Informal Letter/Message (Original, A2)

If the formal letter is a performance of respect, an informal message is the opposite — relaxed, warm and full of the little words that make Afrikaans sound friendly. The message below was written for this guide, as a WhatsApp-style note to a close friend. It is the everyday register: the pronoun jy ("you"), the contraction dis ("it's"), affectionate diminutives (those -tjie / -ie endings), and the perfect tense for telling news. Read alongside the formal letter, it shows the same language in a completely different key.

The message

Hi Annelie!

Hoe gaan dit met jou? Dis al weke laas wat ons gesels het. Ek het sommer gedink ek stuur jou 'n boodskappie.

Raai wat — ek het 'n nuwe werkie gekry! Ek het verlede week begin en dis regtig lekker. My nuwe kantoortjie het 'n uitsig oor die berg, en die mense is gaaf. Ons het gister 'n koffietjie gaan drink na werk.

Hoe gaan dit met die kinders? Ek het gehoor klein Pietertjie het sy eerste tandjie gekry — hoe oulik! Ons moet gou weer kuier.

Kom besoek my as jy kans kry, dis nie te ver nie. Laat weet net wanneer jy wil kom.

Groetnis, Sannie

The pronoun jy: friendly by default

Every "you" in this message is jy (subject) or jou (object/possessive), never u. Jy is the informal second-person pronoun, used among friends, family, children and peers. Where the formal letter chose u to mark distance, this message chooses jy to mark closeness: Hoe gaan dit met *jou? ("How are *you?"), ek stuur *jou 'n boodskappie ("I'm sending *you a little message"), Kom besoek my ("Come visit me").

Keep jy (subject) and jou (object/possessive) apart, just as English keeps "you" and "your" — though in Afrikaans both halves of "you" are jy/jou: jy does the action, jou receives it or owns something. Using u here would sound oddly cold to a close friend, like writing "Dear Sir" to your sister. (See formal vs informal register and jy vs u.)

The contraction dis: it's

The most characteristic word of informal Afrikaans is dis — a contraction of dit is ("it is" / "it's"). It appears three times: Dis al weke laas ("It's been weeks"), dis regtig lekker ("it's really nice"), dis nie te ver nie ("it's not too far"). In careful or formal writing you would spell it out as dit is; in a message you contract it, exactly as English chooses "it's" over "it is" in casual speech.

Notice the last example also keeps its closing nie — dis nie te ver nie. Even in the most casual message, a negated clause needs both nie*s. Dropping the second one (*dis nie te ver) is the classic English-speaker error and sounds unfinished to an Afrikaans ear.

Diminutives: the warmth of -tjie and -ie

Look at how many words wear a little tail: boodskappie (a little message), werkie (a nice little job), kantoortjie (a cosy little office), koffietjie (a little coffee), tandjie (a little tooth), and the name Pietertjie (little Pieter). These are diminutives — formed by adding an ending, most often -tjie or -ie, to a noun.

Crucially, diminutives in Afrikaans are not only about literal smallness. They carry affection, friendliness and informality. Ons het 'n koffietjie gaan drink does not mean the coffee was tiny — it means the outing was relaxed and pleasant. A friend saying jou nuwe werkie is being warm, not belittling your job. This emotional layer is exactly why diminutives swarm an informal message and almost vanish from a formal letter.

The endings depend on the noun's final sound (-tjie after vowels and -r/-l; -ie after most consonants; -jie, -pie and others elsewhere), and there are spelling adjustments — koffie → koffietjie, tand → tandjie, werk → werkie. Don't worry about mastering every rule yet; just notice the warmth they add. (See the diminutive for the full system.)

The perfect: telling news with het … ge-

When you tell a friend what happened, you reach for the perfect tense, and the message is full of it: ons *het geselset, ek **het 'n werkie gekry*, ek *het verlede week begin*, ek *het gehoor*, Pietertjie *het sy tandjie gekry*. The pattern is het + the past participle (usually ge- + stem) at the end of the clause.

Two things stand out for English speakers. First, Afrikaans uses this one past tense for everything — ek het gekry covers "I got", "I have got" and "I did get". There is no separate simple past to choose; het … ge- is the workhorse. Second, the participle lands at the end: ek het 'n werkie gekry — the gekry comes last, after the object, not right behind het.

A couple of verbs don't take ge-: begin stays begin (ek het begin), and verbs with inseparable prefixes like be-, ver-, ge- don't add another ge- (besoek → het besoek). For now, the safe default is het + ge-… at the end of the clause. (See the past tense overview.)

The closing: warm and short

Informal sign-offs are short and friendly: Groetnis ("Cheers / regards", a casual greeting), Groete ("Regards"), Liefde ("Love"), or simply Totsiens ("Bye"). The opening Hi Annelie! and the casual Raai wat — ("Guess what —") set the tone from the first line. Compare the formal letter's Geagte... Die uwe: same genre, opposite register.

Common mistakes

Key takeaways

• An informal message uses jy / jou, never u — jy signals closeness the way u signals distance.
• Dis (= dit is, "it's") is the hallmark contraction of casual Afrikaans; daar's ("there's") works the same way.
• Diminutives (boodskappie, koffietjie, werkie, tandjie) add warmth and friendliness, not just smallness — they swarm informal texts.
• Tell news with the perfect: het
  • ge-participle at the end of the clause (ek het 'n werkie gekry). It is the one past tense for everything.
• Even casual writing keeps the closing nie in a negative clause (dis nie te ver nie).