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Lesson Transcript

Eric: Hello everyone! Welcome back to AfrikaansPod101.com. This is All About, Lesson 14. These are the Top 5 Mistakes Not to Make When Speaking Afrikaans. I’m Eric.
Pieter: Hallo, my naam is Pieter.
Eric: In this lesson, you’ll learn five of the most common mistakes people make when they’re learning Afrikaans.
Pieter: First we’ll give you the mistakes, and then go into more detail a little later.
Eric: Now here are the top five mistakes you don't want to make. First...
Pieter: Making plurals with an “s” instead of “e.”
Eric: Second..
Pieter: Using the word doen in questions or negatives.
Eric: Third..
Pieter : Mixing up articles indicating the gender of a noun.
Eric: Fourth.
Pieter: Pronouncing diphthongs incorrectly.
Eric: And the final one?
Pieter: Pronouncing “g” as “h.”
Eric: It’s easy to get mixed up when you’re speaking Afrikaans, but don't be scared, we don't want you to worry too much and stop talking.
Pieter: Of course not. None of these mistakes are really that big a deal.
Eric: In this lesson, we'll just give you a heads-up so you can be aware, and avoid these beginner mistakes altogether.
Pieter: Let’s cover mistake one - making a plural with an “s” instead of “e.”
Eric: Let’s try an example – “many trees.”
Pieter: “Many” would be baie and the word for “tree” is boom. baie booms is the incorrect way of saying “many trees.”
Eric: This mistake probably come from using English grammar to make words plural!
Pieter: Yes, in English most of the time we add an “s” to the word to make it plural. We sometimes do this in Afrikaans too, but most of the time the plural word will end with an “e.”
Eric: Everyone makes this mistake, so don’t worry about it too much.
Pieter: People will still understand what you’re trying to say.
Eric: So let's look at our example again.
Pieter: The correct way to say it is baie bome
Eric: So in English, that means "many trees.”
Pieter: Yes, baie bome. Now mistake two - using the word doen in questions or negatives.
Eric: Yeah, in English we use the word “do” in questions. “Do you like cheese?” or “Do you speak Afrikaans?” for example.
Pieter: “To do” in Afrikaans is Doen, but we don’t use it in questions or negatives. So a correct sentence would sound like this – Drink jy bier?
Eric: "Do you drink beer?” or literally “Drink you beer?”
Pieter: But when said incorrectly, Doen jy drink bier?
Eric: Yeah, that sounds a bit weird. And with negatives, it's the same.
Pieter: For example, Hy praat geen Engels nie,
Eric: “He doesn’t speak English.”
Pieter: So it would be incorrect to add doen and say Hy doen praat geen Engels nie And actually, that leads us to mistake three - forgetting to use the double negative!
Eric: Remember, when South Africans don’t want something or don’t like something, they are always doubly sure.
Pieter: A mistake Afrikaans students sometimes make is when saying something like “I don’t like boerewors” they just say Ek hou nie van boerewors.
Eric: But because you need to be doubly sure, you need to add a negative to the end too.
Pieter: Right. So the correct sentence would be Ek hou NIE van boerewors NIE. And next, mistake number four would be...
Eric: Pronouncing diphthongs incorrectly.
Pieter: Yes, and for those of you who don't know what diphthongs are, you’ll definitely know them after studying Afrikaans.
Eric: A diphthong is a pair of vowels used to write one distinct sound.
Pieter: And they are oe, ou, ui and ie. For example, This diphthong oe which has the alphabet letters “o” and “e” is correctly pronounced as the óo’ in the English word “book,” but it is often mistaken as o-e.
Eric: What about the other one, with “o” and “u” together?
Pieter: The diphthong ou is correctly pronounced as the “oh” in the English word “toe” but it is often mistaken as o-u.
Eric: What about the one with “u” and “i”?
Pieter: With ui, there is no similar sound for this in English, so to explain the sound we will have to use French as an example. The Afrikaans sound for ui is like the French “eui” in “feuilleton,” but it is often mistaken as u-i
Eric: What about the one with “i” and “e”?
Pieter: ie is correctly pronounced as “ey”, as in “money,” but it is often mistaken as i-e
Eric: And it's really common for people to get these mixed up.
Pieter: Yes, Afrikaans pronunciation can be quite different.
Eric: But mistakes can be quite funny!
Pieter: So just laugh it off, and try again!
Eric: Indeed. I stopped counting how many times I mispronounced the diphthongs; it's just so easy to make this mistake, and South Africans are used to learners making it too.
Pieter: And then we have mistake five - mispronouncing “g” as “h.”
Eric: Pronunciation can be the hardest thing when learning a language, and Afrikaans is no different.
Pieter: Yes, the Afrikaans language has many sounds English doesn't have, and vice-versa, so getting used to them is the best way of getting them down.
Eric: Talking to as many people as you can, and listening to everyday conversation, for example, radio and TV, is the best tool to get pronunciation right.
Pieter: Now, let’s have a look at that “g.”
Eric: Yeah that sound you definitely don’t hear in English.
Pieter: There are similar sounds in Germanic and Arabic languages, but not in English. So many people make the mistake of saying h instead of g.
Eric: Can you give some words that we can use for practice?
Pieter: Sure. Repeat after me, groot, geel, goud.
Eric: Once again?
Pieter: groot, geel, goud. You just have to listen and practice.
Eric: Sure. So the best way to get these down is to expose yourself to as much vocabulary as you possibly can, by reading and then listening to them in real life!
Pieter: Well said! Well, there was a lot of mixing today, and our mistake cake is finally baked!
Eric: Remember, unlike cake, learning a language is good for you, so you should never give up.
Pieter: Well, those are the Top Five mistakes to avoid. That should get you on the right track!
Eric: And that’s it for this lesson.
Pieter: Thank you for listening!
Eric: We’ll see you next time.
Pieter: Totsiens!

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