Greeting someone you've met is easy; introducing two strangers to each other is the next step, and it drills two pieces of A2 grammar in their most natural home — the copula is ("Dit is...", "this is...") and the se-possessive ("my ma se vriendin", "my mother's friend"). Below is a short original dialogue at a braai (barbecue), where Liana introduces her colleague Tertius to her old school friend Babs. After the text, every line is annotated so you can see the grammar at work and where an English speaker's instincts mislead.
The dialogue
Liana is hosting a braai. Her colleague Tertius arrives, and she walks him over to her friend Babs.
| Speaker | Afrikaans | English |
|---|---|---|
| Liana | Tertius, kom ek stel jou voor. Dit is Babs, my ou skoolvriendin. | Tertius, let me introduce you. This is Babs, my old school friend. |
| Tertius | Hallo, Babs. Aangename kennis. | Hello, Babs. Nice to meet you. |
| Babs | Aangename kennis. Is jy ook 'n onderwyser, soos Liana? | Nice to meet you. Are you a teacher too, like Liana? |
| Tertius | Nee, ek werk by die skool se kantoor. Liana en ek is kollegas. | No, I work at the school's office. Liana and I are colleagues. |
| Liana | En Babs is my ma se vriendin se dogter — ons ken mekaar van kleins af. | And Babs is my mother's friend's daughter — we've known each other since we were small. |
| Babs | Ja! Ons twee ma's was saam op skool. Waarvandaan kom jy, Tertius? | Yes! Our two mothers were at school together. Where are you from, Tertius? |
| Tertius | Ek kom van Bloemfontein af, maar ek bly nou hier in die Kaap. | I'm from Bloemfontein, but I live here in the Cape now. |
| Babs | Lekker. Welkom! Kom eet 'n stukkie vleis. | Nice. Welcome! Come have a bit of meat. |
| Tertius | Dankie, baie graag. | Thanks, gladly. |
Line-by-line commentary
The introduction formula: Dit is Babs
To introduce a person, Afrikaans uses Dit is... ("This is...") — literally "It is...". You do not say Hierdie is ("this is") for a person being presented; the fixed presentational phrase is Dit is, with the unchanging copula is from wees (to be). The copula never inflects: ek is, jy is, dit is, ons is are all the same form.
Dit is Babs, my ou skoolvriendin.
This is Babs, my old school friend.
Dit is my broer, Wikus.
This is my brother, Wikus.
The opener Kom ek stel jou voor ("let me introduce you") is worth taking whole. Voorstel is the separable verb "to introduce"; in this set phrase its parts split (stel ... voor) and kom ek... works as a soft "let me...". At A2, store the phrase as a unit.
Aangename kennis: the fixed reply
When you're introduced, the standard response is Aangename kennis — literally "pleasant acquaintance", i.e. "pleased to meet you". It is a frozen phrase: you don't build it from a verb, and it doesn't change for the speaker. Both people in an introduction say it. A slightly fuller, warmer version is Aangenaam om jou te ontmoet ("nice to meet you"), but Aangename kennis alone is the everyday default.
Aangename kennis, meneer Botha.
Pleased to meet you, Mr Botha.
Aangenaam om jou te ontmoet.
Nice to meet you.
The se-possessive: my ma se vriendin
Here is the line to study hardest: my ma se vriendin se dogter — "my mother's friend's daughter". Afrikaans builds possession with the little word se between owner and owned: [owner] se [thing]. So my ma se vriendin = "my mother's friend", and you can chain it: my ma se vriendin se dogter = "my mother's friend's daughter". The se never changes — no apostrophe, no -s ending, the same se every time. See the se-possessive for the full pattern.
Babs is my ma se vriendin se dogter.
Babs is my mother's friend's daughter.
Ek werk by die skool se kantoor.
I work at the school's office.
English speakers reach for the apostrophe-s they know — ma's vriendin — but that's exactly the error to avoid. In Afrikaans an apostrophe-s would either look like a plural or like nothing the language uses. Possession is owner + se + thing, full stop.
The copula in plural: Liana en ek is kollegas
Liana en ek is kollegas — "Liana and I are colleagues". The copula stays is even with a plural subject and a plural complement; Afrikaans does not switch to a separate plural "are". English forces I am / we are; Afrikaans keeps is throughout. Notice too the word order Liana en ek ("Liana and I"): the speaker comes second, just as polite English prefers.
Liana en ek is kollegas.
Liana and I are colleagues.
Ons twee ma's was saam op skool.
Our two mothers were at school together.
The second sentence shows the past of the copula: was ("was/were"), again invariant — ek was, ons was, hulle was are identical. And ma's is the plural of ma with an apostrophe before the -s (because the word ends in a long vowel) — a spelling point, not a possessive.
Asking origins: Waarvandaan kom jy?
Waarvandaan kom jy? is "Where are you from?". The question word waarvandaan ("from where") comes first and triggers inversion — verb kom before subject jy. The answer pairs van ... af: Ek kom van Bloemfontein af ("I come from Bloemfontein"), a bracket where van opens and af closes the "from"-phrase.
Waarvandaan kom jy?
Where are you from?
Ek kom van Bloemfontein af.
I'm from Bloemfontein.
jou vs u: choosing the register
Throughout the dialogue everyone uses jy/jou (informal "you"), which fits a relaxed braai among peers. Had Tertius been introduced to an elderly stranger or a person of clear seniority, the polite u would be expected: Aangename kennis. Waarvandaan kom u? The braai setting makes jy right here; switching to u would sound oddly stiff among friends-of-friends. (More on this on subject and object pronouns.)
Waarvandaan kom u, mevrou?
Where are you from, ma'am? (polite u)
Common mistakes
❌ Hierdie is my kollega, Tertius.
Unnatural for presenting a person — use Dit is.
✅ Dit is my kollega, Tertius.
This is my colleague, Tertius.
❌ Babs is my ma's vriendin.
Incorrect — Afrikaans has no apostrophe-s possessive.
✅ Babs is my ma se vriendin.
Babs is my mother's friend.
❌ Liana en ek are kollegas.
Incorrect — the copula stays is even in the plural.
✅ Liana en ek is kollegas.
Liana and I are colleagues.
❌ Aangenaam te ontmoet jou.
Wrong order — the infinitive te ontmoet goes to the end.
✅ Aangenaam om jou te ontmoet.
Nice to meet you.
❌ Waar kom jy van?
Incomplete — the origin phrase needs the closing af.
✅ Waarvandaan kom jy? / Waar kom jy vandaan?
Where are you from?
Key takeaways
- Present a person with Dit is... ("This is..."), not Hierdie is...; the opener Kom ek stel jou voor ("let me introduce you") is a fixed phrase.
- The reply to an introduction is Aangename kennis ("pleased to meet you"), a frozen phrase said by both parties.
- Possession is owner + se + thing and chains freely: my ma se vriendin se dogter. There is no apostrophe-s — see the se-possessive.
- The copula is (and past was) never changes for person or number: ek is, ons is, Liana en ek is.
- Match the register: jy/jou among peers; u when politeness toward a senior or stranger is called for.
Now practice Afrikaans
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Start learning Afrikaans→Related Topics
- Dialogue: Meeting Someone (A1)A1 — A short original Afrikaans greetings dialogue, annotated line by line for the grammar an A1 learner has already met.
- The se-Possessive: Jan se boekA1 — How Afrikaans shows possession with the invariant marker se, the everyday equivalent of English 's.
- Greetings and Leave-TakingA1 — How to greet, ask how someone is, and say goodbye in Afrikaans — the time-of-day system, the standard Hoe gaan dit exchange, and warm farewells like lekker dag and sterkte.
- Subject and Object PronounsA1 — The full Afrikaans personal pronoun set — ek/my, jy/jou, hy/hom, sy/haar and the rest — with subject and object forms and where they go in a sentence.
- Annotated Texts: OverviewA2 — How the annotated-text pages work — a short text paired with grammar commentary — and the strict sourcing policy: every text is either an original composition or genuinely public-domain, never an in-copyright work.