The Pronoun dit: it, this, that

dit is one of the most frequent words in Afrikaans, and one of the easiest to underuse. It is the workhorse "it" — but it stretches further than English "it" does. It is the subject and the object pronoun for things; it is the dummy subject in Dit reën (it's raining); it points back to entire ideas and clauses; and it shrinks to the contraction dis in everyday speech. Because Afrikaans nouns carry no gender, dit is your default pronoun for almost every inanimate thing — there is no "he/she" to choose between, which makes reference dramatically simpler than in German or Dutch.

dit for things: no gender to choose

English mostly uses "it" for things, but it sneakily allows "she" for ships and cars, and learners coming from Dutch or German expect to match a pronoun to a noun's gender. Afrikaans does none of that. Nouns have no gender at all, so dit is the single pronoun for inanimate things, as subject and as object alike.

In dit ry nog goed, English speakers might be tempted to reach for "she" (as in "she runs well" of a car), but Afrikaans simply says dit. There is no gendered alternative to weigh, because the noun kar has no gender. This is one of the genuine simplifications Afrikaans offers: where Dutch agonises over het versus de words and German over der/die/das, Afrikaans gives you one dit and lets you get on with it. The wider system of subject and object pronouns is on subject and object pronouns.

dit as a dummy subject: weather, time, conditions

Afrikaans clauses need a subject, even when there is no real "doer". For weather, temperature, time, and general conditions, dit fills the subject slot with no meaning of its own — exactly like the empty "it" in English "it's raining". This is the dummy or expletive dit.

Here dit points to nothing you can identify; it is grammatical scaffolding. Notice that Afrikaans and English line up neatly: both insert a placeholder "it/dit". This is one of the rare cases where the English instinct serves you perfectly. (Afrikaans also has a parallel dummy daar, "there", for existence — Daar is 'n probleem — which is treated on impersonal dit and daar.)

Anticipatory dit: pointing forward to a clause

A particularly useful pattern: dit can be a placeholder subject that anticipates a longer phrase coming later in the sentence — typically an om te infinitive or a dat-clause. You announce the topic with dit, then deliver the real content at the end.

In Dit is lekker om te swem, the real subject is "to swim" (om te swem), but Afrikaans front-loads a dit so the sentence has a subject in second position and the heavier infinitive phrase can come last. Again this mirrors English "it's nice to swim", so the structure should feel natural — the trap is forgetting the dit and saying Is lekker om te swem, which is incomplete.

dit pointing back to a whole idea

English "it" can refer back to an entire preceding statement, and so can dit — often more readily. After someone says something, dit picks up the whole proposition.

In Ek weet dit, dit stands for the whole idea just mentioned — not a single noun but the entire situation. This anaphoric dit is extremely common in conversation, and English speakers often drop it ("I know" with no object), which sounds clipped in Afrikaans. Where English allows a bare "I know", Afrikaans prefers Ek weet dit when a specific fact is meant, or Ek weet when it is fully general.

dis: the everyday contraction of dit is

In speech and informal writing, dit is routinely contracts to dis. It is the single most common contraction in spoken Afrikaans, the equivalent of English "it's". Both forms are correct; dis is simply the relaxed register.

Common mistakes

Key takeaways

• dit is the all-purpose "it" for things, as both subject and object — and because nouns have no gender, it is the default for almost every inanimate thing.
• Use hy/sy for people and animals; reserve dit for things and ideas.
• dit is the dummy subject in weather, time, and condition clauses: Dit reën, Dit is warm, Dit is laat.
• Anticipatory dit holds the subject slot before an om te or dat clause: Dit is lekker om te swem — and the dit is not optional.
• dit can point back to a whole idea: Ek weet dit.
• dis is the everyday contraction of dit is (informal); never write it dit's.