Some sentences do not describe an action at all — they link a thing to a quality or an identity. "She is a doctor." "The food is delicious." "It's getting cold." These are copular sentences, and in Afrikaans they are built with a small set of linking verbs, chief among them is (the present tense of wees, "to be"). The structure is simple, and — to anyone arriving from Spanish, Portuguese, or Italian — refreshingly merciful.
One copula, no agony
If you have studied a Romance language, you may be bracing for the ser / estar problem — two different verbs for "to be," with endless rules about which expresses identity and which expresses a passing state. Afrikaans has none of this. There is one copula for "to be": wees, whose everyday present-tense form is is. Permanent or temporary, identity or mood, you use the same word.
Sy is 'n dokter.
She is a doctor.
Ek is moeg.
I am tired.
The first is a lasting identity, the second a fleeting state — and both use plain is. That is the whole story for the main copula. Spend the effort you would have spent on ser versus estar on something that genuinely needs it, like word order.
Three things copular sentences do
Copular sentences cover three closely related jobs: stating identity, giving a description, and marking a change of state. Different verbs specialise in each, but they share the same basic frame: subject — linking verb — predicate.
Identity: who or what something is
To say that something is a particular thing or person, use is followed by a noun phrase. When the predicate is a countable noun, you usually need the article 'n:
Hy is my broer.
He is my brother.
Dit is 'n probleem.
That's a problem.
There is one important exception that English speakers miss. When you state someone's profession, role, or nationality, Afrikaans drops the article — exactly where English keeps it:
Sy is onderwyser.
She is a teacher.
In English you cannot say "She is teacher"; you need "a teacher." Afrikaans treats the profession like a category rather than a countable item, so Sy is onderwyser (no 'n) is the natural form. You will hear Sy is 'n onderwyser too, but the article-less version is the idiomatic default for jobs.
Description: what something is like
To describe a quality, use is followed by an adjective. This is where Afrikaans does something English speakers find easy but Romance speakers find liberating: the predicate adjective stays bare — no ending, no agreement.
Die kos is lekker.
The food is delicious.
Die huis is groot.
The house is big.
The adjective lekker and groot take no ending at all here. This matters because, in Afrikaans, adjectives placed before a noun very often gain an -e ending ('n groot*e huis), and learners reflexively add it everywhere. After a copula, you must resist: the *predicative adjective is uninflected. The full set of rules about when adjectives do and don't inflect lives on predicative adjectives; here, just remember: after is, keep the adjective plain.
Die kinders is gelukkig.
The children are happy.
Notice that gelukkig stays bare even though the subject is plural — there is no agreement for number either. One form fits all subjects.
Change: what something is becoming
When the meaning is not "is X" but "is becoming X," Afrikaans switches the verb from is to word ("to become"). This is a distinction English usually folds into "get" or "is getting" — and missing it is a common learner gap.
Dit word koud.
It's getting cold.
Dit word donker.
It's getting dark.
Hy word groot.
He's growing up.
Compare Dit is koud ("It is cold" — a current state) with Dit word koud ("It's getting cold" — a state coming on). Choosing word signals movement toward the quality, not the quality itself. There is a third linking verb, lyk ("to seem / to look"), for appearances:
Dit lyk reg.
That looks right.
Sy lyk moeg.
She looks tired.
These three verbs — wees/is, word, lyk — are the core copulas, and the full inventory (including bly "to remain" and voel "to feel") is catalogued on copular verbs.
The dummy subject dit
English uses "it" as an empty placeholder subject for weather, time, and vague situations: "It is cold," "It is late." Afrikaans does the same with dit, and you will use it constantly with copular sentences:
Dit is laat.
It's late.
Dit is warm vandag.
It's hot today.
Here dit refers to nothing in particular — it is just holding the subject slot so the V2 structure has something in first position. Treat it as the exact counterpart of placeholder English "it."
Common mistakes
The errors below come in two flavours: over-inflecting the bare predicate adjective (a Romance habit), and forcing an article onto professions where Afrikaans idiomatically drops it (an English habit). Note that Sy is 'n onderwyser — with 'n — is itself perfectly correct and common; the article-less Sy is onderwyser is just the more idiomatic default. The genuine error is reaching for een ("one") as if it were the article.
❌ Die kos is lekkere.
Incorrect — the predicate adjective after 'is' takes no -e ending.
✅ Die kos is lekker.
The food is delicious.
❌ Die huis is grote.
Incorrect — predicative adjectives stay bare; -e is only for many adjectives placed before a noun.
✅ Die huis is groot.
The house is big.
❌ Sy is een onderwyser.
Incorrect — don't reach for 'een' (one) as the article; for a profession the idiomatic form simply drops it.
✅ Sy is onderwyser.
She is a teacher.
❌ Dit is koud buite — die weer is besig om koud te word.
Overcomplicated — to say it's getting cold, just use 'word'.
✅ Dit word koud buite.
It's getting cold outside.
❌ Sy gelukkig is.
Incorrect — the copula 'is' is the finite verb and must sit in second position, not at the end.
✅ Sy is gelukkig.
She is happy.
Key takeaways
- Afrikaans has one copula, wees (present is) — no ser / estar split.
- is is invariant: it never changes for person or number.
- Use word for becoming/change and lyk for seeming/appearance.
- The predicate adjective after a copula is bare — no -e, no number agreement.
- Drop the article for professions and nationalities (Sy is onderwyser); keep it for ordinary identities (Dit is 'n boek).
- The copula obeys the V2 rule like any finite verb — it sits second, never at the end.
Now practice Afrikaans
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Start learning Afrikaans→Related Topics
- Copular Verbs: wees, word, lyk, blyA2 — The linking verbs that join a subject to a predicate — is/wees, word, lyk, bly and voel — and why the complement stays bare.
- Predicative AdjectivesA1 — Predicative adjectives — those after wees, word, lyk, bly — stay bare in Afrikaans, with no ending and no agreement, whatever the subject.
- Building Sentences: OverviewA1 — The handful of basic sentence patterns — statement, copular, existential, question, command — that get you speaking Afrikaans before you tackle the finer points of word order.
- The Basic Statement: Subject-Verb-ObjectA1 — The neutral order of a simple Afrikaans statement — subject, then verb, then object — and where adverbs of time and place slot in.