Dialogue: At the Doctor (A2) | Afrikaans Grammar

A trip to the doctor forces a specific bundle of Afrikaans grammar into one short conversation: you have to describe how you feel, locate pain on your body, report what happened, and do it all in the polite register a stranger and professional warrants. The dialogue below is an original composition — nothing copyrighted — kept inside what an A2 learner has met. After the text, the commentary unpacks three things that English speakers reliably get wrong: how Afrikaans experiences a symptom (it is not "I have pain" the English way), where the closing nie goes, and why you switch from jy to u.

The dialogue

Tania is not feeling well and visits Dr. Mostert.

Speaker	Afrikaans	English
Dr. Mostert	Goeiemôre. Kom sit. Wat makeer?	Good morning. Come sit. What's wrong?
Tania	Goeiemôre, dokter. Ek voel nie lekker nie.	Good morning, doctor. I don't feel well.
Dr. Mostert	Sê vir my, waar is dit seer?	Tell me, where does it hurt?
Tania	My keel is seer en ek het koppyn.	My throat is sore and I have a headache.
Dr. Mostert	Sedert wanneer voel u so?	Since when have you been feeling like this?
Tania	Sedert eergister. Ek het ook koors gehad.	Since the day before yesterday. I've also had a fever.
Dr. Mostert	Hoes u of kry u pyn as u sluk?	Are you coughing, or do you get pain when you swallow?
Tania	Ja, dit is seer as ek sluk. Ek kan amper nie eet nie.	Yes, it hurts when I swallow. I can hardly eat.
Dr. Mostert	Goed, laat ek u keel bekyk. Maak asseblief u mond oop.	Right, let me look at your throat. Please open your mouth.
Tania	Is dit ernstig, dokter?	Is it serious, doctor?
Dr. Mostert	Nee, dit is net 'n keelinfeksie. Ek gee u medisyne.	No, it's just a throat infection. I'll give you medicine.
Dr. Mostert	Drink dit drie keer per dag en rus baie.	Take it three times a day and rest a lot.
Tania	Baie dankie, dokter. Tot siens.	Thank you very much, doctor. Goodbye.

Line-by-line commentary

Opening: Wat makeer?

Wat makeer? is the standard, slightly idiomatic "what's wrong / what's the matter?" — the question a doctor, parent or friend opens with. Makeer (to be wrong / to ail) is a verb you mostly meet in this fixed question. Learn it whole. The reply, Ek voel nie lekker nie, is the all-purpose "I don't feel well."

Wat makeer? Lyk jy bleek.

What's wrong? You look pale.

Ek voel nie lekker nie.

I don't feel well. (note the closing nie — see below)

The negation bracket: Ek voel nie lekker nie

This line is the place English speakers stumble first. Afrikaans negation is a bracket: the first nie sits after the verb, and a second nie closes the whole clause. Ek voel nie lekker nie — literally "I feel not well not." The closing nie is not a double negative cancelling the meaning; it is a required bookend. Drop it and the sentence sounds painfully unfinished to an Afrikaans ear.

Ek voel nie lekker nie.

I don't feel well.

Ek kan amper nie eet nie.

I can hardly eat. (the bracket still closes even with amper and kan inside it)

That second example shows the bracket holding firm in a longer clause: everything negated — amper eet (hardly eat) — sits inside the two nie's. See the closing nie for the full pattern.

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Whenever you negate at the doctor — Ek voel nie lekker nie, Ek kan nie slaap nie, Dit gaan nie weg nie — say the closing nie out loud as the last word. If you can't hear a nie at the end of a negative sentence, you've left it unfinished.

Describing symptoms: the seer / pyn experiencer

Here is the page's central grammar point. Afrikaans does not describe pain the way English does. English makes you the subject who "has" pain: "I have a sore throat." Afrikaans has two distinct, very common patterns instead:

Pattern 1 — the body part is sore (seer). The body part becomes the subject and is described with is seer (is sore): My keel is seer (my throat is sore, literally "my throat is sore"). Or the whole situation is dit is seer (it hurts) with the location added by as: Dit is seer as ek sluk (it hurts when I swallow).

My keel is seer.

My throat is sore. (the throat is the subject; is seer = is sore)

Dit is seer as ek sluk.

It hurts when I swallow.

My rug is seer ná die werk.

My back is sore after work.

Pattern 2 — you have or get pain (pyn). With the noun pyn (pain), Afrikaans uses either het (have) or, very characteristically, the verb kry (literally "get") to mark the onset of a sensation: Ek kry pyn as ek sluk (I get pain when I swallow). The kry-experiencer frames the sensation as something that comes over you. Compound body-part pains are single words: koppyn (headache), maagpyn (stomach-ache), rugpyn (backache), oorpyn (earache), tandpyn (toothache).

Ek het koppyn.

I have a headache.

Kry u pyn as u sluk?

Do you get pain when you swallow?

Sy het erge maagpyn.

She has severe stomach-ache.

So you have a real choice of constructions, and they are not interchangeable in feel: is seer foregrounds the aching body part as a state; kry pyn foregrounds the pain as an event arriving. Both are everyday Afrikaans; neither maps onto a single English verb. See emotion and state for the wider family of these "how I feel" constructions.

Body parts and a small symptom vocabulary

Afrikaans	English	Afrikaans	English
kop	head	keel	throat
maag	stomach	rug	back
arm / been	arm / leg	oor / oog	ear / eye
koors	fever	hoes	cough
medisyne	medicine	siek	sick / ill

Reporting what happened: Ek het koors gehad

To say what you had — a past symptom — use the perfect: het + past participle, here gehad (had), the participle of hê (to have). Ek het koors gehad = "I had a fever." This is the normal A2 past tense: het in second position, the participle at the end. Note gehad is slightly irregular (you might expect gehê; the standard participle is gehad).

Ek het koors gehad.

I had a fever.

Ek het gister naar gevoel.

I felt nauseous yesterday.

The time word sedert (since) pairs naturally with this when an illness is ongoing: Sedert eergister (since the day before yesterday). See the past tense overview.

Politeness: u with a professional

Throughout, the doctor and patient use u — the formal/polite "you" — not the everyday jy. With a professional you do not know, especially a doctor, lawyer or official, u is the courteous default, much like Sie in German or vous in French. Crucially, u takes the same verb form as everyone else (Afrikaans verbs never conjugate): Voel u so?, Hoes u?, Maak u mond oop. The only change is the pronoun and its possessive u (your): u keel, u mond.

Sedert wanneer voel u so?

Since when have you been feeling like this? (u, the polite 'you', to the patient)

Ek gee u medisyne.

I'll give you medicine. (u as object 'you')

Using jy with a doctor you have just met is not ungrammatical — but it reads as too familiar, like calling a stranger by their first name uninvited. The patient mirrors the register by addressing the doctor as dokter, a respectful form of address. See the formal u for the full picture.

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With any professional you don't know — doctor, official, older stranger — default to u and to their title (dokter, meneer, mevrou). The verb doesn't change at all, so the only thing to remember is to swap jy/jou for u. When they switch to jy with you, you may follow.

Common mistakes

❌ Ek voel nie lekker.

Incorrect — the negation bracket is unfinished; needs the closing nie.

✅ Ek voel nie lekker nie.

I don't feel well.

❌ Ek het 'n seer keel het. / Ek het pyn in my throat.

Incorrect — calques English 'I have a sore throat' and mixes languages.

✅ My keel is seer.

My throat is sore. (use the is seer experiencer)

❌ Voel jy so, dokter? / Maak jou mond oop, dokter.

Incorrect register — jy is too familiar for a professional you've just met.

✅ Voel u so? / Maak u mond oop.

Use the polite u with a doctor.

❌ Ek het koors gehet.

Incorrect participle — the standard form is gehad, not gehet.

✅ Ek het koors gehad.