Common Mistakes: Overview | Afrikaans Grammar

Mistakes are not random. The errors you make in Afrikaans are largely predictable from one fact: which language you already speak. This page maps the error-correction pages and sorts them by their source, so you can go straight to the mistakes you are personally prone to and skip the ones that belong to other learners. Knowing why you are about to err is half the battle.

The key idea: error source predicts error type

Two big populations learn Afrikaans, and they make almost opposite mistakes.

English speakers carry over the habits of English: they forget that Afrikaans negates twice, they reach for the verb in the wrong slot, and they insert a "do" that Afrikaans does not use. Dutch speakers carry over the habits of Dutch: they import the Dutch word for "than," the reflexive zich, the pronoun pair hen/hun, and the Dutch split between two perfect-tense auxiliaries. The same sentence that an English speaker botches one way, a Dutch speaker botches another way entirely.

This is why a single undifferentiated "common mistakes" list — the kind most resources publish — is so inefficient. Half of it is irrelevant to you and may even plant errors you would never otherwise have made. Sorting by source fixes that.

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Before studying any error, ask which source it comes from. If you don't speak Dutch, you will never make the Dutch-transfer mistakes — so don't waste attention on them. If you do, those are exactly the ones to drill.

Source 1: English transfer

These are the errors English speakers make because English works differently. Three are near-universal.

Dropping the closing nie. Afrikaans negation is a bracket: a nie near the negated element and a second nie at the end of the clause. English has only one negator, so English speakers consistently forget the second one. This is the single most common English-transfer error — see the missing second nie.

Ek weet nie waar dit is nie.

I don't know where it is. (two nie's — the bracket closes the clause)

Adding do-support. English builds questions and negatives with "do" (do you know?, I don't know). Afrikaans has no such auxiliary, so the transferred "do" produces a phantom verb. Covered on do-support errors.

Hou jy van koffie?

Do you like coffee? (no 'do' — the verb itself inverts)

False friends. Some Afrikaans words look like English words but mean something else, and the resemblance lures you into the wrong choice — see English false friends.

Ek het 'n probleem met die warm water.

I have a problem with the hot water. ('warm' here is genuinely 'hot' — but watch other look-alikes)

Source 2: Dutch transfer

Many learners come to Afrikaans already knowing Dutch, lulled by how close the two are — and that closeness is precisely the trap. The languages diverged, and the small differences are where Dutch speakers slip.

"Than" — dan vs as. Dutch uses dan for "than" in comparisons; Afrikaans uses as. This is one of the most stubborn Dutch-transfer errors because the Dutch form feels so natural — see the dan-for-than transfer.

Sy is groter as ek.

She is taller than me. (Afrikaans 'as', not Dutch 'dan')

Pronouns — zich, hen/hun. Dutch has the reflexive zich and the object pronouns hen/hun; Afrikaans simplified all of this. The reflexive often disappears, and the pronoun system is leaner — see Dutch pronoun transfer.

Hy was homself nie.

Hmm — Afrikaans uses 'hom' / 'homself', never Dutch 'zich'; many verbs that are reflexive in Dutch are not in Afrikaans.

The perfect auxiliary — hebben/zijn. Dutch splits the perfect between hebben (have) and zijn (be) across many verbs. Afrikaans uses het for almost everything, keeping is only for a tiny set. Dutch speakers over-apply the zijn-equivalent — see Dutch perfect transfer.

Ek het gister gekom.

I came yesterday. (Afrikaans 'het', where Dutch would use 'ben' / zijn)

Source 3: internal Afrikaans difficulties

A third group of errors comes from neither language — they are simply parts of Afrikaans that are tricky for everyone: the negation bracket again (it catches even advanced learners in long sentences), the adjective -e ending rule, and the spelling of the v/f and ei/y pairs. These do not split by source, so all learners study them.

Dit is 'n mooi huis, maar dit is nie groot genoeg nie.

It's a nice house, but it's not big enough. (the bracket reappears in the negative clause)

How to use this group

Identify your source language first. If English is your only other language, prioritise missing second nie, do-support and false friends. If you also know Dutch, add dan-for-than, pronoun transfer and perfect transfer to the top of your list. Everyone studies the internal-difficulty pages.

Common mistakes

❌ Ek weet nie waar dit is.

English-transfer — the closing 'nie' is missing.

✅ Ek weet nie waar dit is nie.

I don't know where it is.

❌ Doen jy van koffie hou?

English-transfer — phantom 'do'-support; Afrikaans has no 'do'.

✅ Hou jy van koffie?

Do you like coffee?

❌ Sy is groter dan ek.

Dutch-transfer — 'dan' for 'than'. Afrikaans uses 'as'.

✅ Sy is groter as ek.

She is taller than me.

❌ Ek ben gister gekom.

Dutch-transfer — importing 'ben/zijn' as the perfect auxiliary. Afrikaans uses 'het'.

✅ Ek het gister gekom.

I came yesterday.

Key takeaways

Your errors are predictable from your source language — sort them by source and study only what applies to you.
English transfer: dropping the second nie, phantom do-support, false friends.
Dutch transfer: dan-for-than, zich and hen/hun pronouns, the hebben/zijn perfect split.
Internal difficulties (the negation bracket, the -e ending, v/f and ei/y spelling) catch everyone, regardless of source.
English and Dutch speakers make opposite mistakes — a split most resources ignore but that this group is built around.

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