Some Afrikaans verbs cannot stand alone when they take a complement: they reach for a fixed preposition the way to depend reaches for on in English. Reken op (to count on), dink aan (to think of), wag vir (to wait for) — in each, the preposition is welded to the verb. The trouble for an English speaker is that the welded preposition is almost never the literal translation of the English one, and a Dutch speaker faces a different trap, since Afrikaans has quietly reassigned several of the prepositions Dutch uses. This page treats these pairs as chunks — units to memorise whole — because that is the only reliable defence against transfer errors. (For an exhaustive list, see the reference table; here we explain the logic and drill the high-frequency ones.)
Why the preposition is not negotiable
When a verb governs a fixed preposition, that preposition has lost its ordinary spatial meaning. Aan normally means on or against, but in dink aan it means nothing locational at all — it is simply the grammatical glue that dink demands before its object. You cannot reason your way to it from the English; you cannot swap it for a synonym. The pairing is arbitrary in the same way that English interested takes in (not for or about) — a fact you learned, not deduced.
This is why translation fails so reliably here. English think of contains of, but Afrikaans does not say dink van; it says dink aan. English wait for contains for, but the literal for (vir) only sometimes works, as we will see.
Sy dink aan haar ma.
She is thinking of her mother.
Ons reken op jou.
We're counting on you.
Hy kyk na die wedstryd op die televisie.
He's watching the match on television.
The high-frequency chunks
These are the collocations you will meet daily. Learn the pair, and ignore — for now — what the preposition "means."
| Afrikaans chunk | English | Literal English preposition | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| wag vir | to wait for | for ✓ | but see wag op below |
| dink aan | to think of / about | of / about ✗ | not dink van |
| luister na | to listen to | to ✗ | not luister tot |
| kyk na | to look at / watch | at ✗ | not kyk by |
| hou van | to like | — | literally "hold of" |
| soek na | to search for | for ✗ | plain soek + object also common |
| reken op | to count / rely on | on ✓ | |
| hoop op | to hope for | for ✗ | not hoop vir |
| vra vir / om | to ask (someone) / ask for | for ✓ / ✗ | see split below |
| glo in | to believe in | in ✓ | |
| lag vir | to laugh at | at ✗ | not lag by; "laugh for" |
| trou met | to marry | — | "marry with," like Dutch/German |
| bang wees vir | to be afraid of | of ✗ | "afraid for" |
Notice the pattern in the third column: the literal English preposition matches only a handful of the time. Reken op and glo in happen to align with count on and believe in; almost everything else does not. That mismatch is exactly why a B2 learner who is "thinking in English" produces dink van, luister tot, lag by — each a fluent-sounding disaster.
Ek wag al 'n halfuur vir jou.
I've been waiting half an hour for you.
Ek hou nie van koue koffie nie.
I don't like cold coffee.
Hou op om vir my te lag!
Stop laughing at me!
Sy trou volgende maand met haar hoërskoolkêrel.
She's marrying her high-school boyfriend next month.
The insight English hides: wag vir versus wag op
English flattens two different ideas into one phrasal verb, wait for. Afrikaans keeps them apart, and the distinction is genuinely useful once you see it.
Wag vir is for waiting for a person or thing — someone or something you expect to arrive. The complement is concrete and animate-ish: a friend, a bus, a parcel.
Wag op is for awaiting an outcome or event — a result, a decision, a sign, news. The complement is an abstract happening you are anticipating. (This is also closer to the formal, slightly more literary register.)
Ek wag vir my suster by die stasie.
I'm waiting for my sister at the station.
Die hele land wag op die uitslae van die verkiesing.
The whole country is awaiting the election results.
Ons wag nog op 'n antwoord van die bank.
We're still waiting on an answer from the bank.
So waiting for my sister (a person, arriving) is wag vir, while awaiting the results (an event, unfolding) is wag op. English forces you to say "wait for" both times; Afrikaans lets you signal which kind of waiting you mean. Treat wag op as the marked, abstract option and wag vir as the everyday default, and you will rarely go wrong.
When two prepositions are both possible
Beyond wag, a few verbs license two prepositions with a nuance shift. Vra is the classic case. Vra vir introduces the person you ask; vra om (often vra om te + infinitive) introduces what you ask for or request to do.
Vra vir die kelner om die rekening.
Ask the waiter for the bill.
Hy het gevra om vroeër te loop.
He asked to leave earlier.
Here both prepositions can even co-occur: vra vir marks the addressee, om marks the request. With soek, the bare transitive (soek + object) and soek na overlap heavily; soek na leans abstract or sustained ("search for a solution"), while plain soek is the everyday "look for my keys."
Ek soek my sleutels — het jy hulle gesien?
I'm looking for my keys — have you seen them?
Die navorsers soek na 'n behandeling vir die siekte.
The researchers are searching for a treatment for the disease.
A note on Dutch transfer
If you come to Afrikaans through Dutch, a different set of errors awaits you, because the two languages have diverged on exactly these chunks. The headline case is wait for: Dutch has only wachten op, with no everyday "wachten voor/voor." A Dutch speaker therefore tends to render every "wait for" as wag op — which over-applies the abstract, event-awaiting form to people and buses, where Afrikaans wants wag vir. Several other pairs differ in the preposition itself or in spelling, so do not assume a Dutch collocation survives intact into Afrikaans. (The dedicated Dutch-transfer preposition page collects these.)
Common mistakes
❌ Ek wag voor die bus.
Incorrect — 'voor' is a literal translation of 'for'; it actually means 'in front of'.
✅ Ek wag vir die bus.
I'm waiting for the bus.
❌ Sy dink van haar ma.
Incorrect — English 'think of' transferred; the verb governs 'aan', not 'van'.
✅ Sy dink aan haar ma.
She is thinking of her mother.
❌ Hou op om vir my te lag by!
Incorrect — 'laugh at' transferred as 'by'; the chunk is 'lag vir'.
✅ Hou op om vir my te lag!
Stop laughing at me!
❌ Ek wag op my suster by die stasie.
Incorrect (Dutch transfer) — 'wag op' is for awaiting an event; a person you wait FOR.
✅ Ek wag vir my suster by die stasie.
I'm waiting for my sister at the station.
❌ Ek hoop vir beter weer môre.
Incorrect — 'hoop' governs 'op', not the literal 'vir' for 'for'.
✅ Ek hoop op beter weer môre.
I'm hoping for better weather tomorrow.
Key takeaways
- Many verbs demand a fixed preposition whose meaning is grammatical, not spatial — memorise the pair as one chunk.
- The fixed preposition rarely matches the literal English one (dink aan, not dink van; lag vir, not lag by).
- wag vir = wait for a person/thing; wag op = await an event/outcome — a distinction English's single "wait for" hides.
- A few verbs (notably vra) license two prepositions with a nuance shift: vra vir (the person) vs vra om (the request).
- Dutch speakers must resist over-using wag op; Dutch lacks the wag vir / wag op split.
- For the full inventory, consult the verbs-with-prepositions reference.
Now practice Afrikaans
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Start learning Afrikaans→Related Topics
- Verbs with Fixed Prepositions (Reference)B1 — A frequency-ordered reference of Afrikaans verbs that govern a fixed, unpredictable preposition — wag vir, dink aan, hou van — that must be learned as a unit.
- Collocations and Phraseology: OverviewB2 — Collocations are the word-partnerships that make Afrikaans sound native — which verbs, adjectives and nouns habitually go together — and why learning them in chunks beats learning words alone.
- Afrikaans Prepositions: OverviewA1 — A map of the Afrikaans preposition system — invariant little words, many cognate with English, plus the destination postposition 'toe' and circumpositions English lacks.
- Wrong Prepositions (English and Dutch Transfer)B1 — The Afrikaans prepositions that English and Dutch speakers get wrong — wag vir, bang vir, trots op, luister na, dink aan and more — with the English and Dutch wrong forms paired side by side.
- Abstract and Figurative PrepositionsB2 — How Afrikaans prepositions extend from space into abstract meaning — in gevaar, op grond van, met betrekking tot — and why the compound ones are a formal-register resource you learn as fixed chunks.
- Fixed Prepositional CollocationsB2 — Adjectives that lock to a particular preposition — trots op, lief vir, gewoond aan — and why you cannot guess them from English.