adjective usually ending in -e
black - swart/swarte
fast - vinnig/vinnigede
deaf - doof/dowe
cold - koud/koue
low - laag/lae
high - hoog/hoë
Adjectives ending in a g, add a te
bad - sleg/slegte
Adjectives ending in an f change in to a double w
stupid - laf/lawwe
Irregularss:
good - goed/goeie
old - oud/ou, oue
new - nuut/nuwe
Comparatives:
To formm the compartive (nice-->nicer) add er, and ste for the superlative (nice-->nicest)
nice - nicer - nicest/ mooi - mooier - mooiste
glad - more glad - most glad/ bly - blyer - blyste
pleasant - more pleasant - most pleasant/ lekker - lekkerder - lekkerste
expensive - more expensive - most expensive/ duur - duurder - duurste
ugly - uglier - ugliest/ lelik - leliker - lelikste
fast - faster - fastest/ vinnig - vinniger - vinnigste
stupid - stupider - stupidest/ laf - lawwer - lafste
bad - worse - worst/ sleg - slegter - slegste
cold - colder - coldest/ koud - kouer - koudste
tired - more tired - most tired/ moeg - moeër - moegste
thick - thicker - thickest/ dik - dikker - dikste
Words that are long (have prefixes or are more than 3 syllables are lenghthened like in English by adding the word more and most in front
content - more content - most content/ tevrede - meer tevrede - mees tevrede
Irregulars:
good - better - best/ goed - beter - beste
much - more - most/ baie - meer - mees
little - littler - littlest/ min - minder - minste
new - newer - newest/ nuut - nuwer - nuutste
near - nearer - nearest/ naby - nader - naaste
Syntax
Afrikaans has a strict word order, described in many South African text books using the so-called "STOMPI rule". The name of the rule indicates the order in which the parts of a sentence should appear.The "STOMPI" rule
S V1 T O M P v2 I
Subject First verb Time Object Manner Place Second verb Infinitive
In main clauses it's SVO and in subordinate clauses SOV.
I know that you are nice - Ek weet dat jy is mooi.
Infinitives and past participles appear in final position in main clauses, split from the corresponding auxiliary verb.
She has bought a dog - Sy het 'n hond gekoop
Relative clauses usually begin with the pronoun "wat", used both for personal and non-personal antecedents.
The man who stayed here was an American - Die man wat hier gebly het was 'n Amerikaner
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.
Subject/nominative:
I - ek
you - jy
he - hy
she - shy
it - dit
we - ons
you - julle
they - hulle
polite you - u
Object Pronouns
me - my
you - jou
him - hom
her - haar
it - dit
we - ons
you - julle
they - hulle
polite you - u
Possesive Pronouns:
mine - myne
yours - joune
his - syne
hers - hare
its - s'n
ours - ons s'n
yours - julle s'n
theirs - hulle s'n
polite yours - u s'n
Possesive Adjectives:
my - my
your - jou
his - sy
hers - haar
its - sy
our - ons
your - jul/julle
their - hul/hulle
your polite - u
Verbs
Present Tense:
In Afrikaans there is no difference between the infinitive and the present forms of the verb. The verb forms are alike in all persons and numbers. Only two verbs have irregular present forms: wees (its) and hê (have):
to be: wees
am/are/is - is
to have: hê
has/have - het
Past Tense:
There is only one past form, the perfect. This in an constructed with the auxiliary verb hê and the prefix ge, which precedes the infinitive.
I ran/I have run: Ek het geloop.
I went/I have gone: Ek het gegaan.
Verbs with the prefixes en, ont and ago don't take the ge.
They sold/They have sold: Hulle het verkoop.
Verbs with other prefixes push the ge between the prefix and the stem.
I got/I have got: ek het afgehaal.
The eight irregular past tense forms are:
to be - wees - was
to have - hê - had
can, to be able to - kan - kon
must - moet - moes
to want - wil - wou
to become (get) - sal - sou
to know - weet - wis
to think - dink - dog/dag/gedog/gedag (all acceptable)*
*Normally gedink but dog is used for an erroneous supposition (or to be under the impression) like "I thought you did it - Ek het gedog jy het dit gedoen"
Future Tense:
The future is formed usually formed with the infinitive an the auxiliary verbs gaan (with intentions) and sal (those without previous intentions):
I will read tomorrow - Ek gaan môre lees.
We will see - Ons sal sien.
Conditional Tense:
The conditional is formed with normally the infinitive with the past form of the auxiliary verb sal:
I would be: Ek sou wees
We would see: Ons sou sien.
Imperative (Commands) Tense:
The affirmative imperative corresponds to the infinitive, both in the you form and in the they form.
Be glad! - Wees bly!
Go now please! - Gaan nou asseblief!
The negative imperative is formed by placing moenie before the verb and nie after
Don't go! - Moenie gaan nie!
Don't ask how she made that! - Moenie vra sy dit gedoen het nie!
Passive Tense:
In the present the passive is formed with word + ge + infinitive, in the past with is + ge + infinitive.
You are seen - Julle word gesien
You were seen - Julle is gesien
*In formal written Afrikaans, was + past is posssible, as a pluperfect tense (he had seen).
You had seen - Julle was gesien.
Participle
to form the past participle (Look at the singing dog!) add -ende the infinitive
to sing - sing - singende
to hang - hang - hangende
to see - sien - sienende
to walk - loop - lopende (aa, ee, oo, and uu become a, e, o, or u if one consonant follows)
to laugh - lag - laggende (a final posiiton individual consonant is doublled if a, e, o, or u comes before it)
The irregular forms are:
to be - wees - synde
to have - hê - hebbende
Negation
Afrikaans is know for its double-nie (never) to say no (which must be the last word. 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.
I don't understand it - Ek verstaan dit nie.
We saw nothing - Ons het niks gesien nie.
He won't come because he is sick - Hy sal nie kom nie, omdat hy siek is.
He won't come becausse he is not well - Hy sal nie kom nie, omdat hy nie wil nie.
Conjunctions
There are three classes of Afrikaans conjunctions. Class 1 keeps the SVO word order. Class 2 changes the following clause to SOV. In the third class, the entire predicate is put to the end.
Conjunction 1 example:
My dogs run and my cats sleep - My honde hardloop en my kate slaap.
Conjunction 2 example:
You are mean thus I can't help you - Jy is laat daaroom kan ek jou nie help nie
Conjunction 3 example:
She is hungry because she didn't eat all day - Sy is honger omdat sy nie hele dag eet nie.
The conjuction because is represented by omdat and want. They are interchanged colloquially but formally the difference is that omdat links two parts of a sentence and want acts independantly (and want is a group 1 conjuction and omdat a group 3).
Jasper sleeps, because if he does not get some rest, he will get sick - Jasper slaap, want as hy nie rus kry nie, sal hy siek word
Jasper sleeps because he is tired - Jasper slaap omdat hy moeg is
Nouns
Gender:
Afrikaans has no gender.
Articles:
The indefinite article is 'n. The definite article is die.
Plurals:
Most words are pluralized by adding an e.
foot - feet/ voet - voete
strawberry - strawberries/ aarbei - aarbeie
mountain - mountains/ berg - berge
If the word has double aa, ee, oo, or uu and is followed by a single consonant. than the plural only has one vowel
ear - ears/ oor - ore
throat - throats/keel - kele
soap - soaps/ seep - sepe
minute - minutes/ minuut - minute
If the word ends in a consonant and is preceded by a simple a, e, o, or u, than the consonant is doubled
peice - peices/ stuk - stukke
juice - juices/ sap - sappe
law - laws/ wet - wette
Nouns, which end to g in the Singular on long vowel + - D or -, usually lose this.
eye - eyes/ oog - oë
fly - flies/ vlieg - vlieë
airplane - airplanes/ vliegtuig - vliegtuie
question - questionss/ vraag - vrae
war - wars/ oorlog - oorloë
An -f at the end of a word becomes a w
olive - olives/ olyf - olywe
Some nouns form plurals with -s
bird - birds/ voël - voëls
table - tables/ tafel - tafels
cup - cups/ koppie - koppies
A few nouns also take -ers/ere
child - children/ kind - kinders
egg - eggs/ ei - eiers
song - songs/ lied - liedere
Cases:
There are none.
Genitive:
Forming the genitive is done by adding se after the noun.
The man's dog - Die man se hond
My son's name - My seun se naam
Adjectives:
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 though, depending mostly on a set of rather complex phonological rules. When an adjective is inflected, it usually takes the ending -e and a series of morphological changes may result. For example, the final t following an /x/ sound, which disappears in uninflected adjectives like reg (cf. Dutch recht), is restored 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:
Adjectives come before nouns. A plural noun gets a plural adjective usually ending in -e
black - swart/swarte
fast - vinnig/vinnigede
deaf - doof/dowe
cold - koud/koue
low - laag/lae
high - hoog/hoë
Adjectives ending in a g, add a te
bad - sleg/slegte
Adjectives ending in an f change in to a double w
stupid - laf/lawwe
Irregularss:
good - goed/goeie
old - oud/ou, oue
new - nuut/nuwe
Comparatives:
To formm the compartive (nice-->nicer) add er, and ste for the superlative (nice-->nicest)
nice - nicer - nicest/ mooi - mooier - mooiste
glad - more glad - most glad/ bly - blyer - blyste
pleasant - more pleasant - most pleasant/ lekker - lekkerder - lekkerste
expensive - more expensive - most expensive/ duur - duurder - duurste
ugly - uglier - ugliest/ lelik - leliker - lelikste
fast - faster - fastest/ vinnig - vinniger - vinnigste
stupid - stupider - stupidest/ laf - lawwer - lafste
bad - worse - worst/ sleg - slegter - slegste
cold - colder - coldest/ koud - kouer - koudste
tired - more tired - most tired/ moeg - moeër - moegste
thick - thicker - thickest/ dik - dikker - dikste
Words that are long (have prefixes or are more than 3 syllables are lenghthened like in English by adding the word more and most in front
content - more content - most content/ tevrede - meer tevrede - mees tevrede
Irregulars:
good - better - best/ goed - beter - beste
much - more - most/ baie - meer - mees
little - littler - littlest/ min - minder - minste
new - newer - newest/ nuut - nuwer - nuutste
near - nearer - nearest/ naby - nader - naaste
Syntax
Afrikaans has a strict word order, described in many South African text books using the so-called "STOMPI rule". The name of the rule indicates the order in which the parts of a sentence should appear.The "STOMPI" rule
S V1 T O M P v2 I
Subject First verb Time Object Manner Place Second verb Infinitive
In main clauses it's SVO and in subordinate clauses SOV.
I know that you are nice - Ek weet dat jy is mooi.
Infinitives and past participles appear in final position in main clauses, split from the corresponding auxiliary verb.
She has bought a dog - Sy het 'n hond gekoop
Relative clauses usually begin with the pronoun "wat", used both for personal and non-personal antecedents.
The man who stayed here was an American - Die man wat hier gebly het was 'n Amerikaner
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.