Before you worry about the subtler rules of Afrikaans word order, it helps to see how few patterns you actually need to start talking. A small set of sentence shapes — a plain statement, a sentence built around "is," an "there is/are" sentence, a question, and a command — covers an enormous amount of everyday speech. The best news of all: most simple Afrikaans sentences look almost exactly like their English equivalents, so you can build real confidence before you ever meet the trickier inversions. This page introduces each pattern and points you to its detailed page.
The canonical statement: subject, verb, object
The workhorse sentence is subject-verb-object, in that order — identical to English.
Ek drink koffie.
I drink coffee.
Sy lees 'n boek.
She's reading a book.
The subject comes first, the verb second, the object last. Notice that ek drink covers "I drink," "I am drinking," and "I do drink" all at once — Afrikaans has no separate progressive form and no do-support, so one verb does all that work. The full treatment, including where time and place words slot in, is on the SVO statement page.
Copular sentences: built around "is"
To describe what something is or what it is like, you use the linking verb is ("is/are") — the copula. The pattern is subject + is + a description (an adjective or a noun).
Sy is moeg.
She's tired.
My pa is 'n dokter.
My dad is a doctor.
One thing to flag straight away: is covers both "is" and "are," because Afrikaans verbs never change for the subject. Ek is, jy is, ons is, hulle is — all the same word. That single fact removes a whole layer of English irregularity. Copular sentences get their own treatment on copular sentences.
Existential sentences: "there is / there are"
To say that something exists or is present somewhere, Afrikaans uses daar is ("there is / there are"), exactly parallel to English.
Daar is melk in die yskas.
There's milk in the fridge.
Daar is baie mense by die mark.
There are a lot of people at the market.
As with the copula, daar is does duty for both singular "there is" and plural "there are" — there is nothing to make plural. This is one of the most useful patterns to learn early, because you reach for it constantly to point out what exists in a scene.
Questions: no "do," just rearrange
Here is where Afrikaans quietly diverges from English, and it works in your favour: there is no do-support. To ask a yes/no question, you simply swap the verb and the subject.
Drink jy koffie?
Do you drink coffee?
Compare the statement Jy drink koffie ("You drink coffee") with the question Drink jy koffie? — the verb has just hopped to the front. For a question with a question word, you front the word and invert behind it:
Wat lees sy?
What's she reading?
You do not insert any helper verb. This whole system gets its overview on asking questions; the point to absorb now is that questions are made by moving words, not by adding one.
Commands: just the verb
To give an instruction, drop the subject and lead with the bare verb. There is no special form to learn — the command verb looks exactly like the dictionary verb.
Maak die deur toe.
Close the door.
Kom hier.
Come here.
That is the entire imperative. To soften it, speakers add asseblief ("please"): Maak die deur toe, asseblief.
Why these patterns transfer so well
The encouraging truth is that all five basic patterns sit close to English. SVO is identical; the copula and existential mirror "is/are" and "there is/are"; commands are even simpler than English. The one genuine divergence — questions without "do" — actually removes a step rather than adding one. So your first dozens of sentences can lean heavily on English intuition. The famous Afrikaans complications — V2 inversion after a fronted word, the verb bracket, verb-final subordinate clauses — only appear once you start fronting elements, stacking verbs, or joining clauses. You can postpone all of that, mapped on the syntax overview, and still say a great deal. Build your foundation here first.
Common mistakes
The errors at this stage come almost entirely from assuming English word order transfers wholesale — which it mostly does, but not in questions.
❌ Doen jy drink koffie?
Incorrect — Afrikaans has no 'do' helper; invert the verb instead.
✅ Drink jy koffie?
Do you drink coffee?
❌ Sy is lees 'n boek.
Incorrect — there is no 'is + verb' progressive; the plain verb stands alone.
✅ Sy lees 'n boek.
She's reading a book.
❌ Daar is 'n melk in die yskas.
Incorrect — uncountable nouns like 'melk' take no article.
✅ Daar is melk in die yskas.
There's milk in the fridge.
❌ Jy maak die deur toe!
Incorrect for a command — drop the subject and lead with the verb.
✅ Maak die deur toe.
Close the door.
Key takeaways
- Five patterns get you talking: statement, copular (is), existential (daar is), question, and command.
- Most simple Afrikaans sentences mirror English SVO, so build confidence here before meeting V2 inversion.
- is and daar is never change for number — one form covers "is/are" and "there is/are."
- Questions use no do-support: you rearrange words rather than add a helper (see asking questions).
- The harder word-order rules wait until you front, stack, or join clauses — see the syntax overview when you are ready.
Now practice Afrikaans
Reading grammar gets you part of the way. The exercises are where it sticks — free, no signup needed.
Start learning Afrikaans→Related Topics
- 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.
- Copular Sentences: X is YA1 — How to say what something is, what it's like, and what it's becoming — using wees, word, and lyk with a bare predicate.
- Compound SentencesA2 — Join two main clauses with en, maar, of or want and nothing moves — both clauses keep ordinary main-clause order, so coordination is the 'safe' join, unlike subordination.
- Complex SentencesB1 — Building sentences from a main clause plus subordinate clauses — the verb-final order inside the subordinate clause, and the inversion that follows a fronted one.
- Afrikaans Word Order: OverviewA1 — The big picture of Afrikaans syntax — the finite verb sits second, non-finite verbs cluster at the clause end, and subordinate clauses send every verb to the back.
- 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.