A recipe is the friendliest kind of formal text: short sentences, one instruction at a time, and almost every verb in the imperative ("Mix…", "Add…"). That makes it perfect for seeing two pieces of Afrikaans grammar in a natural setting — the imperative and the separable verb, where a verb like byvoeg ("to add") splits into two pieces. The recipe below was written for this guide. After it, we annotate the imperatives, the separable verbs, the quantity phrases, and the sequence adverbs (eers, dan, laastens) that hold the steps together.
The recipe
Eenvoudige melktert
Bestanddele:
- 500 ml melk
- twee eiers
- 100 g suiker
- 60 g meel
- 'n knippie sout
- 'n bietjie kaneel
- een klaargemaakte tertkors
Metode:
Verhit eers die melk in 'n kastrol oor lae hitte. Klits die eiers, suiker en meel in 'n aparte bak deurmekaar. Voeg 'n knippie sout by. Giet die warm melk stadig by die eiermengsel en roer dit goed deur. Gooi alles terug in die kastrol en kook dit tot dit verdik. Haal die mengsel van die hitte af en giet dit in die tertkors. Strooi dan 'n bietjie kaneel oor. Laat die tert in die yskas afkoel. Sny laastens in skywe en sit voor.
Imperatives: the verb comes first
A recipe is built almost entirely from imperatives — commands telling the cook what to do. Forming one in Afrikaans could not be simpler: you take the bare verb stem and put it at the front of the sentence. No subject, no ending, no helper. Verhit... ("Heat…"), Klits... ("Whisk…"), Voeg... ("Add…"), Gooi... ("Pour…"), Sny... ("Cut…").
Verhit eers die melk in 'n kastrol.
First heat the milk in a pot.
Klits die eiers, suiker en meel deurmekaar.
Whisk the eggs, sugar and flour together.
For English speakers this is a relief: it works just like English ("Heat the milk", "Whisk the eggs"). The only thing to watch is that the verb genuinely comes first — there is no jy and no doen helper. An imperative in Afrikaans is the most stripped-down sentence the language has. (See the imperative for plural and polite variants.)
Gooi alles terug in die kastrol.
Pour everything back into the pot.
Separable verbs: split them in the command
Now the feature that makes a recipe worth annotating. Afrikaans has many separable verbs — verbs made of a particle plus a verb, like byvoeg ("to add", by + voeg), deurroer ("to stir through"), afhaal ("to take off"), teruggooi ("to throw back"). In the dictionary they are one word. But in a main clause — and an imperative is a main clause — the particle breaks off and moves to the end of the sentence.
Look at how byvoeg behaves: the infinitive is byvoeg, but the command is Voeg 'n knippie sout by — the verb voeg leads, and the particle by lands at the very end.
Voeg 'n knippie sout by.
Add a pinch of salt.
Roer dit goed deur.
Stir it through well.
Haal die mengsel van die hitte af.
Take the mixture off the heat.
So deurroer → Roer dit deur; afhaal → Haal dit af; teruggooi → Gooi alles terug. The verb and its particle are split across the whole clause, with the object sitting between them. This is the single most common error English speakers make in procedural Afrikaans: they keep the verb whole (Byvoeg sout) because in English particle verbs like "add in" stay loosely together. In an Afrikaans main clause, you must split.
How do you spot a separable verb? The particle is usually a little preposition-like word — by, deur, af, terug, in, op, uit — that carries stress when you say the infinitive: BYvoeg, DEURroer, AFhaal. If the stress is on that first piece, the verb is separable and will split in a main clause. (See separable verbs and how they behave in the past tense.)
Quantity and measure phrases
A recipe lives on amounts, and Afrikaans measure phrases are worth a glance. Round measures use the metric unit directly with no preposition: 500 ml melk, 100 g suiker, 60 g meel. For vague amounts, Afrikaans has charming little quantifiers: 'n knippie sout ("a pinch of salt"), 'n bietjie kaneel ("a bit of cinnamon"), 'n skeppie ("a scoop"), 'n eetlepel ("a tablespoon").
Voeg 'n bietjie kaneel by.
Add a bit of cinnamon.
Gebruik twee eiers en 'n knippie sout.
Use two eggs and a pinch of salt.
Notice there is no "of": it is 'n knippie sout ("a pinch [of] salt"), not 'n knippie van sout. The English "of" simply disappears — the quantity noun sits directly in front of the substance. This catches learners who reach for van by analogy with English.
Sit 'n bietjie suiker in jou koffie.
Put a bit of sugar in your coffee.
Sequence adverbs: eers, dan, laastens
What turns a list of commands into a procedure is the sequence adverbs that order the steps in time. The recipe uses three: eers ("first"), dan ("then"), and laastens ("lastly"). Their siblings include daarna ("after that"), vervolgens ("next"), and uiteindelik ("finally").
There is one word-order rule to absorb. When a sequence adverb starts the sentence, it triggers verb-second inversion — the verb comes second, before the subject or object: Strooi *dan 'n bietjie kaneel keeps the verb first because *Strooi is itself the imperative, but compare a full sentence: Dan strooi jy die kaneel ("Then you sprinkle the cinnamon") — dan first, verb strooi second, subject jy third.
Verhit eers die melk.
First heat the milk.
Sny laastens in skywe en sit voor.
Lastly cut into slices and serve.
Two more phrases from the text are worth noting. sit voor ("serve", literally "put before/forward") is itself a separable verb — voorsit split into sit … voor. And kook dit tot dit verdik ("cook it until it thickens") uses tot ("until") to introduce a clause where, being subordinate, the verb stays at the end: tot dit verdik.
Kook dit tot dit verdik.
Cook it until it thickens.
Common mistakes
❌ Byvoeg 'n knippie sout.
Incorrect — in an imperative the separable verb splits; the particle by goes to the end.
✅ Voeg 'n knippie sout by.
Add a pinch of salt.
❌ Deurroer dit goed.
Incorrect — deurroer must split in a main clause: Roer … deur.
✅ Roer dit goed deur.
Stir it through well.
❌ Jy verhit die melk eers. (as an instruction)
Incorrect for a recipe — drop the subject; an imperative starts with the bare verb.
✅ Verhit eers die melk.
First heat the milk.
❌ Voeg 'n knippie van sout by.
Incorrect — quantity phrases take no 'of'; it is 'n knippie sout, not van sout.
✅ Voeg 'n knippie sout by.
Add a pinch of salt.
❌ Dan jy strooi die kaneel oor.
Incorrect — a fronted dan triggers verb-second; the verb must precede the subject.
✅ Dan strooi jy die kaneel oor.
Then you sprinkle the cinnamon over.
Key takeaways
- An imperative is the bare verb stem at the front: Verhit…, Klits…, Voeg…. No subject, no doen helper.
- Separable verbs split in a main clause: byvoeg → Voeg … by, deurroer → Roer … deur, afhaal → Haal … af. The particle ends the sentence.
- Quantity phrases take no "of": 'n knippie sout, 'n bietjie kaneel.
- Order steps with eers, dan, laastens (and daarna, uiteindelik); a fronted one triggers verb-second inversion.
- A recipe is the richest everyday source of imperatives and separable verbs — read a few aloud and the split becomes automatic.
Now practice Afrikaans
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Start learning Afrikaans→Related Topics
- The ImperativeA2 — How to give commands in Afrikaans — the bare verb stem with no subject, the inclusive 'let's' with kom ons / laat ons, and softening with asseblief.
- Separable Verbs: opstaan, aankom, uitgaanA2 — How separable verbs split — the stressed particle drops to the end of a main clause but rejoins the stem in subordinate clauses and infinitives.
- Past Tense of Separable VerbsB1 — How separable verbs form their past participle — ge- is infixed between the particle and the stem (opstaan → opgestaan, aankom → aangekom), written solid, and placed clause-finally — and why inseparable-prefixed verbs take no ge- at all.
- Adverbs of Time: nou, dan, gister, môre, altydA1 — The everyday words that locate an action in time — nou, dan, gister, vandag, môre, altyd, dikwels, soms, nooit — where they sit in the sentence, and the famous two-way ambiguity of netnou.