Dutch Transfer: Spelling and Final -n | Afrikaans Grammar

Afrikaans grew out of Dutch, and the family resemblance is so strong that a Dutch speaker — or anyone who has studied Dutch — can read Afrikaans almost on sight. That very closeness is the trap. The two languages diverged most visibly in their spelling: Afrikaans deliberately simplified Dutch orthography in a handful of systematic ways, and the most common error for Dutch-influenced learners is writing the Dutch form where Afrikaans uses its own respelling. The good news is that the changes are rules, not a thousand unrelated facts. Learn the handful of transformations on this page and you can "de-Dutchify" almost any Dutch word into its correct Afrikaans spelling. The wider Afrikaans spelling system is on spelling overview; this page is specifically about the Dutch forms to unlearn.

Drop the final -n

The single most pervasive change is that Afrikaans dropped the unstressed final -n that Dutch keeps. Dutch plural and infinitive endings -en became Afrikaans -e; Dutch words ending in -en generally lost the -n. This is regular and almost exceptionless in everyday vocabulary, so any Dutch -en ending is a red flag.

❌ Wij lopen elke dag.

Dutch form — Afrikaans drops the final -n: loop, and uses ons / elke.

✅ Ons loop elke dag.

We walk every day.

The Dutch infinitive lopen becomes Afrikaans loop; the same goes for eten → eet, maken → maak, spreken → praat/spreek. The change is just as systematic in nouns:

Dutch	Afrikaans	English
boeken	boeke	books
tuinen	tuine	gardens
mensen	mense	people
lopen	loop	to walk
open	oop	open
tussen	tussen	between

Note tussen in that last row: not every Dutch -en drops the -n, because in tussen the -en is not the droppable unstressed ending — it is part of the stem, and Afrikaans keeps it. The rule targets the grammatical -en of plurals and infinitives, not every letter sequence e-n. Even so, the overwhelming majority of Dutch -en endings you meet are exactly the droppable kind.

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If a Dutch word ends in the grammatical -en (a plural or an infinitive), the Afrikaans form almost always ends in -e or a bare stem: boeken → boeke, lopen → loop. When you catch yourself writing a final -n on a plural or infinitive, delete it.

ij becomes y

Dutch writes a digraph ij (in mijn, zijn, wij, tijd) where Afrikaans writes a plain y. This is one of the most visible spelling differences between the languages, and writing Dutch ij in Afrikaans is an instant tell. The pronunciation is similar; only the spelling changed.

❌ Dit is mijn boek.

Dutch ij — Afrikaans spells it y: my.

✅ Dit is my boek.

This is my book.

Dutch (ij)	Afrikaans (y)	English
mijn	my	my
wij	wy	we
tijd	tyd	time
vrij	vry	free
blijven	bly	to stay

Be careful not to over-correct: Afrikaans ei (in trein, eier, klein) is a genuinely different vowel and stays ei — it does not become y. The ij → y rule applies only where Dutch had ij, not where it had ei. The ei/y distinction within Afrikaans is its own topic, on ei vs y.

❌ Wij blijven hier.

Dutch ij twice — Afrikaans: wy bly.

✅ Wy bly hier.

We're staying here.

z becomes s

Dutch z at the start of a word generally becomes Afrikaans s. Afrikaans largely abolished the z in native vocabulary (it survives only in loanwords like zoem or proper names), so a leading z on an everyday word is Dutch.

❌ Zij is mijn zuster.

Dutch z and ij — Afrikaans: sy is my suster.

✅ Sy is my suster.

She is my sister.

Dutch (z)	Afrikaans (s)	English
zee	see	sea
zon	son	sun
zuster	suster	sister
zout	sout	salt
zeven	sewe	seven

Note zij → sy and zijn → sy/wees combine two rules at once (the z → s and the ij → y), and zeven → sewe additionally drops the final -n and changes the medial v to w — Dutch transformations often stack.

-tie becomes -sie

The Dutch noun ending -tie (in natie, politie, informatie) becomes Afrikaans -sie, spelling the sound the way Afrikaans actually pronounces it. This matches the broader Afrikaans preference for transparent spelling.

❌ De natie wacht op informatie.

Dutch -tie and other Dutch forms — Afrikaans: die nasie wag op inligting.

✅ Die nasie wag op inligting.

The nation is waiting for information.

Dutch (-tie)	Afrikaans (-sie)	English
natie	nasie	nation
politie	polisie	police
positie	posisie	position
traditie	tradisie	tradition
nationaal	nasionaal	national

-lijk becomes -lik and -isch becomes -ies

Two more endings round out the set. The Dutch adverb/adjective suffix -lijk (in vriendelijk, gemakkelijk, natuurlijk) becomes Afrikaans -lik: the ij drops out and you write -lik. And the Dutch adjective ending -isch (in logisch, fantastisch) becomes Afrikaans -ies.

❌ Hij is vriendelijk en eerlijk.

Dutch -lijk twice (and Dutch hij) — Afrikaans: hy is vriendelik en eerlik.

✅ Hy is vriendelik en eerlik.

He is friendly and honest.

Dutch	Afrikaans	English
vriendelijk	vriendelik	friendly
natuurlijk	natuurlik	naturally / of course
moeilijk	moeilik	difficult
logisch	logies	logical
fantastisch	fantasties	fantastic

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Three suffix swaps to drill together: -tie → -sie (nasie), -lijk → -lik (vriendelik), -isch → -ies (logies). Afrikaans consistently respells these to match how the word sounds, so when you see a Dutch academic or abstract word, run it through these three rules before writing it.

Watch the double consonants and the v

Two smaller patterns are worth flagging. First, Dutch sometimes doubles a consonant where Afrikaans, after dropping a final -n or -e, has only one — and conversely Afrikaans doubles consonants by its own rules to keep a vowel short (treated on consonant doubling), so you cannot simply copy the Dutch consonant count. Second, Dutch medial v often corresponds to Afrikaans w: zeven → sewe, geven → gee, blijven → bly. Do not assume the Dutch consonant carries over unchanged.

❌ Ik wil je dit boek geven.

Dutch forms throughout — Afrikaans: ek wil jou hierdie boek gee.

✅ Ek wil jou hierdie boek gee.

I want to give you this book.

Common mistakes

❌ Wij lopen naar de winkel.

Dutch -n on the infinitive plus Dutch wij/de — Afrikaans: ons loop na die winkel.

✅ Ons loop na die winkel.

We walk to the shop.

❌ Dit is mijn vrije tijd.

Dutch ij three times — Afrikaans spells it y: my vry tyd.

✅ Dit is my vry tyd.

This is my free time.

❌ De politie zoekt informatie.

Dutch -tie and z — Afrikaans: die polisie soek inligting.

✅ Die polisie soek inligting.

The police are looking for information.

❌ Natuurlijk is het moeilijk.

Dutch -lijk twice — Afrikaans: natuurlik is dit moeilik.

✅ Natuurlik is dit moeilik.

Of course it's difficult.

❌ Zij heeft zeven boeken.

Dutch z, ij, final -n and the verb form — Afrikaans: sy het sewe boeke.

✅ Sy het sewe boeke.

She has seven books.

Key takeaways

Afrikaans dropped the unstressed final -n of Dutch plurals and infinitives: boeken → boeke, lopen → loop. A final -n on a plural or infinitive is almost always Dutch.
Dutch ij becomes y: mijn → my, tijd → tyd, wij → wy. Do not over-correct Afrikaans ei (in trein, klein), which stays ei.
Dutch z becomes s in native words: zee → see, zuster → suster, zout → sout.
The suffixes swap: -tie → -sie (nasie, polisie), -lijk → -lik (vriendelik, natuurlik), -isch → -ies (logies, fantasties).
Dutch medial v often becomes w (zeven → sewe, geven → gee), and consonant doubling follows Afrikaans rules, not Dutch — so de-Dutchify the whole word, not just its ending.

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