Afrikaans adjectives come in two situations, and one of them is effortless. When an adjective sits after a linking verb — the house *is big, she **looks tired — it is *predicative, and in this position the adjective is always bare: just the stem, with no ending and no agreement for number or anything else. This is the easy half of the Afrikaans adjective system, and the best place to start, because once "predicative = bare" is automatic, the trickier attributive rules become much easier to see by contrast.
The rule: predicative adjectives never change
After the linking verbs wees (to be → is), word (to become), lyk (to look/seem), bly (to stay/remain) and a few others, the adjective stays in its plain dictionary form. It does not add -e. It does not change for a plural subject. It does not change for anything.
Die huis is groot.
The house is big.
Die kos is lekker.
The food is delicious.
Sy is gelukkig.
She is happy.
Notice there is nothing to tweak. Groot is groot; lekker is lekker. Whatever follows the linking verb, you reach for the bare stem.
Number doesn't matter
This is the point English speakers most need to internalise, because it feels like something should change for a plural. It does not. A plural subject takes the same bare adjective as a singular one.
| Singular | Plural | English |
|---|---|---|
| Die hond is groot. | Die honde is groot. | The dog/dogs is/are big. |
| Die blom is mooi. | Die blomme is mooi. | The flower/flowers is/are beautiful. |
| Die kind is moeg. | Die kinders is moeg. | The child/children is/are tired. |
Die honde is groot.
The dogs are big.
Die blomme is mooi.
The flowers are beautiful.
The noun pluralises (hond → honde, blom → blomme), but the adjective sits perfectly still. There is no plural adjective form to learn — because there isn't one.
It works after every linking verb
The bare-stem rule isn't tied to is alone. Any verb that links a subject to a description behaves the same way. The common ones at A1:
word — "to become / to get":
Dit word donker.
It's getting dark.
lyk — "to look / to seem":
Hy lyk moeg.
He looks tired.
bly — "to stay / to remain":
Die winkel bly oop tot agtuur.
The shop stays open until eight o'clock.
In every case the adjective (donker, moeg, oop) is bare. See copular verbs for the full list of these linking verbs.
Why this is only half the system
The reason "predicative = bare" matters so much is that it defines the other half by contrast. When an adjective comes before a noun — the *big house, in one phrase — it is *attributive, and there it often does add -e: die *groot huis but die **mooie blomme, 'n lekker maaltyd but 'n lekkere ete in some cases. The attributive rules have real complexity (which adjectives take -e*, which don't, and why).
The single distinction to lock in now is position:
| Position | Form | Example | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Predicative | after the verb | bare stem | Die huis is groot. |
| Attributive | before the noun | often + -e | die groot huis / die mooie blomme |
Master "predicative = bare" first, and the attributive -e rules become a manageable second step rather than a confusing tangle. Go to attributive -e when you're ready for that half.
A few more in context
Die water is koud, maar die son is warm.
The water is cold, but the sun is warm.
My ouma word oud, maar sy bly sterk.
My grandmother is getting old, but she stays strong.
Jou idee klink goed.
Your idea sounds good.
Common mistakes
❌ Die kos is lekkere.
Incorrect — predicative adjectives are bare; -e belongs to attributive position.
✅ Die kos is lekker.
The food is delicious.
❌ Die honde is grote.
Incorrect — no -e after the verb, even with a plural subject.
✅ Die honde is groot.
The dogs are big.
❌ Die blomme is mooie.
Incorrect — predicative stays bare; 'die mooie blomme' would be the attributive form.
✅ Die blomme is mooi.
The flowers are beautiful.
❌ Hy lyk moege.
Incorrect — after lyk the adjective is bare, like after is.
✅ Hy lyk moeg.
He looks tired.
Key takeaways
- An adjective after a linking verb (is, word, lyk, bly) is predicative and always bare — no ending.
- It never agrees with the subject's number: Die hond is groot and Die honde is groot use the same groot.
- The bare rule holds after every copular verb, not just is.
- The -e ending belongs to attributive position (before the noun) — a separate, more complex topic covered in attributive -e.
- Decide by position: after the verb → bare; before the noun → think about -e.
Now practice Afrikaans
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Start learning Afrikaans→Related Topics
- Afrikaans Adjectives: OverviewA1 — The central fact of Afrikaans adjectives: bare when predicative, often inflected with -e when attributive.
- The Attributive -e: When to Add ItA2 — The single hardest Afrikaans adjective rule, made predictable: when an adjective in front of a noun takes -e, and when it stays bare.
- Copular Verbs: wees, word, lyk, blyA2 — The linking verbs that join a subject to a predicate — is/wees, word, lyk, bly and voel — and why the complement stays bare.
- When -e Changes the MeaningC1 — For a handful of adjectives the attributive -e form is not just inflection — it has drifted into a different, lexicalised meaning, so reg and regte are no longer the same word.
- Adjective Essentials: A ChecklistA2 — The whole Afrikaans adjective system on one page: bare when predicative, +e (with stem changes) when attributive, no gender or number agreement, comparison with -er/-ste, plus the handful of irregulars.