Afrikaans Adjectives: Overview

Afrikaans adjectives have almost no grammar to them — no gender, no number, no case. There is exactly one thing to master, and it is the thing this page is built around: an adjective is bare when it comes after the noun (predicative) but often takes an -e ending when it comes before the noun (attributive). Getting a feel for when that -e appears is the single biggest adjective challenge in the language, and the good news is that it is rule-governed, not random. This page gives you the lay of the land; the detailed -e rules and the comparative have their own pages.

The two positions

An adjective can sit in two places, and the position decides the form.

Predicative — after the noun, linked by a verb like is (is/are). Here the adjective is always bare: no ending, no change.

Attributive — directly in front of the noun, modifying it. Here the adjective often takes -e.

Look at the pair: die huis is groot (predicative, bare) becomes 'n groot huis (attributive). In this case groot happens not to add -e — but lekker does not either (die lekker kos), while many other adjectives do. That split is the whole story, and we will unpack it below.

No gender, no number agreement

Before the -e puzzle, savour what Afrikaans does not make you do. Unlike German, Dutch, French or Spanish, Afrikaans adjectives do not agree with the noun for gender or number. The adjective form is the same whether the noun is singular or plural, "masculine" or "feminine" (categories Afrikaans does not even have).

So the only alternation in the entire adjective system is the attributive -e. There is nothing else to track — which is exactly why it deserves your full attention.

The attributive -e alternation

Here is the core challenge stated plainly: some adjectives add -e when attributive, and some do not. Compare two clean cases.

An adjective that stays bare attributively:

An adjective that adds -e attributively, with a stem change:

Whether -e appears is partly phonological (it depends on how the word ends and how many syllables it has) and partly lexical (some individual words simply behave their own way and must be learned). The full set of rules lives on the attributive -e page; the goal here is for you to expect the alternation and recognise it, not to master every case yet.

Adding -e is not just gluing on a letter

When an adjective does take -e, the stem frequently changes in spelling or even drops a sound. These changes are where the orthography gets interesting, and they are predictable enough to learn as patterns.

Notice oud → ou: the attributive form actually loses the final d, giving the very common die ou man. And hoog → hoë: the g disappears and a diaeresis appears on the e to show that the two vowels are pronounced separately, not as a single sound. These are not typos — they are the regular consequences of adding -e.

A note on adjectives like mooi

Some adjectives genuinely allow both the bare and the -e form attributively, with mooi (beautiful) the classic example. You will encounter both die mooi blom and die mooie blom, and both are used by native speakers. This is one corner where the rule has real flex, and it is honest to say so rather than pretend there is a single right answer. The detailed page sorts out which adjectives are fixed and which vary; for now, simply know that mooi is not a counterexample to learn around — it is a word with two acceptable attributive forms.

Why this matters more than it looks

For an English speaker, the temptation runs in two opposite directions, and both are wrong.

The first temptation is to never add -e, because English adjectives never inflect (a big house, the house is big — same word). Carry that habit over and you produce die hoog muur, which sounds clearly off to a native ear.

The second temptation, once you have learned that -e exists, is to over-apply it — to bolt -e onto a predicative adjective too: die huis is grote. That is equally wrong. The -e belongs to the attributive position only.

The whole skill, then, is a two-part reflex: bare after the noun, and before the noun add *-e only when the word calls for it.* Master that and you have mastered Afrikaans adjective form, because there is nothing else.

Common mistakes

Key takeaways

• Afrikaans adjectives have no gender or number agreement — the only alternation is the attributive -e.
• Predicative (after the noun): always bare (die kos is lekker).
• Attributive (before the noun): often, but not always, takes -e (die mooie dag, die hoë muur).
• Adding -e triggers stem changes (oud → ou, hoog → hoë, goed → goeie) and sometimes a diaeresis.
• A few adjectives like mooi allow both forms attributively.
• For the precise rules on when -e appears, see attributive -e; for bare forms, see predicative adjectives; for bigger/biggest, see the comparative.