To ask for information — who, what, where, when, why, how — Afrikaans uses a small set of question words and a single, reliable word-order rule. Once you know the words and the rule, you can build any open question in the language. The best news for English speakers: Afrikaans has no "do". You never insert a helper verb the way English does in "Where do you live?"
The question words
| Afrikaans | English | Note |
|---|---|---|
| wie | who | people |
| wat | what | things |
| waar | where | place |
| wanneer | when | time |
| hoekom / waarom | why | interchangeable; see below |
| hoe | how | manner |
| watter | which |
|
| hoeveel | how much / how many | quantity |
The one rule: question word first, verb second
Every open question in Afrikaans follows the same shape. The question word comes first, and the finite (conjugated) verb comes immediately second — before the subject. This is the famous "verb-second" (V2) order, and the question word counts as the first slot, so the verb has to come right after it, pushing the subject into third position.
Waar woon jy?
Where do you live?
Wat doen sy?
What is she doing?
Look closely at the English translations. English needs do / does / is to form these questions; Afrikaans does not. Waar woon jy? is literally "Where live you?" — and that is the complete, correct, natural question. There is nothing to add.
Going through the words
wie — who
wie asks about a person. It can be the subject of the question or the object.
Wie is daar?
Who is there?
Wie het jou gehelp?
Who helped you?
wat — what
wat asks about a thing or an action.
Wat eet jy?
What are you eating?
Wat is dit?
What is this?
waar — where
Waar is die badkamer?
Where is the bathroom?
wanneer — when
Wanneer kom hulle?
When are they coming?
hoekom / waarom — why
Both hoekom and waarom mean "why," and they are interchangeable. There is a small register difference: hoekom is the everyday, colloquial choice, while waarom sounds a touch more formal and is more common in writing.
Hoekom huil jy?
Why are you crying?
Waarom is die winkel gesluit?
Why is the shop closed?
hoe — how
Hoe gaan dit?
How are you? (literally: how goes it?)
hoe also teams up with an adjective to ask "how + adjective": hoe oud "how old," hoe ver "how far."
Hoe oud is jy?
How old are you?
watter — which
watter means "which" and is followed by a noun. It asks you to pick from a set.
Watter kleur hou jy van?
Which colour do you like?
hoeveel — how much / how many
hoeveel covers both "how much" (uncountable) and "how many" (countable) — Afrikaans does not split them the way English does.
Hoeveel kos dit?
How much does it cost?
Hoeveel mense kom?
How many people are coming?
How this differs from English
The headline difference is the absence of do-support. In English, almost every information question needs a form of do unless the main verb is be or a modal: "Where do you work?", "What did she say?" Afrikaans never does this. The lexical verb itself moves into second position and that is the whole mechanism.
A second difference: because there is no do, tense lives in the main verb or in an auxiliary like het. To ask a past-tense question, you front the question word and use the perfect with het:
Wat het jy gesê?
What did you say?
Waar het hulle gebly?
Where did they stay?
Here het is the past auxiliary (it sits in slot two), the question word leads, and the participle goes to the end. Still no do anywhere.
Common mistakes
❌ Waar doen jy woon?
Incorrect — do-support carried over from English; Afrikaans has no 'do'.
✅ Waar woon jy?
Where do you live?
❌ Hoekom jy huil?
Incorrect — the subject jy must come after the verb, not before it.
✅ Hoekom huil jy?
Why are you crying?
❌ Hoe veel kos dit?
Incorrect — 'how many/much' is one word, hoeveel.
✅ Hoeveel kos dit?
How much does it cost?
❌ Wat het jy sê?
Incorrect — in the past, you need the participle gesê, not the bare verb.
✅ Wat het jy gesê?
What did you say?
❌ Watter is jou naam?
Incorrect — 'what is your name' uses wat, not watter (which expects a following noun).
✅ Wat is jou naam?
What is your name?
Key takeaways
- The words: wie, wat, waar, wanneer, hoekom/waarom, hoe, watter, hoeveel.
- Structure is always question word + verb + subject (V2). No "do," ever.
- hoekom = casual "why" (literally "how-come"); waarom = a touch more formal.
- hoeveel covers both "how much" and "how many"; watter "which" is followed by a noun.
- For yes/no questions, see yes-no questions; for questions like "what are you waiting for," which use waar-compounds, see prepositional questions; for wat as a relative pronoun ("the book that..."), see relative wat.
Now practice Afrikaans
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Start learning Afrikaans→Related Topics
- Yes/No Questions: InversionA1 — How Afrikaans turns a statement into a yes/no question by simply moving the finite verb to the front — with no 'do' anywhere.
- Prepositional Questions: waarmee, waarvan, met wieB1 — How to ask 'with what?', 'about what?', 'for whom?' in Afrikaans — the waar-compounds for things and preposition + wie for people, with no English-style stranding.
- Relative Pronouns: wat, wie, waar-B1 — Afrikaans collapses English who/which/that into the single all-purpose relative pronoun wat — for people and things alike — and handles prepositional relatives with met wie for people and solid waar-compounds for things.
- Asking Questions: OverviewA1 — How Afrikaans forms questions — by inverting the verb and subject or fronting a question word, with no 'do' helper anywhere in the system.