Afrikaans Adjectives

If you're trying to learn Afrikaans Adjectives you will find some useful resources including a course about Adjectives, Colors, Shapes, Sizes... to help you with your Afrikaans grammar. Try to concentrate on the lesson and notice the pattern that occurs each time the word changes its place. Also don't forget to check the rest of our other lessons listed on Learn Afrikaans. Enjoy the rest of the lesson!

Afrikaans Adjectives

Learning the Afrikaans Adjectives displayed below is vital to the language. Afrikaans Adjectives are words that describe or modify another person or thing in the sentence.

Grammar Tips:

While in English an adjective doesn’t change when the noun changes. In Afrikaans, when adjectives are used with the verb wees ("She is sick", "He is blonde") you can use the form of the adjective you'll find in the dictionary. However, when an adjective is directly modifying a noun (as in "She is a sick girl", "He has blonde hair") their form usually alter somewhat. This change is called inflection. As a general rule, polysyllabic adjectives are normally inflected; monosyllabic 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, is restored when the adjective is inflected (regte). A similar phenomenon applies to the addition 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:

 

Adjectives in Afrikaans come before nouns, like in English.

English

Afrikaans

Uninflected

Inflected

black

swart

swarte

fast

vinnig

vinnige

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 'f' — change it to two 'w's

stupid

laf

lawwe

Irregulars

good

goed

goeie

old

oud

ou, oue

new

nuut

nuwe

 

These are examples of when the adjectives doesn't change regardless of whether the name changes or not:

 

a)    Masculine and feminine examples:

 

Dit is my slim seun (this is my clever son) stays the same when we speak of the feminine, for example: Dit is my slim dogter (this is my clever daughter).

 

b)    Singular and plural examples:

 

Dit is my wit kat (this is my white cat) stays the same, for example: Dit is my wit katte remains: Dit is my wit katte (these are my white cats).


Here are some examples:

English AdjectivesAfrikaans Adjectives
adjectivesWoorde
a green tree'n groen boom
a tall building'n hoë gebou
a very old man'n baie ou man
the old red housedie ou rooi huis
a very nice friendn baie mooi vriend

Notice the structure of the Adjectives in Afrikaans has a logical pattern. Locate the Adjectives above and see how it works with the rest of the sentence in Afrikaans.

Adjectives ending in -d (pronounced /t/) or -g (pronounced /x/) following a long vowel or diphthong, lose the -d and -g when inflected

List of Adjectives in Afrikaans

Below is a list of the Adjectives, Colors, Shapes, Sizes in Afrikaans placed in a table. Memorizing this table will help you add very useful and important words to your Afrikaans vocabulary.

English AdjectivesAfrikaans Adjectives
colorskleure
blackswart
blueblou
brownbruin
graygrys
greengroen
orangeoranje
purplepers
redrooi
whitewit
yellowgeel
sizesgroottes
biggroot
deepdiep
longlank
narrownou
shortkort
smallklein
talllank
thickdik
thindun
widewyd
shapesvorme
circularomsendbrief
straightreguit
squarevierkant
triangulardriehoekig
tastessmaak
bitterbitter
freshvars
saltysout
soursuur
spicypikant
sweetsoet
qualitieskwaliteite
badslegte
cleanskoon
darkdonker
difficultmoeilik
dirtyvuil
drydroog
easymaklik
emptyleeg
expensiveduur
fastvinnig
foreignbuitelands
fullvol
goodgoed
hardhard
heavyswaar
inexpensivegoedkoop
lightlig
localplaaslike
newnuwe
noisylawaaierig
oldoud
powerfulkragtig
quietstil
correctkorrek / reg
slowstadig
softsag
verybaie
weakswak
wetnat
wrongverkeerd
youngjonk
quantitieshoeveelhede
fewpaar
littlebietjie
manyveel
muchbaie
partdeel
somesommige
a few'n paar
wholehele

Adjectives, Colors, Shapes, Sizes have a very important role in Afrikaans. Once you're done with Afrikaans Adjectives, you might want to check the rest of our Afrikaans lessons here: Learn Afrikaans. Don't forget to bookmark this page.

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