Almost the entire Afrikaans tense, mood and voice system is carried by a tiny, closed set of helper verbs. The lexical verbs barely change shape — they appear as a participle or a bare infinitive and let the helper do the grammatical work. This page collects every auxiliary and modal into a single master grid so the pattern is visible at once: a handful of function words that, between them, build the perfect, the passive, the future, every modal nuance, and the causative. For the meanings of the modals see the modals table; for which verbs keep a real past tense, see preterite keepers.
The master grid
The columns are: the helper, its function, the complement it governs (what form the main verb takes after it), and its preterite — the dedicated past-tense form, where one exists.
| Helper | Function | Complement | Preterite |
|---|---|---|---|
| het | perfect tense | past participle (ge-…) | — (no preterite; het is itself the past marker) |
| is | perfect of mutative/state verbs; copula | past participle | was |
| word | passive voice (present) | past participle | is … ge- (past passive uses is) |
| sal | future; prediction | bare infinitive | sou (would) |
| gaan | near/intended future | bare infinitive | (uses sou or context; no special preterite) |
| kan | modal: ability, possibility | bare infinitive | kon |
| mag | modal: permission | bare infinitive | mog (literary/archaic) |
| moet | modal: obligation | bare infinitive | moes |
| wil | modal: desire | bare infinitive (or wil hê) | wou |
| laat | causative | bare infinitive | (uses het … laat; no special preterite) |
Read the grid as a whole and one fact dominates: the lexical verb never inflects for these jobs. It is either a ge-*participle (after *het, is, word) or a bare infinitive (after sal, gaan, the modals, and laat). All the tense, mood and voice information lives in the closed helper set — there are only about ten of them, and they are the engine of the whole verb system.
The three perfect/passive helpers: het, is, word
het builds the ordinary perfect with a ge-*participle, and it is itself the past — there is no "preterite of het," because *het is what makes a sentence past.
Ek het gister 'n nuwe woordeboek gekoop.
I bought a new dictionary yesterday.
is builds the perfect of a small group of verbs of motion and change of state, and doubles as the copula ("to be"). Its past is was.
Sy is vroeg vanoggend vertrek.
She left early this morning.
word builds the passive in the present; the past passive switches to is + participle.
Die nuwe brug word op die oomblik gebou.
The new bridge is being built at the moment.
Die brief is gister deur Jan geskryf.
The letter was written by Jan yesterday.
Which verbs take het and which take is in the perfect is its own topic — see verbs overview for the pointer.
The future helpers: sal and gaan
sal (preterite sou) is the neutral future and the conditional "would." gaan marks a near or intended future — closer to English "going to" — and both take a bare infinitive at the clause end.
Ek sal jou môre bel sodra ek by die werk is.
I'll call you tomorrow as soon as I'm at work.
Sy het gesê sy sou later kom, maar sy het nie.
She said she would come later, but she didn't.
Kyk na daardie wolke — dit gaan reën.
Look at those clouds — it's going to rain.
Note the asymmetry in the grid: sal has a clean preterite (sou), but gaan does not — past intentions are usually carried by sou or simply by context.
The five modals: kan, mag, moet, wil
These are the verbs that keep a dedicated preterite, which is what makes them irregular in an otherwise preterite-poor language. The set is kan→kon, moet→moes, wil→wou, mag→mog, and (counted with them) sal→sou. They take a bare infinitive.
Ek kon nie slaap nie — dit was te warm.
I couldn't sleep — it was too hot.
Ons moes 'n uur lank in die ry staan.
We had to stand in the queue for an hour.
One spelling point this grid hides: "to want (something)" with no following verb is the fixed wil hê — Ek wil 'n appel hê ("I want an apple") — and hê carries a circumflex. The full modal meanings and the het kon… perfect cluster live on the modals table.
Ek wil 'n koppie tee hê voor ons ry.
I want a cup of tea before we go.
The causative: laat
laat ("to make / let / have someone do something") rounds out the closed set. It governs a bare infinitive and forms its perfect as a double-infinitive cluster (het … laat), with no special preterite.
Die fliek het my laat huil.
The film made me cry.
Ons het die dak laat regmaak.
We had the roof repaired.
For how laat clusters with its infinitive in the perfect, see the modals table and the perception/causative grouping it links to.
Common mistakes
❌ Ek het 'n nuwe boek koop.
Incorrect — after het the main verb is a ge-participle: gekoop.
✅ Ek het 'n nuwe boek gekoop.
I bought a new book.
❌ Die huis word gister gebou.
Incorrect — past passive uses is, not word: Die huis is gister gebou.
✅ Die huis is gister gebou.
The house was built yesterday.
❌ Sy het moes gewerk het.
Incorrect — for past obligation use the preterite moes with a bare infinitive: Sy moes werk.
✅ Sy moes werk.
She had to work.
❌ Ek wil 'n appel het.
Incorrect — 'want' with no verb is wil hê, with a circumflex on hê.
✅ Ek wil 'n appel hê.
I want an apple.
❌ Ek het gekan kom.
Incorrect — the modal takes no ge-; use het kon: Ek het kon kom.
✅ Ek het kon kom.
I had been able to come.
Key takeaways
- A closed set of about ten helpers — het, is, word, sal, gaan, kan, mag, moet, wil, laat — drives all Afrikaans tense, mood and voice. The lexical verbs never inflect.
- After het, is, word the main verb is a ge-participle; after sal, gaan, the modals and laat it is a bare infinitive.
- The preterite column is short: was (from is), and the modal set kon, moes, wou, sou plus the archaic mog. het has no preterite (it is the past), and gaan and laat have no special preterite.
- The past passive switches from word to is
- participle.
- "Want (something)" with no following verb is wil hê — note the circumflex on hê. For modal meanings and clusters see the modals table; for the preterite-keeping verbs see preterite keepers.
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Start learning Afrikaans→Related Topics
- The Preterite-Keeping Verbs (Reference Table)A2 — The complete closed set of Afrikaans verbs that keep a synthetic simple past (was, kon, sou, moes, wou, had, wis) instead of the usual het ge- perfect — about twelve forms in total.
- The Five Modals (Reference Table)A2 — A one-page reference for kan, mag, moet, wil and sal — present and past (kon, mog, moes, wou, sou), the het kon... perfect cluster, and the bare-infinitive-at-the-end pattern, laid out so the parallel preterite forms jump out.
- Afrikaans Verbs: The Big PictureA1 — Afrikaans verbs do not conjugate for person or number — one form serves every subject, and tense is built with a small set of auxiliaries.