Afrikaans has two ways to spell one and the same sound. The diphthong you hear in my ("my") and in seil ("sail") is identical — they rhyme perfectly — yet one is written with y and the other with ei. There is no audible clue whatsoever to tell you which spelling a word takes; you simply have to know. This is the second great homophone trap of Afrikaans spelling, sitting right beside the v versus f problem. The good news is that the distribution is not random: it follows the word's history, and that history happens to line up with a rule of thumb you can actually use — grammatical words tend to take y, while many ordinary content words take ei.
This page is about the spelling choice only. For how the sound is actually pronounced, see diphthongs.
The same sound, two spellings
Say these pairs out loud. Within each pair the vowel is pronounced exactly alike; only the spelling differs:
| Written with y | Written with ei | Same vowel? |
|---|---|---|
| my (my) | seil (sail) | yes — perfect rhyme |
| byt (bite) | feit (fact) | yes |
| hy (he) | klein (small) | yes |
| wyn (wine) | trein (train) | yes |
| tyd (time) | reis (journey) | yes |
My broer drink wyn, maar ek hou meer van bier.
My brother drinks wine, but I prefer beer.
Die trein was laat, so ons het die hele reis gehaas.
The train was late, so we rushed the whole journey.
Because the two spellings sound the same, you can never hear your way out of the choice. Spelling klein as klyn or my as mei produces a word that sounds correct but is simply misspelt — the kind of error that marks a learner instantly in writing.
Why two spellings exist at all
The split is etymological — it preserves where the word came from. Broadly, y continues an older Dutch ij (so Dutch mijn, hij, tijd, wijn became Afrikaans my, hy, tyd, wyn), while ei continues an older Dutch ei (Dutch klein, trein, reis, ei stayed klein, trein, reis, eier). The two diphthongs had already merged in pronunciation by the time Afrikaans crystallised, but the spelling kept the historical difference frozen in place — exactly the way English keeps meat and meet apart on the page long after they stopped differing in sound.
You do not need to know any Dutch to use this. But if you do see Dutch, the mapping is mechanical: Dutch ij → Afrikaans y, and Dutch ei stays ei. That single fact resolves the great majority of words.
The rule of thumb that actually helps
Here is the insight that turns a memory list into something you can reason about: the small grammatical words — pronouns and function words — overwhelmingly use y, while ordinary content words split both ways but lean towards ei.
Look at the high-frequency function words. They are almost all y:
| y-word | Meaning | Type |
|---|---|---|
| my | my / me | pronoun |
| jy | you (subject) | pronoun |
| hy | he | pronoun |
| sy | she / his | pronoun |
| by | at / near | preposition |
| kry | to get | very common verb |
| vry | free | common adjective |
Because my, jy, hy, sy are among the very first words you learn and you use them in every sentence, you will internalise the y for pronouns fast — and that single habit protects you from the most common error of all (writing mei for my).
Jy en sy moet by my kom kuier hierdie naweek.
You and she must come visit me this weekend.
Hy voel nou eindelik vry ná al die jare se werk.
He finally feels free now after all those years of work.
Now the ei side. Many concrete, everyday nouns and adjectives are spelt ei:
| ei-word | Meaning |
|---|---|
| klein | small |
| seil | sail / tarpaulin |
| eier | egg |
| trein | train |
| reis | journey, to travel |
| keiser | emperor |
| brein | brain |
| feit | fact |
| vleis | meat |
Die klein eier het uit die nes geval.
The small egg fell out of the nest.
Dis 'n feit dat vleis duurder geword het.
It's a fact that meat has become more expensive.
A short memorisation core
You cannot derive every word, so memorise this compact high-frequency core. Spend your effort here and let the rule of thumb cover the rest.
Always y (learn these cold): my, jy, hy, sy, by, byt, wyn, tyd, vry, prys, blyk, wys, lyk, kry, bly, ry, sy (silk).
Always ei (learn these cold): klein, seil, eier, trein, reis, keiser, brein, feit, vleis, heining (fence), peil, reël.
Wat is die prys van die kaartjie? Dit lyk duur.
What's the price of the ticket? It looks expensive.
Hulle bly naby die see en ry elke dag dorp toe.
They live near the sea and drive to town every day.
Die keiser se brein agter die plan was indrukwekkend.
The emperor's brain behind the plan was impressive.
Note that reël ("rule", and "to arrange") carries a diaeresis on the ë — that diaeresis splits re-ël into two syllables and has nothing to do with the ei/y choice; the ei part is still spelt ei. Do not let the diaeresis distract you from the underlying ei spelling.
The related s/z and c/k decisions
The same "history dictates spelling" logic governs two smaller choices, which is why this page mentions them. Afrikaans almost never uses z in native words — the sound is written s: Dutch zee, zout, zon became Afrikaans see, sout, son. You will only meet z in loanwords and proper names (zebra, Zoeloe, zoem). Likewise the hard k sound is written k, not c, in native vocabulary: it is kat, kom, koffie, not cat, com, coffee. The letter c survives mostly in unassimilated loanwords (konsert is native-spelt, but you will still see celsius). For the full treatment of those imported letters see loanword spelling.
Ons het by die see gaan swem en sout water gesluk.
We went swimming at the sea and swallowed salt water.
Common mistakes
❌ Mei broer woon in die Kaap.
Incorrect — the pronoun 'my' is always spelt with y, never ei.
✅ My broer woon in die Kaap.
My brother lives in the Cape.
❌ Die klyn hondjie blaf heeldag.
Incorrect — 'klein' is spelt with ei, not y.
✅ Die klein hondjie blaf heeldag.
The small dog barks all day.
❌ Ek het 'n eyer vir ontbyt geëet.
Incorrect — 'eier' (egg) takes ei; also 'ontbyt' keeps its y.
✅ Ek het 'n eier vir ontbyt geëet.
I ate an egg for breakfast.
❌ Die treyn was vol.
Incorrect — 'trein' is an ei-word (from Dutch trein).
✅ Die trein was vol.
The train was full.
❌ Wat is die preis daarvan?
Incorrect — 'prys' (price) is a y-word, not ei.
✅ Wat is die prys daarvan?
What's the price of it?
Key takeaways
- ei and y spell the same diphthong — my and seil rhyme exactly. There is no audible cue, so the choice is pure spelling memory, not listening.
- The split is etymological: y continues old Dutch ij (my, hy, tyd, wyn), ei continues old Dutch ei (klein, trein, reis, eier).
- Rule of thumb: pronouns and function words take y (my, jy, hy, sy, by), while many concrete content words take ei (klein, eier, vleis, feit) — this saves you on the words you write most.
- Memorise a compact core both ways; the highest-value habit is the y in pronouns, which kills the classic mei/klyn errors.
- The diaeresis in reël is a syllable splitter, not part of the ei/y choice; the related s-not-z and k-not-c habits follow the same "history decides" logic — see loanword spelling.
- For the sound itself see diphthongs; for the parallel v/f and ei/y error patterns see spelling errors and the wider homophones reference.
Now practice Afrikaans
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Start learning Afrikaans→Related Topics
- Diphthongs: ei/y, ui, ou, ai, oiA2 — The Afrikaans gliding vowels — ei and y (one sound, two spellings), the famously hard ui, ou, ai, ooi and eeu — with IPA, plus the eu monophthong that travels with them.
- Spelling Errors: v/f and ei/yA2 — The homophone spelling traps of Afrikaans — when v sounds like f, when ei sounds like y, and the diacritics (circumflex, diaeresis) that the ear cannot hear, with corrected word pairs.
- Homophones Reference: A Spelling Survival GuideB2 — One consolidated study sheet of the Afrikaans homophone traps — sound-identical, spelling-distinct pairs across the v/f, ei/y, circumflex and accent contrasts — with meanings and a memory hook for each.
- V vs F: A Homophone TrapA2 — v and f both sound like English f in Afrikaans, so the spelling can't be heard — but the choice is etymological, and English cognates often predict it.
- Spelling i vs ieB1 — When to write a single i and when to write ie — short i [ə] (sit, kind, vir) versus long ie [i] (sien, vier, hier) — plus how loanwords keep foreign vowel spellings and why ie reliably signals length.