The official 'Learn Afrikaans' thread™

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Sideshow Bob

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So, I have been learning Afrikaans for a while but battling of late despite using grammar books, dictionaries and YT videos etc. Idea of thread is to share resources that I have found already, ask questions (and god forbid, answer them) and have general discussion if at all anyone is in the same boat.

I doubt if there will be many takers here but worth a chance. I will start first post with one question that has been baffling me today. It is late in the day so I can't really chat to my colleagues on teams.

I came across below sentence in a book which seems totally wrong to me as per S(v1)TOMP(v2)I word order
"Die kind hou van skool toe gaan op 'n Maandag".

I would have put this as
"Die kind hou van skool op 'n Maandag toe gaan"

Google AI mode
"Die kind hou op 'n Maandag van om skool toe te gaan."

Chatgpt puts a daarvan
"Die kind hou daarvan om op 'n Maandag skool toe te gaan"

I know that in bigger scheme of things, this is probably frivolous but as a wannabe linguist who wants to get things "right" at the beginning at least, what is correct way? Or are there different correct ways ?

*I am fluent in 3 languages and Afrikaans will be (hopefully) my 4th language in terms of fluency.
 
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Yeah 1st and Chatgpt are both fine.

Second one is wrong and google ai one is very deurmekaar and awkward.
 
I'm not a teacher and it's hard to explain how my own language works lol. Hope this makes sense. Basically chatgpt correctly added "daarvan" because "om skool toe te gaan" is a direct action.

Leave it out when not talking about a direct action. When you're talking about a thing or concept etc.

Hy hou daarvan om te lees (direct action, "he likes to read")

Hy hou van lees (general thing or concept, "He likes reading")

The time should go before the action/verb: "Hy hou daarvan om op 'n Saterdag te swem" (He likes to swim on a Saturday)

And after the thing/concept: "Hy hou van swem op n Saterdag." (Swimming is now a thing/concept. He likes swimming)

Does all of that make sense? It does in my head.
 
wbot said:
I'm not a teacher and it's hard to explain how my own language works lol. Hope this makes sense. Basically chatgpt correctly added "daarvan" because "om skool toe te gaan" is a direct action.

Leave it out when not talking about a direct action. When you're talking about a thing or concept etc.

Hy hou daarvan om te lees (direct action, "he likes to read")

Hy hou van lees (general thing or concept, "He likes reading")

The time should go before the action/verb: "Hy hou daarvan om op 'n Saterdag te swem" (He likes to swim on a Saturday)

And after the thing/concept: "Hy hou van swem op n Saterdag." (Swimming is now a thing/concept. He likes swimming)

Does all of that make sense? It does in my head.
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It depends, if you had Afrikaans as a second language, you wouldn't be penalized too heavily for starting a sentence with "die". As a first language teachers frowned upon using die to start a sentence.

Op Maandae hou die kind van skool.

STOMPI applies

and you can do an inversion starting with time.

You can absolutely start a sentence with "die", it can however become repetitive, quite similar to english avoiding "but" and "and".

It is a stylistic choice, it isn't wrong, just generally discouraged.

This is fine
Maandae is die dag wat die kind die meeste van skool hou

Most proper formal usage
Maandae is die dag waarop die kind die meeste van skool hou

The downside of using wat and waarop in an inversion kicks the verb to the end. If afrikaans isn't your first language I wouldn't do it this way at first, it just adds complexity where it isn't always needed.
 
wizardofid said:
This is fine
Maandae is die dag wat die kind die meeste van skool hou

Most proper formal usage
Maandae is die dag waarop die kind die meeste van skool hou
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Just a slight correction since we're trying to give sideshow the best possible chance to get a job at Wanatu....

It should be "Maandae is die dae". Or "Maandag is die dag". Or "Maandae hou die kind van skool". :)
 
wizardofid said:
It depends, if you had Afrikaans as a second language, you wouldn't be penalized too heavily for starting a sentence with "die". As a first language teachers frowned upon using die to start a sentence.

Op Maandae hou die kind van skool.

STOMPI applies

and you can do an inversion starting with time.

You can absolutely start a sentence with "die", it can however become repetitive, quite similar to english avoiding "but" and "and".

It is a stylistic choice, it isn't wrong, just generally discouraged.

This is fine
Maandae is die dag wat die kind die meeste van skool hou

Most proper formal usage
Maandae is die dag waarop die kind die meeste van skool hou

The downside of using wat and waarop in an inversion kicks the verb to the end. If afrikaans isn't your first language I wouldn't do it this way at first, it just adds complexity where it isn't always needed.
Click to expand...
Or "die enigste dag"

(but then... what a little weirdo... Friday ftw)
 
Sideshow Bob said:
Learnt 2 very cute sounding words today while I was converting English book to Afrikaans for my son. Liewenheersbesie and skoenlapper.
:)
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Hottentotsgod (praying mantis) also falls in the group of very inventive & descriptive names in Afrikaans. Then there are things like 'moersleutel' (spanner') and 'knormoer' (starter motor) which not even native Afrikaans speaking people (like yours truly) use.

I thought Afrikaans was a little unique in terms of interesting origins and use of words, but English is just as fascinating. I love watching "Robwords" on YouTube; really interesting analyses of English language etc. and well presented.
 
wbot said:
One of those rare Afrikaans words that I haven't really used much at all in my life. Have always just used ladybird.

Don't know if other Akrikaans guys here can relate :)
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Funny you say this. When I used to learn zulu language a while ago, my zulu colleague helped me a bit and he told me that time that I am trying to learn dictionary zulu. LOL.

Same is true for many other languages. English words (or their variations) do creep over time.
 
Sometimes English words just work or flow better. Like live show instead of "lewende/lewendige optrede/vertoning" which no one in my circles ever use lol.
 
Got into an argument yesterday - I was convinced I was taught to say 'hoe is die tyd' rather than 'wat is die tyd'. Matrix memories maybe.
 
saor said:
Got into an argument yesterday - I was convinced I was taught to say 'hoe is die tyd' rather than 'wat is die tyd'. Matrix memories maybe.
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Crazy, I never heard of this in any of the YouTuber videos and everyone of them is native afrikaans speaker. They all say 'Hoe laat is dit'.

Now I am beginning to doubt those YTers.
 
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