Beyond the plain comparative (groter as — bigger than) lies a family of paired constructions that compare degrees rather than just two things. This page handles two of them: the equative, which says two things are equal on some scale (as tall as), and the gradual-increase construction al hoe + comparative (increasingly warm). The third member, the proportional hoe ... hoe ("the more ... the more"), has its own home — to avoid repeating it, see comparative correlatives. The single most important thing here, and the thing that traps almost every English speaker, is that the Afrikaans equative is built on soos ("like"), not on as.
The equative: so ... soos ("as ... as")
To say two things are equal on a scale — as tall as, as fast as, as expensive as — Afrikaans uses the frame so + adjective + soos:
Sy is so lank soos ek.
She is as tall as I am.
Die kar is so duur soos 'n huis.
The car is as expensive as a house.
Hy hardloop so vinnig soos die wind.
He runs as fast as the wind.
Dit is nie so erg soos jy dink nie.
It's not as bad as you think.
The structure never varies: so introduces the scale, the adjective or adverb names it, and soos introduces the yardstick you measure against. So lank soos, so vinnig soos, so warm soos — the pattern is rock-solid.
Why it's soos and not as — the trap
This is where English interference does its worst damage. In English, both halves of comparison use the same little word: taller *than me and as tall **as me. An English speaker reasonably assumes Afrikaans works the same way, sees that "than" is *as (groter *as ek — bigger than me), and concludes that "as ... as" must be *so ... as. It is not.
Afrikaans cleanly separates the two relations:
| Relation | English | Afrikaans | Example |
|---|---|---|---|
| Inequality (comparative) | bigger than | groter as | Sy is groter as ek. |
| Equality (equative) | as big as | so groot soos | Sy is so groot soos ek. |
So the same English word as corresponds to two different Afrikaans words depending on the relation: as for "than" (inequality) and soos for "as ... as" (equality). The logic is actually cleaner than English: soos means "like / similar to," and an equative is a statement of likeness — so lank soos ek literally reads "so tall like me." Hold onto that literal reading and you will never reach for as in an equative again.
Note also the negated equative: nie so ... soos ... nie keeps the double negation, with the closing nie at the end — Dit is nie so erg soos jy dink nie. For the comparative groter as, see the comparative.
ewe ... as and net so ... soos — two refinements
Two further equative patterns deserve a mention.
ewe + adjective + as means "equally [adjective] as," with a slightly more formal, measured flavour. Crucially, ewe takes as (not soos) — this is the one equative that pairs with as, because ewe already means "equally" and behaves like a comparative degree word.
Albei kandidate is ewe bekwaam.
Both candidates are equally capable.
Sy is ewe gemaklik in Afrikaans as in Engels.
She is equally comfortable in Afrikaans as in English.
net so ... soos intensifies the plain equative to "just as ... as," emphasising that the equality is exact:
Hierdie een is net so goed soos die ander.
This one is just as good as the other.
Dit was net so warm soos gister.
It was just as hot as yesterday.
Here net is the focus particle "just / exactly" leaning on the equality; the soos frame is untouched.
al hoe + comparative: "increasingly"
Afrikaans expresses gradual, continuing increase along a scale with al hoe followed by a comparative form. Al hoe warmer = "warmer and warmer / increasingly warm." This is a single fixed phrase: al hoe is the intensifier, and the comparative does the scaling.
Dit word al hoe warmer.
It's getting warmer and warmer.
Sy raak al hoe beter met oefening.
She's getting steadily better with practice.
Die situasie word al hoe ingewikkelder.
The situation is becoming increasingly complicated.
Daar kom al hoe meer mense.
More and more people keep arriving.
Two things to get right. First, al hoe is a frozen unit — you do not insert anything between al and hoe, and you do not drop the al (bare hoe meer on its own would be heard as part of the hoe ... hoe proportional, a different construction). Second, what follows al hoe must be a genuine comparative: warmer, beter, meer, ingewikkelder — not the base adjective. Al hoe warm is wrong; it has to be al hoe warmer.
A close relative is bare al + comparative on its own (dit word al warmer), which also conveys ongoing increase and is common in speech; al hoe simply strengthens it.
How these relate to hoe ... hoe
The proportional construction — Hoe meer hy eet, hoe dikker word hy ("the more he eats, the fatter he gets") — uses two clauses linked by repeated hoe and triggers verb-final order in the second clause. It is genuinely a different beast from the single-phrase equatives and increase-words on this page, and it is fully treated, with its word-order rules, on comparative correlatives. Keep them apart: so ... soos equates two things in one clause; hoe ... hoe links two whole clauses in a cause-and-effect proportion.
Common mistakes
❌ Sy is so lank as ek.
Incorrect — the equative second slot is soos, not as. as means 'than'.
✅ Sy is so lank soos ek.
She is as tall as I am.
❌ Dit is nie so erg soos jy dink.
Incorrect — the closing nie of the negation is missing.
✅ Dit is nie so erg soos jy dink nie.
It's not as bad as you think.
❌ Dit word al hoe warm.
Incorrect — al hoe needs a comparative, not the base adjective.
✅ Dit word al hoe warmer.
It's getting warmer and warmer.
❌ Dit word hoe warmer. (meaning: increasingly warm)
Incorrect — dropping the al leaves a fragment of the hoe...hoe proportional; the increase word is al hoe warmer.
✅ Dit word al hoe warmer.
It's getting increasingly warm.
❌ Albei is ewe bekwaam soos mekaar.
Incorrect — ewe pairs with as, not soos; and 'soos mekaar' is redundant here.
✅ Albei is ewe bekwaam.
Both are equally capable.
Key takeaways
- The equative "as ... as" is so
- adjective + soos: so lank soos ek. The second word is soos ("like"), never as.
- as means "than" (inequality, groter as); soos means "as ... as" (equality). English uses one word for both, which is the core trap.
- ewe ... as ("equally ... as") is the exception that does take as; net so ... soos means "just as ... as".
- Negated equatives keep the double negation: nie so ... soos ... nie.
- al hoe
- comparative means "increasingly": al hoe warmer, al hoe meer. It is a frozen unit and demands a true comparative.
- For the proportional "the more ... the more" (hoe ... hoe), see comparative correlatives; for the plain comparative, see the comparative.
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Start learning Afrikaans→Related Topics
- Comparatives: -er and meerA2 — How Afrikaans builds the comparative — most adjectives add -er (groter, duurder), longer ones take meer, and 'than' is always as, never dan.
- Comparative Correlatives and Result ClausesB2 — The 'the more...the more' pattern (hoe meer, hoe beter), the 'so...that' result clause (so koud dat ons gebewe het) and the 'too...to' template (te duur om te koop).
- Correlative Conjunctions: of...of, nóg...nóg, hoe...hoeB2 — Afrikaans pairs conjunctions in matched two-part frames — of...of, nóg...nóg, sowel...as, nie net...nie maar ook, and the comparative hoe...hoe — each demanding parallel structure on both sides.
- Superlatives: -ste and die meesA2 — The superlative adds -ste and an obligatory die (die grootste, die mooiste); long adjectives use die mees, and the article die clings on even in places where English would drop 'the'.