Basic Afrikaans sentence structure – Subject, verb, object

 

In Afrikaans there are three basic elements that control most of the meaning in the sentence: Subject, verb and object.

 

These elements can shift around to indicate if the sentence is a question or a statement or what tense is being used.  Mastering this basic sentence structure is essential to understanding and using Afrikaans correctly.

 

Afrikaans basics sentence construction

The three most basic elements of Afrikaans sentences are subject, verb and object.

 

These three elements change places depending on what tense the sentence is on or if it's a subject or a question.

For the purposes of this lesson, we will only be focusing on statements in the present tense to make things simple.

For statements in the present tense the normal sentence sequence looks like this: subject, verb, object.

 

Example 1

Ek skop die bal.

 

Example 2

Jan sien vir my.

 

Sentence without objects

Just like in English, not all sentences need an object, but they always need a subject and a verb.

 

Example 3

Koos loop.

 

Example 4

Ek leer.

 

Of course, Afrikaans sentences can get much more complicated than this.

 

Go here to learn how the different tenses work in Afrikaans. 

Go here to learn how to form questions in Afrikaans.

 

Visit our website for our free tutorials index, premium courses or private Afrikaans tutoring.

Subscribe for updates on Owl's Bilingual Academy.