If you're trying to learn Afrikaans Articles you will find some useful resources including a course about Definite and Indefinite Articles... 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!
Learning the Afrikaans Articles is very important because its structure is used in every day conversation. The more you practice the subject, the closer you get to mastering the Afrikaans language. But first we need to know what the role of Articles is in the structure of the grammar in Afrikaans.
Afrikaans articles are words that combine with a noun to indicate the type of reference being made by the noun. Generally articles specify the grammatical definiteness of the noun. Examples are "the, a, and an".
Definite Article:
In English we use the word "the" to point out a specific thing. If someone says, "I ate all of the cake", they aren't referring to any cake, it's a specific one. Afrikaans has the same thing. In Afrikaans this word is "die", and just like in English, it can be used for the singular and the plural.
die (singular), die boek (the book)
die (plural), die boeke (the books)
Here are some examples:
| English Articles | Afrikaans Articles |
|---|---|
| articles | artikels |
| the | die |
| a | 'n |
| one | 'n |
| some | sommige |
| few | paar |
| the book | die boek |
| the books | die boeke |
| a book | 'n boek |
| one book | 'n boek |
| some books | 'n paar boeke |
| few books | n paar boeke |
As you can see from the example above, the structure of the Articles in Afrikaans has a logical pattern. Locate the Articles above and see how it works with the rest of the sentence in Afrikaans.
The indefinite article in Afrikaans is 'n which means a or an. This is never capitalised and when it occurs at the beginning of a sentence the first letter of the next word is turned into a capital instead. The definite article in Afrikaans is die and is used where in English we use the.
Indefinite Article:
The Afrikaans word for "a" or "an" is "'n". This is called the indefinite article because it means one thing, but it cannot refer to a specific thing such as in the sentence "I ate a cake". This could be any cake. 'n Is always written with an apostrophe (') and is never capitalized, even if it starts a sentence. If it starts a sentence, then the first letter of the following word gets capitalized.
’n (singular), ’n boek (a book)
’n (singular) ’n huis (a house)
’n (plural) ’n paar boeke (some books)
’n (plural) ’n paar huise (some houses)
Below is a list of vocabulary where you can use the Definite and Indefinite Articles in Afrikaans. Try to practice but also memorizing this table will help you add very useful and important words to your Afrikaans vocabulary.
| English Vocabulary | Afrikaans Vocabulary |
|---|---|
| Food | voedsel / kos |
| almonds | amandels |
| bread | brood |
| breakfast | Ontbyt |
| butter | botter |
| candy | lekkers |
| cheese | kaas |
| chicken | hoender |
| cumin | komyn |
| dessert | nagereg |
| dinner | aandete |
| fish | vis |
| fruit | vrugte |
| ice cream | roomys |
| lamb | lam |
| lemon | suurlemoen |
| lunch | middagete |
| meal | maaltyd |
| meat | vleis |
| oven | oond |
| pepper | peper |
| plants | plante |
| pork | vark |
| salad | slaai |
| salt | sout |
| sandwich | toebroodjie |
| sausage | wors |
| soup | sop |
| sugar | suiker |
| supper | aandete |
| turkey | kalkoen |
| apple | appel |
| banana | piesang |
| oranges | lemoene |
| peaches | perskes |
| peanut | grondboonjie |
| pears | pere |
| pineapple | pynappel |
| grapes | druiwe |
| strawberries | aarbeie |
| vegetables | vrugte |
| carrot | wortel |
| corn | mielie |
| cucumber | komkommer |
| garlic | knoffel |
| lettuce | blaarslaai |
| olives | olywe |
| onions | uie |
| peppers | pepers |
| potatoes | aartappels |
| pumpkin | pampoen |
| beans | bone |
| tomatoes | tamaties |
Definite and Indefinite Articles have a very important role in Afrikaans, therefore they need very special attention. Once you're done with Afrikaans Articles, 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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