The two dots over ë, ï, ö and ü are called the deelteken ("dividing sign"), and they do exactly one job: they tell you that a vowel starts a new syllable instead of joining the vowel before it. The good news for learners is that this is not a memory exercise. The diaeresis appears at predictable points — where two vowels collide across a morpheme boundary — so once you understand the rule you can derive it rather than learning each word by heart.
This page is about the spelling rule. For how the dots affect pronunciation, see the diaeresis. Do not confuse the deelteken (two dots) with the circumflex (the little roof: ê, ô, î, û), which marks vowel quality, not syllable division — the circumflex is a separate system entirely.
The core rule: break a vowel collision
When two vowels sit next to each other and would normally be read as a single unit — a long vowel or a diphthong — but they actually belong to different syllables, you put a diaeresis on the second vowel to force the split.
Compare. The letters ee would normally be read as one long e sound. But in reën (rain) the word is two syllables, re-ën, so the second e takes the dots to break the pair apart.
| Without break (read as one) | With diaeresis (two syllables) | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| (ee = long e) | reën → re-ën | rain |
| (oe = the "oo" digraph) | koöperasie → ko-ö-pe-ra-sie | cooperation |
| (ie = long i) | knieë → knie-ë | knees |
| (oe again) | oë → o-ë | eyes |
| (ei = a diphthong) | beïnvloed → be-ïn-vloed | to influence |
Dit lyk of dit gaan reën — bring jou sambreel saam.
It looks like it's going to rain — bring your umbrella.
Haar oë was rooi van die huil.
Her eyes were red from crying.
Die twee maatskappye werk in noue koöperasie saam.
The two companies work together in close cooperation.
The high-value case: past participles of vowel-final verbs
Here is where the rule pays off most, because it is fully mechanical. Afrikaans builds the past tense with the prefix ge- (see the ge- prefix). When a verb begins with a vowel, sticking ge- in front jams two vowels together — and the diaeresis steps in to keep them in separate syllables.
Take eet (to eat). Add ge- and you get ge + eet. Written plainly that would be geeet (three e's) or the ambiguous geet; the diaeresis resolves it cleanly:
| Verb | ge- + verb | Participle | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| eet | ge + eet | geëet | eaten |
| eindig | ge + eindig | geëindig | ended |
| oefen | ge + oefen | geoefen* | practised |
In *geoefen the o and e already fall into separate syllables naturally (ge-oe-fen, where oe is a normal digraph), so no diaeresis is needed — a useful reminder that the dots appear only when the vowels would otherwise merge.
Ons het al klaar geëet toe hulle opdaag.
We had already eaten by the time they showed up.
Die wedstryd het in 'n gelykop geëindig.
The match ended in a draw.
Once you see this, you never have to memorise these participles individually: vowel-initial verb + ge- = a diaeresis on the verb's first vowel whenever the two vowels would otherwise read as one.
When the diaeresis is dropped or migrates
The deelteken is tied to the syllable count, so when inflection changes that count, the dots can vanish or move. This is the subtlety that makes the rule feel alive rather than arbitrary.
If an ending opens up the word so that the colliding vowels are no longer adjacent, the diaeresis disappears. And it appears only in the form where the collision actually exists. The cleanest illustration is a base word with no collision whose inflected form creates one:
| Base (no diaeresis) | Inflected (diaeresis appears) | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| knie | knieë | knee → knees |
| see | seë | sea → seas |
| idee | ideë | idea → ideas |
In the singular knie, the final ie is just a normal long vowel — no dots. Add the plural -e and now you have ie + e, two vowels that would merge, so the diaeresis appears precisely in the plural: knieë. The diacritic is not a property of the word; it is a property of the form.
Ek het op my knie geval en nou is altwee knieë seer.
I fell on my knee and now both knees are sore.
Sy het 'n paar goeie ideë vir die projek.
She has a few good ideas for the project.
How English speakers should think about it
English does have the diaeresis — in naïve, Noël, coöperate (in older spellings) — but treats it as an optional, faintly old-fashioned flourish that most writers drop. That instinct is exactly what trips learners up: in Afrikaans the deelteken is not optional. Leaving it off is a spelling error, the same as dropping a letter, because without it the reader genuinely mis-syllabifies the word. reen and reën are not casual variants; only the second is a word.
So retrain the instinct: where English says "you may add the dots", Afrikaans says "you must, whenever two vowels would otherwise fuse". The mechanism is identical to the one you half-remember from naïve — the dots separate na-ive from a single nai- — but the obligation is absolute.
Sy was nogal naïef om hom te glo.
She was rather naive to believe him.
Die kinders is baie geërg oor die uitslag.
The children are very annoyed about the result.
A short reference list
Here are the everyday words where the deelteken is most likely to catch you out. Learn these few and the rule generalises to the rest:
| Word | Syllables | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| reën | re-ën | rain |
| oë | o-ë | eyes |
| knieë | knie-ë | knees |
| geëet | ge-ëet | eaten |
| beïnvloed | be-ïn-vloed | to influence |
| koöperasie | ko-ö-pe-ra-sie | cooperation |
| geërg | ge-ërg | annoyed |
| seë | se-ë | seas / blessings |
Tel die seëninge wat jy het, nie die seer nie.
Count the blessings you have, not the hurt.
One thing the diaeresis is NOT
A common assumption — reasonable, but wrong for Afrikaans — is that you always need the dots after a prefix. You do not, when the prefix boundary already forces the syllable break by itself. A hyphen or an obvious morpheme seam can do the dividing job, leaving the diaeresis redundant. Afrikaans generally writes the diaeresis only where, without it, the reader would genuinely merge the vowels. So beïnvloed takes the dots (be-ïn- would otherwise read as bein-), but a word whose boundary is already unambiguous does not. The governing question is always: would these two vowels be misread as one without the dots? If yes, add them; if no, leave them off.
Common mistakes
❌ Dit gaan vandag reen.
Incorrect — without the diaeresis 'reen' reads as one long syllable; rain is two: reën.
✅ Dit gaan vandag reën.
It's going to rain today.
❌ Ons het reeds geeet.
Incorrect — ge- + eet collides; you need the diaeresis to split the syllables: geëet.
✅ Ons het reeds geëet.
We have already eaten.
❌ Albei knie's is seer. / Albei kniee is seer.
Incorrect — the plural of knie is knieë (the -e collides with the ie), not an apostrophe or a bare double e.
✅ Albei knieë is seer.
Both knees are sore.
❌ Moenie my beinvloed nie.
Incorrect — be- + invloed would read 'bein-'; the diaeresis on the i keeps the syllable separate: beïnvloed.
✅ Moenie my beïnvloed nie.
Don't influence me.
Key takeaways
- The deelteken (ë ï ö ü) marks a new syllable where two vowels would otherwise be read as one.
- The dots go on the second vowel — the one beginning the new syllable: re·ën, o·ë, be·ïn·vloed.
- It is mechanically predictable from morpheme boundaries — especially in past participles of vowel-initial verbs (ge- + eet → geëet).
- The diaeresis belongs to the form, not the word: it appears in knieë but not knie, and vanishes when inflection removes the vowel collision.
- It is not the circumflex (ê ô î û), which marks vowel quality, not syllable division.
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 Diaeresis: ë, ï, ö, üA2 — How the Afrikaans diaeresis (deelteken) works — a hiatus marker that splits two vowels into separate syllables, so reën is re-ën not 'reen', and why it is nothing like the German umlaut.
- Spelling with the CircumflexA2 — When to write the circumflex (kappie) on ê ô î û — it marks a long, distinct vowel, separates minimal pairs like sê and se, and often marks the spot where a g has dropped out (brug → brûe).
- The ge- Prefix and Its RulesA2 — The past participle adds ge- to the stem (gewerk, gespeel) — but inseparable prefix verbs (verstaan, begin) take no ge- at all, and vowel-initial stems need a diaeresis (geëet).
- Diaeresis vs Hyphen at BoundariesB2 — Two ways to break colliding vowels — the diaeresis inside a word, the hyphen at a compound seam — are really one strategy applied at two different levels.
- Afrikaans Spelling: OverviewA1 — A map of the Afrikaans orthographic system — its diacritics, vowel doubling, and homophone traps — and where each rule lives.