Proverb: Die perd wat die hawer verdien, kry die strooi

This page reads one proverb very slowly, because almost everything that is hard about Afrikaans subordinate-clause syntax is packed into its nine words. The saying drops a relative clause (wat die hawer verdien) right into the middle of a generic, timeless statement, and the relative clause is built around an inseparable verb (verdien) that quietly breaks the rule beginners learn first about Afrikaans participles. Take it apart once, carefully, and three separate grammar topics fall into place at the same time.

The proverb

Literal meaning: the horse that has earned its oats (the feed it works for) is the very one that does not get them — instead it is fobbed off with the straw. The form above, ending kry die strooi ("gets the straw"), is the traditional dictionary wording; it spells out exactly where the reward goes instead. You will just as readily hear the blunter negative phrasing, which states the let-down directly:

It is this negative variant we lean on below, because it puts the nie ... nie frame on display; the grammar lessons apply equally to both.

Figurative meaning: the person who does the real work is often not the one who is rewarded — the credit, the praise, or the prize goes to someone less deserving. It is the Afrikaans version of "the one who does the work seldom gets the thanks." Afrikaans speakers reach for it about an overlooked colleague, an unthanked assistant, a quiet worker passed over for promotion.

Word-by-word breakdown

A relative clause inside a generic statement

The skeleton of the sentence is dead simple: Die perd ... kry dit nie — "the horse ... doesn't get it." That is the main clause, and it is in the generic present: it does not describe one horse on one Tuesday but a standing truth about how the world works, lifted out of any particular moment. That is the natural tense of proverbs, and it is why kry stays present — never het gekry ("got"). A proverb that put the verb in the past would be telling a story; this one is stating a law.

Now look at what has been slipped between the subject and its verb. Die perd is immediately followed by wat die hawer verdien — a relative clause that modifies perd, telling you which horse: the one that earns the oats. So the structure is:

Die perd [ wat die hawer verdien ] kry dit nie. The horse [ that earns the oats ] doesn't get them.

The relative clause interrupts the main clause. The subject (die perd) and its verb (kry) are pulled apart, with the whole wat-clause wedged between them. This is the insight worth carrying away: a proverb that looks like a single flat statement actually has a subordinate clause buried inside it, and reading it well means hearing where that inner clause opens and closes.

In both of these, the same shape repeats: a subject, then a wat-clause hugging it, then the main verb resuming. The comma you often see before the main verb (...verdien, kry...) marks exactly the seam where the inner clause ends and the outer one picks up again.

wat sends its verb to the end

Here is the second lesson, and it is the one English speakers most often get wrong. Inside the relative clause wat die hawer verdien, the finite verb verdien sits at the very end — after its own object die hawer. English keeps the verb early ("that earns the oats"); Afrikaans sends it last ("that the oats earns"). This is not special to relative clauses: every subordinate clause in Afrikaans is verb-final, and a wat-clause is just a subordinate clause introduced by wat instead of dat. (For the full rule, see relative clause word order.)

So the proverb actually contains two verbs in two different positions, governed by two different rules:

• verdien — verb of the subordinate (relative) clause → goes to the end of its clause.
• kry — verb of the main clause → sits in its normal early, second position.

verdien — an inseparable verb with no ge-

Now the third lesson, and it concerns the form of verdien itself. The first thing beginners learn about the Afrikaans past tense is the cheerful rule: stick ge- on the front of the verb. Werk → gewerk, speel → gespeel, koop → gekoop. But verdien flatly refuses it. Its past participle is verdien, identical to the stem — not "geverdien."

Why? Because verdien begins with ver-, one of the small set of unstressed, inseparable prefixes (be-, ge-, her-, ont-, ver-, er-) covered in full at inseparable prefixes. These prefixes are glued permanently to the verb and they block the ge- of the participle. The reason is essentially phonological: Afrikaans does not stack the unstressed ge- in front of another already-unstressed prefix, so ver- + ge- is disallowed and the participle simply stays bare. The same thing happens with betaal → betaal ("paid"), verstaan → verstaan ("understood"), gebruik → gebruik ("used").

There is a neat consequence for the proverb. Because verdien never changes shape — stem, present, and participle are all verdien — the saying reads identically whether you take it as present ("the horse that earns") or whether you mentally reach for the past ("the horse that has earned"). The form alone does not tell you; only the surrounding generic present does. That stability is part of why the line wears so smoothly.

verdien does double duty: "earn" and "deserve"

One last point of meaning. verdien translates as both earn (a wage, by working) and deserve (a reward, by merit) — English splits these into two words, Afrikaans keeps them in one. The proverb exploits both senses at once: the horse has earned its oats by pulling the plough, and it deserves them by right — and gets neither. That double meaning is why the line bites.

Common mistakes

Key takeaways

• The proverb means the one who does the work is not the one who is rewarded — a protest against unfair credit, said with a bitter edge.
• It embeds a relative clause (wat die hawer verdien) inside a generic-present main clause, splitting the subject die perd from its verb kry.
• Inside the relative clause the verb verdien sits last, because every Afrikaans subordinate clause is verb-final — see relative clause word order.
• verdien is an inseparable ver- verb: it takes no ge- in the participle (het ... verdien, never "geverdien") — see inseparable prefixes.
• verdien means both earn and deserve, and the proverb plays on both senses at once.
• Use wat for the horse (animals and things alike), and remember to close the nie ... nie frame.