Verbs in Afrikaans

This is a brief outline of how verbs function in Afrikaans. See also Modal verbs.

Afrikaans verbs are in some ways simpler than English verbs because they do not decline and there are only three main tenses. These are past, present and future.

In English (although our verbs do not decline to any great extent) when using the verb 'to read', we say 'I read' but 'he reads'.

Afrikaans in contrast uses the same form of the verb for all forms, which following this example is lees 'read'.

The Present Tense

The first tense is present describing an action taking place at the moment as in Ek lees 'I read' or Sy loop 'She walks'.

Afrikaans doesn't have all the additional present tenses found in English such as the present continuous (I am reading) so Ek lees can mean 'I am reading' as well as 'I read'.

I read	ek lees
you read	jy lees
he reads	hy lees
she reads	sy lees
we read	ons lees
you (plural) read	julle lees
they read	hulle lees

The Past Start lesson

The Afrikaans past tense is formed using the the particle het (which rougly corresponsds to 'have in English') and attaching ge to the main verb (normally the last word in the sentence).

So, for example, Ek het dit self gedoen 'I did it myself' is formed from doen 'do' with ge attached to the main verb which is doen.

A literal translation of Ek het dit self gedoen is 'I have it mysef done'.

I bought a paper	Ek het ’n koerant gekoop
I did it myself	Ek het dit self gedoen
The teacher walked	Die onderwyser het geloop
You went to London	Jy het na Londen gegaan
He went to school	Hy het skool toe gegaan
She read a book	Sy het ’n boek gelees
We talked to our friends	Ons het met ons vriende gepraat
They worked at the factory	Hulle het by die fabriek gewerk
They went to the restaurant	Hulle het na ’n restaurant gegaan
I read it	Ek het dit gelees
He said it	Hy het dit gesê
He read it last week	Hy het dit verlede week gelees
He said it last week	Hy het dit verlede week gesê

Verbs beginning with be, her, ont and ver dont attach ge to form the past tense.

The verb 'to be' is irregular (as in many languages) and is was as in Ek was hier 'I was here' (but no longer am).

Questions has more examples on the Afrikaans past tense (did you ..?).

The Future

The future tense in Afrikaans may be formed using the auxiliary verb sal 'will', and also by using the verb gaan 'going to'.

As a general rule:

gaan is used in Afrikaans when 'going to' is appropriate in English, and sal when the English 'will' would be appropriate.

Some contemporary linguists argue that English has no true future tense. English has no distinct endings for verbs in the future, and the the same is true in Afrikaans.

This makes life easier for learners of Afrikaans.

If you are interested in the distinction between time and grammatical tense, this link on grammar.com provides more detail.

The Future Tense using gaan

Gaan is used in a similar way to the English use of 'going to'.

It refers to an action that will take place in the future, a prediction of something that will happen, but with less intent than using sal in Afrikaans and 'will' in English.

Hy gaan dit doen. 'He is going to do it'.

It is a simple prediction of the future, or if you want to talk about a plan for the future.

'I'm going to go on holiday' compared to 'I will go on holiday'.

The future tense in Afrikaans is formed using sal.

It is formed by using the present tense with sal placed in front, an example of which is:

Hy sal môre gaan 'he will go tomorrow'.

This demonstrates the auxiliary the verb sal changing gaan 'go' from the present to the future tense.

Notes on the use of Sal

Sal used in the future tense corresponds to the English use of 'shall' (although 'will' is now more commonly used) to indicate strong intent or necessity.

Compare: Hy sal dit doen,  'He shall do it', or 'he will do it'.

It is going to happen. It is important and he will do whatever it (whatever it may be).

With: Hy gaan dit doen 'he is going to do this'.

It is less definite, and perhaps doesn't indicate the same intent.

I will go	Ek sal gaan
You will write	Jy sal skryf
He will walk	Hy sal loop
We will eat	Ons sal eet
They will come	Hulle sal kom
He will go tomorrow	Hy sal môre gaan