When you want to point at something — this book, those houses, that one over there — Afrikaans gives you a small, tidy set of demonstratives. The two everyday words are hierdie (this/these) and daardie (that/those), and the best news for an English speaker is that neither one changes for singular or plural. This page covers the demonstrative determiners that sit in front of a noun, plus the stressed pronoun dié; demonstratives used alone in place of a noun are covered on their own page.
hierdie and daardie — near and far
Afrikaans, like English, splits the world into near the speaker and far from the speaker:
- hierdie = this / these (near)
- daardie = that / those (far)
They go directly in front of the noun, replacing the article:
| Afrikaans | English |
|---|---|
| hierdie boek | this book |
| hierdie boeke | these books |
| daardie huis | that house |
| daardie huise | those houses |
Hierdie kind het sy skoene verloor.
This child has lost his shoes.
Daardie huise is almal te duur vir ons.
Those houses are all too expensive for us.
One form for singular and plural
Look again at the table above: hierdie boek and hierdie boeke use the same demonstrative. The noun changes from singular to plural (boek → boeke), but hierdie itself does not budge. The same is true of daardie.
This is a real simplification compared with English. English forces a choice — this versus these, that versus those — and learners of English have to remember four words. Afrikaans gives you just two, each covering both numbers.
Hierdie skoene is te klein vir my.
These shoes are too small for me.
Ek hou nie van daardie kleure nie.
I don't like those colours.
Where the words come from
The transparency of these words makes them easy to remember. They are built straight from two location words plus the definite article die (the):
- hier (here) + die → hierdie ("here-the" → this)
- daar (there) + die → daardie ("there-the" → that)
Once you see that hierdie literally packages "here" with "the", the near/far logic is self-explanatory: the demonstrative that contains here points near, and the one that contains there points far.
Hierdie tas is myne, maar daardie een is joune.
This bag is mine, but that one is yours.
This last example shows the near/far contrast inside a single sentence — hierdie for the bag close to the speaker, daardie for the one further off. Setting them against each other like this is the most natural way to make the contrast vivid.
dié — the stressed demonstrative
Alongside hierdie/daardie, Afrikaans has a short, stressed demonstrative dié, written with an acute accent. It means roughly this/that very one — it singles something out emphatically. You will most often meet it picking out one item from several.
Ek wil dié een hê, nie daardie een nie.
I want this one, not that one.
Dié boek het my lewe verander.
This book changed my life.
The acute accent is doing essential work here. Without it, die (no accent) is just the ordinary definite article the — an unstressed, throwaway word. With the accent, dié is stressed and pointed: this one specifically. The two words look almost identical on the page but play opposite roles.
Van al die opsies is dié die beste.
Of all the options, this is the best one.
Colloquial reinforcement: hierso and daarso
In casual speech you will hear hierso (right here) and daarso (right there) used to reinforce a demonstrative or stand in for here/there. They are conversational and a touch emphatic — handy to recognise, though not something you need in careful writing.
Sit dit hierso neer, asseblief.
Put it down right here, please.
Daardie boom daarso is honderde jare oud.
That tree over there is hundreds of years old.
These reinforced forms are firmly informal — fine among friends, but in formal or written Afrikaans you would simply use hier and daar.
Common mistakes
❌ Hierdies boeke is interessant.
Incorrect — hierdie never takes a plural -s; it is invariant.
✅ Hierdie boeke is interessant.
These books are interesting.
❌ Daardies huise is te duur.
Incorrect — daardie is the same for singular and plural; no -s.
✅ Daardie huise is te duur.
Those houses are too expensive.
❌ Ek wil die een hê, nie daardie een nie.
Incorrect — without the accent, die reads as the article 'the', not 'this one'.
✅ Ek wil dié een hê, nie daardie een nie.
I want this one, not that one.
❌ Hierdie die kind is moeg.
Incorrect — the demonstrative replaces the article; you cannot use both.
✅ Hierdie kind is moeg.
This child is tired.
Key takeaways
- hierdie = this/these (near); daardie = that/those (far).
- Both are invariant — the noun shows number, not the demonstrative. One form covers singular and plural.
- They are built transparently from hier/daar + die.
- dié (with an acute accent) is the stressed "this/that very one"; the accent is what distinguishes it from the article die "the".
- hierso/daarso are informal reinforcements.
- For demonstratives standing alone in place of a noun, see demonstrative pronouns; for the plain article, see the definite article.
Now practice Afrikaans
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Start learning Afrikaans→Related Topics
- Determiners: OverviewA1 — Afrikaans determiners — demonstratives, possessives, quantifiers and more — sit in front of the noun and almost never inflect; the only real work is the near/far split and a few idioms.
- Demonstrative Pronouns: dié, hierdie, daardieA2 — When a demonstrative stands alone — Hierdie is myne, Gee my dié — Afrikaans uses dié with an acute accent (the only thing in writing that tells it apart from the article die), plus pronominal hierdie and daardie, all unmarked for number.
- The Definite Article: dieA1 — Afrikaans die is a single invariable 'the' — where it matches English, where Afrikaans keeps it but English drops it, and how it differs from the stressed demonstrative dié.