When something breaks and you have to fix it, Afrikaans gives you a neat little system: breek ("to break") and regmaak ("to fix, repair"). They are an everyday break-and-fix pair, but they show off two different bits of grammar. breek is labile — the same verb covers both "the glass breaks" (by itself) and "I break the glass" (I do it), with the perfect het gebreek in both cases. regmaak is a transparent separable compound — literally "make right" — that splits in main clauses (maak dit reg) and builds a solid participle reggemaak. Around both verbs sit the two resultative adjectives every learner needs: stukkend ("broken") and reg ("fixed, in order").
The forms, side by side
| Form | breek (break) | regmaak (fix) |
|---|---|---|
| Infinitive | (om te) breek | (om) reg te maak |
| Present (all persons) | ek / jy / hy breek | ek / jy / hy maak reg |
| Perfect (past) | het gebreek | het reggemaak |
| Future | sal breek | sal regmaak |
| Imperative (sg.) | Breek! | Maak reg! |
Look at the present and imperative rows for regmaak: the reg detaches and slides to the end — maak dit reg, maak reg! — just the way English splits "fix it up" or "set it right." The participle, though, is the solid one-word reggemaak, with ge- tucked inside (reg-ge-maak). That is the standard separable-verb shape — see separable verbs.
Die glas het op die teëlvloer geval en gebreek.
The glass fell on the tiled floor and broke.
My pa het my fiets se ketting gou reggemaak.
My dad quickly fixed my bike's chain.
breek both ways: it breaks / I break it
The thing English speakers should notice is that breek is labile — one verb, two argument structures:
- Intransitive: the thing breaks on its own. Die glas breek. ("The glass breaks.")
- Transitive: someone breaks the thing. Ek breek die glas. ("I break the glass.")
You do not change the verb between the two; only the presence of an object differs. And — important for Afrikaans — both take het in the perfect: het gebreek. There is no is gebreek for "the glass broke," even though it is a change of state.
Die glas het gebreek toe dit val.
The glass broke when it fell.
Hy het dit gebreek — hy het te hard daaraan getrek.
He broke it — he pulled at it too hard.
Sy het haar arm gebreek met die ski-vakansie.
She broke her arm on the skiing holiday.
breek also reaches into set phrases: die dag breek ("day breaks"), die stilte breek ("break the silence"), 'n rekord breek ("break a record"), jou woord breek ("break your word").
Hulle het die nuwe rekord met twee sekondes gebreek.
They broke the new record by two seconds.
stukkend: the broken result
Once something has broken, its state is described not with the verb but with the adjective stukkend ("broken, in pieces"). This is the resultative — the condition left behind by the breaking. Dit is stukkend is the natural way to say "it's broken / it doesn't work."
My foon is stukkend — die skerm wil nie meer aanskakel nie.
My phone is broken — the screen won't turn on anymore.
Moenie daardie stoel gebruik nie, hy's stukkend.
Don't use that chair, it's broken.
You can also use stukkend as a result phrase with a verb — iets stukkend maak / iets stukkend slaan ("break / smash something to pieces"). Here stukkend predicates the end-state of the object, a pattern called secondary predication — see secondary predication.
Die kind het sy speelding stukkend gegooi van frustrasie.
The child threw his toy and broke it out of frustration.
regmaak and reg: the fixing and the fixed result
regmaak is the everyday verb for fixing, repairing, mending — and its internal logic is delightfully transparent: reg ("right, in order") + maak ("make") = "make right." Anything from a leaking tap to a broken friendship can be reggemaak. As a separable verb it splits in finite clauses (ek maak dit reg) and writes its participle solid (reggemaak).
Sy het my fiets reggemaak terwyl ek by die werk was.
She fixed my bike while I was at work.
Kan jy die lekkende kraan regmaak, of moet ons 'n loodgieter bel?
Can you fix the leaking tap, or must we call a plumber?
Maak dit reg voor jou ma dit sien!
Fix it before your mother sees it!
And the matching resultative adjective is reg itself: dit is reg means "it's fixed / it's in order / it's sorted." So the full cycle reads: dit is stukkend (it's broken) → iemand maak dit reg (someone fixes it) → dit is reg (it's fixed).
Alles is nou reg — die motor loop weer soos nuut.
Everything's sorted now — the car runs like new again.
Common mistakes
❌ Sy het my fiets gereg gemaak.
Wrong participle — regmaak is one word in the perfect, with ge- inside: reggemaak.
✅ Sy het my fiets reggemaak.
She fixed my bike.
The ge- of a separable verb goes inside the word, between the particle and the stem: reg-ge-maak. Build the participle as one solid word, reggemaak.
❌ Ek reggemaak die kraan gister.
Unsplit in a main clause — the particle must detach: ek maak die kraan reg / het ... reggemaak.
✅ Ek het die kraan gister reggemaak.
I fixed the tap yesterday.
In a finite main clause regmaak splits (ek maak … reg) or, in the perfect, appears as the solid participle after het. It never sits unsplit as ek regmaak.
❌ Die glas is gebreek toe dit val.
Auxiliary error — for 'the glass broke' use het, not is: het gebreek.
✅ Die glas het gebreek toe dit val.
The glass broke when it fell.
Even though breaking is a change of state, the perfect of breek is het gebreek. (A passive die glas is gebreek exists, but it means "the glass was broken [by someone]" — a different sentence.)
❌ My foon is gebreek.
Meaning slip — for the broken state of an object, the natural word is the adjective stukkend, not the participle.
✅ My foon is stukkend.
My phone is broken.
To describe the state of a broken object, Afrikaans prefers the adjective stukkend. Is gebreek reads as a passive ("was broken by someone"), which is usually not what you mean.
Key takeaways
- breek is labile: die glas breek (it breaks) and ek breek die glas (I break it) — same verb, perfect het gebreek both ways, never is gebreek.
- regmaak ("make right" = fix, repair) is separable: it splits in main clauses (maak dit reg) and builds the solid participle reggemaak.
- Two resultative adjectives frame the pair: stukkend ("broken") and reg ("fixed, in order").
- The natural way to say "it's broken" is dit is stukkend (adjective), not dit is gebreek.
- The cycle: dit is stukkend → maak dit reg → dit is reg.
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