When you mention a thing and then refer back to it — "the book? It is on the table" — which pronoun do you use in Afrikaans? The answer is wonderfully simple: dit, for essentially every inanimate object, always. Afrikaans nouns have no grammatical gender, so there is no "masculine table" or "feminine door" to track. hy and sy (he/she) are reserved for people and, optionally, animals. This page nails down the dit-default rule, contrasts it with the gender-juggling English and Dutch force on you, and flags the one colloquial wrinkle where a thing sneaks in a hom.
The default: things are dit
The governing rule could not be cleaner: a previously-mentioned inanimate thing is dit. It does not matter what the noun "feels" like, what it was in Dutch, or what English would call it. A book is dit, a car is dit, a problem is dit, the weather is dit.
Waar is my boek? Dit is op die tafel.
Where is my book? It's on the table.
Ek het 'n boek gekoop; dit is baie interessant.
I bought a book; it's very interesting.
Die kar is nuut, en dit ry baie goed.
The car is new, and it drives really well.
Hoe is die weer? Dit reën weer.
How's the weather? It's raining again.
In each case the antecedent is a thing, and the pronoun pointing back to it is dit — as subject (dit is, dit ry) or after a preposition. You never have to ask yourself "what gender is boek?" because the question does not exist. There is one thing-pronoun and it covers them all.
Why this is a real simplification
This is one of the places where Afrikaans is genuinely easier than the languages around it, and it is worth understanding why so the relief sinks in.
In Dutch, every noun is de or het, and you must refer back with hij/hem or het accordingly — de tafel is a de-word, so a Dutch speaker can say hij ("he") for a table. In German the table is masculine (er), the door feminine (sie), the book neuter (es). Even English, which has otherwise lost grammatical gender, clings to "she" for ships and cars and the odd country. All three make you carry a gender label around with every noun, just so you can pick the right pronoun later.
Afrikaans threw that machinery out. Nouns lost their gender entirely (see natural gender), and with it went the need to gender-track. The pay-off lands precisely here, at the pronoun: you learn a noun, and you never have to also memorise how to refer back to it. It is always dit.
| "The table — it is old" | Pronoun for the table |
|---|---|
| Afrikaans | dit — Die tafel — dit is oud. |
| Dutch | hij — De tafel — hij is oud. (de-word → "he") |
| German | er — Der Tisch — er ist alt. (masculine) |
| English | it — but "she" for ships, cars, countries |
hy and sy belong to people (and animals)
If dit is for things, what are hy (he) and sy (she) for? People — and, when you want to, animals. Afrikaans does keep a he/she distinction, but it tracks real-world sex, not grammatical gender. A man is hy, a woman is sy, a male dog can be hy if you are treating it as an individual, and a female cat can be sy.
My broer kom môre; hy bly 'n week.
My brother is coming tomorrow; he's staying a week.
Het jy vir Sara gesien? Sy was nou net hier.
Have you seen Sara? She was just here.
Ons hond is oud; hy kan nie meer goed sien nie.
Our dog is old; he can't see well anymore.
With animals you have a choice: a pet you feel close to is naturally hy or sy; an animal mentioned generically or impersonally can slide back to dit. The principle is animacy and how personally you are treating it, not any fixed rule of the noun.
Daar is 'n kat in die tuin. Dit jaag iets.
There's a cat in the garden. It's chasing something.
The object form: dit stays dit; the colloquial hom
In the subject slot, things are dit. As a direct object, things are also mostly dit — Ek het dit gekoop (I bought it), Sit dit neer (put it down). The object form of dit is just dit.
Ek het dit gister gekoop.
I bought it yesterday.
Gee dit vir my, asseblief.
Give it to me, please.
Here, though, is the one wrinkle worth knowing. In casual, colloquial speech, speakers sometimes refer to a concrete physical object with hom (the object form of hy) — especially when handling or manipulating it. You may hear someone say Sit hom daar neer ("put it down there") about a box, or Gooi hom weg ("throw it away") about a broken gadget. This is not standard written Afrikaans and it is optional, but it is common enough that you should recognise it.
Die boks is swaar — sit hom daar neer.
The box is heavy — put it down there.
My foon werk nie meer nie; ek gooi hom weg.
My phone doesn't work anymore; I'm throwing it away.
Notice this colloquial hom attaches to tangible, handle-able objects in the object slot — not to abstractions. Nobody says hom for die weer or die probleem. And in writing, or whenever you want to be safe and correct, use dit. The colloquial hom is something to understand when you hear it, not a pattern to adopt as a learner.
Common mistakes
❌ Die kar is mooi; sy ry goed.
Incorrect — English-style 'she' for a car. Things are dit.
✅ Die kar is mooi; dit ry goed.
The car is beautiful; it drives well.
English personifies cars and ships as "she". Afrikaans does not — a car is dit. This is the most common transfer error.
❌ Waar is die tafel? Hy is in die kombuis.
Incorrect — Dutch-style 'hij' for a de-word. Afrikaans uses dit.
✅ Waar is die tafel? Dit is in die kombuis.
Where's the table? It's in the kitchen.
Dutch speakers transfer hij/het gender agreement. In Afrikaans every inanimate noun is dit — there are no de/het classes to track.
❌ Ek hou van die boek; hy is goed.
Incorrect — a book is a thing: dit, not hy.
✅ Ek hou van die boek; dit is goed.
I like the book; it's good.
A book is inanimate, so the pronoun is dit, regardless of what the word looks like.
❌ Die probleem is groot, maar ek kan hom oplos.
Wrong register — an abstraction never takes colloquial hom; use dit.
✅ Die probleem is groot, maar ek kan dit oplos.
The problem is big, but I can solve it.
Even the colloquial hom is limited to tangible objects. Abstractions like probleem are always dit.
Key takeaways
- Inanimate things are dit — as subject and as object — because Afrikaans nouns have no grammatical gender.
- This is a real simplification: unlike Dutch, German or even English ("she" for ships), you never gender-track a noun to refer back to it.
- hy / sy are for people and, optionally, animals you treat as individuals — based on real sex, not word-class.
- A colloquial hom for tangible objects (sit hom neer) exists in casual speech but is non-standard; in writing and when in doubt, use dit.
- Abstractions (die probleem, die weer) are always dit, never hy/sy/hom.
Now practice Afrikaans
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Start learning Afrikaans→Related Topics
- The Pronoun dit: it, this, thatA2 — Afrikaans dit is the all-purpose 'it' — subject and object of things, a dummy subject in weather and time phrases, a pointer back to whole ideas, and the source of the contraction dis.
- Subject and Object PronounsA1 — The full Afrikaans personal pronoun set — ek/my, jy/jou, hy/hom, sy/haar and the rest — with subject and object forms and where they go in a sentence.
- Afrikaans Pronouns: OverviewA1 — Afrikaans pronouns keep only a minimal subject/object split — just four persons change form — with no gender agreement on determiners and far less to learn than German.
- Pronouns: Afrikaans vs DutchC1 — Afrikaans flattened the Dutch pronoun system: it lost case (hem/hen/hun → hom/hulle), dropped zich for ordinary object pronouns, and made hulle do triple duty as 'they/them/their'.
- Natural Gender and Sex-MarkingB1 — Afrikaans has no grammatical gender, so 'male' and 'female' are matters of vocabulary, not agreement — marked by paired words, the suffix -in, and the animal terms mannetjie and wyfie.
- Afrikaans Nouns: OverviewA1 — Afrikaans nouns have no grammatical gender and no case — only number — making them the easiest part of the language for English speakers.