One of the things that makes Afrikaans spelling look irregular at first — hoog but hoë, brug but brûe, vlieg but vlieë — is actually a single, tidy phonological rule wearing several disguises. When a g falls between two vowels, it drops out of speech, and the spelling has to record the gap with a diacritic. Once you see that one rule is behind all of these spellings, a list of "exceptions" turns into a predictable family. This page is about the spelling consequence of that dropped g; for the sound of the g itself, see the g-sound.
The core rule: intervocalic g drops, a diacritic takes its place
In Afrikaans, a g that ends up between two vowels — typically when you add an ending like the plural -e, the adjective -e, or a comparative -er — is not pronounced, and so it is not written either. But you cannot simply delete the letter and push the two vowels together, because that would change how the word is read. So a diacritic steps in to keep the pronunciation clear:
- a diaeresis (ë, ï) when the two surviving vowels need to be read as separate syllables;
- a circumflex (ô, û, î) when the surviving vowel is short and now sits in an open syllable, where it would otherwise be misread as long.
That is the whole rule. Everything below is an application of it.
Adjectives: hoog → hoë, laag → lae
When an adjective ending in a long vowel + g takes the attributive -e (the form used before a noun), the g falls between vowels and drops.
| Base | Inflected | What happened |
|---|---|---|
| hoog (high) | hoë | hoog + e; g drops; ë splits hoo·ë |
| laag (low) | lae | laag + e; g drops; ae already reads as two syllables, no diacritic needed |
| vroeg (early) | vroeë | vroeg + e; g drops; ë splits vroe·ë |
| droog (dry) | droë | droog + e; g drops; ë splits dro·ë |
Dit was 'n hoë muur om oor te klim.
It was a high wall to climb over.
Die rivier is op sy laagste in die droë seisoen.
The river is at its lowest in the dry season.
Ons het 'n vroeë trein gehaal.
We caught an early train.
Notice laag → lae takes no diaeresis: the sequence ae is already unambiguously two syllables in Afrikaans, so there is nothing to disambiguate. The diaeresis appears only where it is needed to force a syllable split — hoë, droë, vroeë — which is exactly the diaeresis rule at work.
Nouns with long vowels: vlieg → vlieë, oog → oë
The same thing happens when a noun ending in vowel + g takes the plural -e.
| Singular | Plural | Diacritic |
|---|---|---|
| vlieg (fly) | vlieë | ë — splits vlie·ë |
| oog (eye) | oë | ë — splits o·ë |
| dag (day) | dae | none — ae reads as two syllables |
| vlag (flag) | vlae | none — ae reads as two syllables |
Die vlieë was onuithoudbaar by die piekniek.
The flies were unbearable at the picnic.
Sy het trane in haar oë gehad.
She had tears in her eyes.
Dit het vir dae aaneen gereën.
It rained for days on end.
Again the pattern is consistent: ë where two like or confusable vowels meet (vlieë, oë), nothing where the result (ae) already reads clearly (dae, vlae).
Short-vowel nouns: brug → brûe, rug → rûe
This is where the circumflex comes in, and where the system is most elegant. Some nouns end in a short vowel + g: brug (bridge), rug (back), sog (sow). When you add the plural -e, the g still drops — but now there is a different problem. The short vowel suddenly finds itself in an open syllable (bru·e), and an open syllable in Afrikaans is normally read with a long vowel. To signal "no, this vowel is still the short one you started with," a circumflex is added.
| Singular | Plural | Why the circumflex |
|---|---|---|
| brug (bridge) | brûe | û keeps the short u after g drops |
| rug (back) | rûe | û keeps the short u |
| sog (sow) | sôe | ô keeps the short o |
| wig (wedge) | wîe | î keeps the short i |
Daar is twee ou brûe oor die rivier.
There are two old bridges over the river.
Ná die wedstryd was al die spelers se rûe seer.
After the match all the players' backs were sore.
So the same g-deletion produces a diaeresis with long-vowel words (vlieë, hoë) and a circumflex with short-vowel words (brûe, rûe, sôe). The diacritic you see tells you which vowel length survived the dropped g.
One rule, three word classes
The real payoff is that this single phonological event explains spellings across adjectives, noun plurals, and comparatives that competitors present as three unrelated lists of irregulars. Wherever a vowel + g meets a vowel-initial ending, the same thing happens:
Hierdie pad is hoog, maar daardie een is nog hoër.
This road is high, but that one is even higher.
Die nuwe brug is veiliger as die ou brûe.
The new bridge is safer than the old bridges.
In hoër (higher) the comparative -er triggers the very same g-drop, with the diaeresis on the ë marking the split ho·ër. Adjective, plural, comparative — one rule.
Honest caveats: what is NOT g-deletion
Two look-alikes commonly get swept into this rule by mistake. They are worth flagging so you do not over-apply it.
Words like reël and reëls. The diaeresis in reël (rule / line) is not caused by a dropped g — there never was one. Here the diaeresis simply marks that ee is split into two syllables (re·ël). It belongs to the general diaeresis rules, not to g-deletion. The mechanism (a diaeresis forcing a syllable break) is the same; the cause is different.
Verbs like dra → gedra and lê → gelê. These do not involve g-deletion either, despite often appearing on the same lists. Dra (to carry) simply takes the past-participle prefix ge- to give gedra — there is no intervocalic g to drop, because dra never had one. And lê (to lie / lay) → gelê carries a circumflex from the start, marking its long open ê sound; the ge- prefix changes nothing about it. Don't reach for a g-deletion explanation here.
Hy het die boks ingedra en op die tafel gesit.
He carried the box in and put it on the table.
Die kat het die hele middag in die son gelê.
The cat lay in the sun the whole afternoon.
Common mistakes
❌ Dit was 'n hooge muur.
Incorrect — the intervocalic g drops; spell it hoë.
✅ Dit was 'n hoë muur.
It was a high wall.
❌ Daar is twee ou brugge oor die rivier.
Incorrect — the plural is brûe; the g drops and the u takes a circumflex.
✅ Daar is twee ou brûe oor die rivier.
There are two old bridges over the river.
❌ Sy het trane in haar oe gehad.
Incorrect — without the diaeresis 'oe' is one sound; you need oë.
✅ Sy het trane in haar oë gehad.
She had tears in her eyes.
❌ Die vliee was onuithoudbaar.
Incorrect — the plural needs the diaeresis: vlieë.
✅ Die vlieë was onuithoudbaar.
The flies were unbearable.
❌ Hierdie een is nog hoger.
Incorrect — the comparative also drops the g: hoër with a diaeresis.
✅ Hierdie een is nog hoër.
This one is even higher.
Key takeaways
- An intervocalic g drops in speech, and the spelling drops it too — recording the gap with a diacritic rather than mashing the vowels together.
- Long vowel before the g (hoog, vlieg, oog, vroeg) → diaeresis to split the syllables: hoë, vlieë, oë, vroeë. No diacritic when the result is already unambiguous (laag → lae, dag → dae).
- Short vowel before the g (brug, rug, sog, wig) → circumflex to keep the vowel short in its new open syllable: brûe, rûe, sôe, wîe.
- One rule covers adjectives, plurals, and comparatives alike (hoë, brûe, hoër).
- Beware false members: reël (diaeresis, but no lost g) and dra → gedra / lê → gelê (no g-deletion at all).
- For the diacritics themselves, see the circumflex and the diaeresis rules.
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Start learning Afrikaans→Related Topics
- 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).
- Spelling with the DiaeresisA2 — The deelteken on ë, ï, ö and ü marks a new syllable where two vowels meet — and you can derive it from morpheme boundaries instead of memorising it.
- Irregular and Mutated PluralsA2 — Afrikaans plurals that the -e/-s rule cannot predict: the -ers and -ere relics of old Dutch neuter nouns, stem-vowel changes like stad/stede, and the f-to-w and d-voicing alternations that surface under inflection.
- The Afrikaans G: A Guttural FricativeA1 — How to pronounce the Afrikaans g — a voiceless back-of-the-mouth fricative like the ch in Scottish 'loch' — and how it differs from the English hard g.
- Afrikaans Spelling: OverviewA1 — A map of the Afrikaans orthographic system — its diacritics, vowel doubling, and homophone traps — and where each rule lives.