Learn about separable verbs in Afrikaans
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Intro |
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| Antoni: What are separable verbs? |
| Dewan: And how do they work? |
| Antoni: At AfrikaansPod101.com, we hear these questions often. Imagine the following scenario: Driekie and Luke Venter are planning to pick up their son, Johan, from the train station tomorrow. Driekie says, |
| "The train arrives at 10 AM." |
| Driekie Venter: Die trein kom om 10 uur aan. |
| Dialogue |
| Driekie Venter: Die trein kom om 10 uur aan. |
| Lukas: Dan moet ons om 9 uur die huis verlaat. |
| Antoni: Once more with the English translation. |
| Driekie Venter: Die trein kom om 10 uur aan. |
| Antoni: "The train arrives at 10 AM." |
| Lukas: Dan moet ons om 9 uur die huis verlaat. |
| Antoni: "Then, we need to leave home at 9 AM." |
Lesson focus |
| Antoni: In this lesson, you will be learning about |
| Dewan: skeibare werkwoorde |
| Antoni: or "separable verbs" in Afrikaans and how they work. First, let’s talk about what a separable verb is exactly. |
| In Afrikaans, there are certain particles that might seem to be prefixes, but actually they are not. They often attach to the front of a verb, which is why they can be confused with prefixes. However, they differ from prefixes in that they can be separated from the verb they are attached to and be placed elsewhere in the sentence, with other words separating them from the verb. |
| In English, there are no separable verbs. The closest comparison to a separable verb can be found in derived constructions like "He is outstanding because he stands out." As you can hear, the word "outstanding" can also be represented by the phrase "standing out." The word "out" in these constructions is used in a way that is similar to the way the particle in a separable verb functions. |
| In this lesson, we will be looking at several examples of Afrikaans separable verbs, and we will start by looking at the one that was used in the dialogue for today’s lesson. |
| [Recall 1] |
| Antoni: Do you remember how Driekie says "The train arrives at 10 AM?" |
| (pause 4 seconds) |
| Dewan as Driekie Venter: Die trein kom om 10 uur aan. |
| Antoni: In this sentence, Driekie uses the words |
| Dewan: kom |
| Antoni: and |
| Dewan: aan |
| Antoni: separately, but they can also be joined together in a compound, meaning "arrive," |
| Dewan: aankom. |
| Antoni: In this word, the verb is "come" or |
| Dewan: kom, |
| Antoni: and the particle is |
| Dewan: aan, |
| Antoni: which can have several meanings, depending on the context. In this case, it means something like "on," but in a similar sense to the way the prefix "on," is used in "oncoming." It means "moving towards" or "closer to." Take note that it doesn’t always mean this. This particular particle is quite versatile and can be used in other, similar constructions, but in which it carries a different meaning. We’ll have a look at that in a moment, but, for now, let’s focus on something else. |
| We are sure that by now you are wondering how one can know where and when to separate the particle from the verb base. Well, it’s actually not that difficult to learn. Generally, there are three structures you need to consider. The first is the present tense. |
| In the present tense, the particle and verb base are separated. The sentence I am going to use as an example can mean either "I go out" or "I am going out," and, if you want to learn more about how it is possible that it can encompass two tenses, listen to episode nine of this series. There you will learn about the tenses in Afrikaans. But, right now, let’s listen to that sentence: |
| Dewan: Ek gaan uit. |
| Antoni: meaning "I go out" or "I am going out." The separable particle in this sentence is |
| Dewan: uit |
| Antoni: which means "out," and the verb base is |
| Dewan: gaan, |
| Antoni: which means "go." They are separated in the present tense, but, if there is a dependent clause in your sentence, they must be put back together again. This is the second of the three structures we mentioned before. Listen to how this separable verb sounds when it is a compound: |
| Dewan: uitgaan |
| Antoni: or "to go out." Now, let’s use it in a sentence, meaning, "You know that I am going out." |
| Dewan: Jy weet dat ek uitgaan. |
| Antoni: As you can see, if it is in a dependent clause, the particle and the verb are joined. This is generally the case when it comes to the dependent clause. However, when we use the third structure—the past tense—we must separate the verb and particle again. Before we give you an example of that, we must quickly talk about how the past tense is formed in Afrikaans. It involves the prefix |
| Dewan: ge |
| Antoni: which is used in conjunction with the auxiliary verb |
| Dewan: het. |
| Antoni: At this point, it won’t help to get bogged down in further explanation of how that works, so, if you would like to learn more about it, check our lesson on tenses in Afrikaans. What’s important to take note of is that the past conjugation of verbs in Afrikaans requires the particle |
| Dewan: ge. |
| Antoni: What this means is that, if you want to say "You knew I went out," then you have to separate the compound particle and the verb base with this new particle. The resulting word is: |
| Dewan: uitgegaan |
| Antoni: Let’s hear it in the context of that sentence in Afrikaans: |
| Dewan: Jy weet dat ek uitgegaan het, |
| Antoni: meaning "You knew I went out." We’re sure you heard how the separable particle and the verb base were separated by |
| Dewan: ge. |
| Antoni: That is how you construct the separable verb in the past tense in Afrikaans. |
| Now, let’s talk about the future tense. It’s easy to remember what to do, really, because, in the future tense, the participle and verb base are joined. For instance, if you want to say, "I will go out later," then it will sound like this: |
| Dewan: Ek sal later uitgaan. |
| Antoni: As you can hear, this is the same word we used in the dependent clause in the present tense so, really, there are only three main forms that you need to be aware of. Let’s look at these three ways of constructing the separable verb with another example. This time, we will look at the separable verb |
| Dewan: opeet |
| Antoni: which means "eat up." Now, let’s listen to a sentence meaning "I am eating it up:" |
| Dewan: Ek eet dit op. |
| Antoni: Did you hear how the word |
| Dewan: opeet |
| Antoni: was separated into |
| Dewan: eet |
| Antoni: and |
| Dewan: op |
| Antoni: respectively? This is because we were using the present tense. Now, let’s put them together again in a sentence with a dependent clause, meaning "She is making sure that I eat it up:" |
| Dewan: Sy maak seker dat ek dit opeet. |
| Antoni: This is probably a mother watching to make sure that her child eats all of their veggies. Let’s imagine the child responding by saying "I will eat it all up!" In Afrikaans, they would say: |
| Dewan: Ek sal dit alles opeet! |
| Antoni: And, now, let’s imagine that the child has eaten all their veggies and they say "I have eaten it all up!" |
| Dewan: Ek het dit alles opgeëet. |
| Antoni: Hopefully, the mom was pleased to hear this. |
| We have now discussed the three structures you can expect to encounter most of the time, but there are some other structures that are quite important. We will discuss these in a moment. |
| [Summary] |
| Antoni: In this lesson, you learned that separable verbs are compound words composed of a separable particle and a verb base. The particle and the verb base are joined together in the future tense. You also learned that the particle and verb are separated in the present tense and, in the past tense, they are separated by the particle |
| Dewan: ge. |
| Expansion/Contrast (Optional) |
| Antoni: We are now going to look at some other structures that affect the way the particle and the verb are arranged in a sentence. In order to illustrate these, let’s go back to using that particle we promised we would get back to earlier, |
| Dewan: aan. |
| Antoni: If you remember, we said that it meant "moving towards" in that particular compound, but we also mentioned that it can have several different meanings, depending on what verb it is attached to. Let’s look at how it is used in the compound |
| Dewan: aankyk |
| Antoni: which means "look at." The verb base |
| Dewan: kyk |
| Antoni: means "look" and, in this compound, the meaning of the particle |
| Dewan: aan |
| Antoni: is far easier to understand than it was in the previous one. In this case, it means "at," and it can be used in a sentence like: |
| Dewan: Moenie my aankyk nie! |
| Antoni: This is a negative sentence meaning "Don’t look at me!" In the negative, the particle is attached to the verb base. However, if the word |
| Dewan: te |
| Antoni: meaning "at" is used in the sentence, then we should separate the verb and the particle again. Listen to this sentence: |
| Dewan: Hou op om my so aan te kyk! |
| Antoni: It means "Don’t look at me like that!" and, as you heard, the particle and the verb are separated by the word |
| Dewan: te. |
| Antoni: Please note that this word can be used in various types of sentences—not only questions—and it always separates the particle and the verb. |
| Let’s now look at how separable verbs work in "yes" or "no" questions. In case you aren’t sure, "yes" or "no" questions are ones where the respondent is required to answer, simply, "yes" or "no." Listen to this question, meaning "Are you looking at me?" |
| Dewan: Kyk jy my aan? |
| Antoni: As you will have noticed, the verb base is placed first in the sentence and the particle is placed last in the sentence. This is the general rule when constructing this kind of question. |
| Then, there are questions that begin with the question words. The question words are what, where, when, how, and so on. There is a general rule you can follow when using these, but it is by no means the only rule, so treat it as a guide rather than a rule. The guiding rule is that, when constructing questions with the question words, you can do the same as we did when forming the "yes" or "no" questions. In other words, the verb comes first and the particle goes at the end of the sentence. The only difference is that the question word must come before the verb base. Here are some examples using the separable verb: |
| Dewan: ondergaan |
| Antoni: meaning "to go under" or "to set," which is composed of the particle |
| Dewan: onder |
| Antoni: meaning "under," and the verb base, |
| Dewan: gaan |
| Antoni: which means "go." Let’s use it in a sentence meaning "When does the sun go down?" |
| Dewan: Wanneer gaan die son onder? |
| Antoni: As you can see, the verb is situated immediately after the question word, and the particle is at the very end of the sentence. The same will happen in this next sentence too, which means "Why does the sun go down?" |
| Dewan: Waarom gaan die son onder? |
| Antoni: And let’s try one meaning, "Where does the sun go down?" |
| Dewan: Waar gaan die son onder? |
| Antoni: By now, you will hopefully have seen the pattern. It will be the same with all the main question words. |
| And now, we have covered all the common structures you are likely to encounter when using separable verbs. |
| Cultural Insight/Expansion (Optional) |
| Antoni: The last structure that we want to talk about in this lesson with regard to separable verbs is that which involves the use of modal verbs. Modal verbs are ones like can, must, might, and will. They are auxiliary verbs and they express necessity or possibility. When you use one of them in an Afrikaans sentence that includes a separable verb, then the verb and its particle are joined together. Here’s an example that means "I can open it." |
| Dewan: Ek kan dit oopmaak. |
| Antoni: Here the particle is |
| Dewan: maak, |
| Antoni: which means "make," and the verb, of course, is |
| Dewan: oop |
| Antoni: which means "open." The modal verb was |
| Dewan: kan |
| Antoni: which means "can." |
| Now, let’s try one with the modal verb meaning "want," which is |
| Dewan: wil. |
| Antoni: This sentence means "I want to find out." |
| Dewan: Ek wil uitvind. |
| Antoni: Here the separable verb is |
| Dewan: uitvind |
| Michael and the particle is |
| Dewan: uit |
| Antoni: meaning "out," while the verb is |
| Dewan: vind |
| Antoni: meaning "find." |
| You have now learned a lot about separable verbs, and you should be able to make more sense of them the next time you read, hear, or have to use them. |
Outro |
| Antoni: Do you have any more questions? We’re here to answer them! |
| Dewan: Totsiens! |
| Antoni: See you soon! |
| Credits: Dewan (Afrikaans, Pietermaritzburg), Antoni (English, synthetic voice) |
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