How does Afrikaans differ from Dutch? A page entirely in Afrikaans tells you the answer

Friday, November 26, 2010

I noticed a link to this page on a forum yesterday, one that may well be the best source to refer to on just how similar Afrikaans and Dutch are, written from the point of view of an Afrikaans speaker (actually two) after a few years in the Netherlands. It's called Nederlands vir (Afrikaanse) dommies, and starts out with the top ten things you need to watch out for when attempting to use a modified Afrikaans to do things in the Netherlands. These are:


  • Baie - not understood, use zeer, heel, veel instead
  • Lekker - not used quite as much, gives examples of where other words would be used instead
  • pronouns - using Dutch pronouns is a definite necessity given their frequency
  • verb conjugation - since Afrikaans verbs hardly conjugate at all
  • pronunciation - quick tips on how it differs
  • double negative - when to replace it with niet, and when with geen
  • common vocabulary - words such as kar (auto), naweek (weekend), vinnig (snel)
  • hê - hebben
  • pleasantries - how to properly thank people in Dutch instead of always wanting to say baie dankie everywhere
  • more on daily expressions - mentions that while basic words (boom, huis) are almost all the same, it's daily expressions that you need to watch out for.

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