This is a lookup page for the verbs of the kitchen and the home — cooking, baking, cleaning, ironing. Most are simple verbs that never split, but one, skoonmaak ("to clean"), is separable and behaves differently. Two verbs carry more range than English expects: bak covers both "bake" and "fry," and braai — barbecuing over open coals — is a culturally central activity with no one-word English equivalent. The table is the quick reference; the notes give one example apiece, paired with the kind of object each verb naturally takes (kos kook, brood bak, vloere vee). This page does not teach how separable verbs work — see separable verbs — and it pairs with daily-routine verbs for the personal-care side of the day.
The household-verb map
The heart of this page. Watch the participle column: only skoonmaak splits (maak ... skoon, participle skoongemaak); the rest take a plain front ge-.
| Verb | Gloss | Participle | Typical object |
|---|---|---|---|
| kook | cook, boil | gekook | kos kook, water kook |
| bak | bake, fry | gebak | brood bak, eiers bak |
| braai | barbecue, grill over coals | gebraai | vleis braai, wors braai |
| was | wash (dishes, clothes) | gewas | skottelgoed was, klere was |
| skoonmaak | clean | skoongemaak (splits) | die huis skoonmaak |
| stryk | iron | gestryk | hemde stryk |
| vee | sweep | gevee | vloere vee |
kook — cook, boil
kook ("to cook, to boil") covers both preparing a meal and bringing liquid to the boil: kos kook ("cook food") and water kook ("boil water"). The participle is gekook. When the water itself boils, kook is intransitive: die water kook ("the water is boiling").
Ek kook vanaand 'n groot pot bredie vir die hele gesin.
Tonight I'm cooking a big pot of stew for the whole family.
Wag totdat die water kook voordat jy die pasta ingooi.
Wait until the water boils before you put the pasta in.
bak — bake and fry
bak is the range verb of the kitchen. It means bake (bread, cake, in the oven) and fry (eggs, in a pan) — Afrikaans does not split these the way English does. Brood bak is baking; eiers bak is frying. The participle is gebak for both. Context — and the food involved — tells you which is meant: nobody bakes an egg in an oven, so eiers bak can only be frying.
My ma het 'n heerlike sjokoladekoek vir my verjaarsdag gebak.
My mum baked a delicious chocolate cake for my birthday.
Hy het eiers en spek vir ontbyt gebak.
He fried eggs and bacon for breakfast.
braai — barbecue over coals
braai is the verb with no clean English match. It means to cook meat over open coals or wood fire — but it is also a whole social institution: a braai (the noun) is a gathering built around the fire, somewhere between a barbecue and a national pastime. The verb's participle is gebraai: ons het vleis gebraai ("we braaied meat"). You braai the meat, but you also simply "have a braai" as an event. There is no real substitute — English "barbecue" is the nearest, but it misses the culture.
Ons braai Sondag by my broer se huis — bring net jou eie drinkgoed.
We're braaiing on Sunday at my brother's place — just bring your own drinks.
Die mans het die hele middag wors en tjops gebraai.
The men braaied sausage and chops all afternoon.
was — wash (dishes and clothes)
was ("to wash") here means washing things: skottelgoed was ("wash the dishes"), klere was ("wash clothes"). The participle is gewas. This is the household angle on the verb — washing yourself (jou was) belongs to the personal routine on daily-routine verbs.
Ek het al die skottelgoed gewas terwyl jy gerus het.
I washed all the dishes while you rested.
Onthou om die handdoeke vandag te was — hulle ruik muf.
Remember to wash the towels today — they smell musty.
skoonmaak — clean
skoonmaak ("to clean") is the one separable verb on the page. Built from skoon ("clean") + maak ("make"), it literally means "to make clean," and it splits like any separable verb: ek maak die badkamer skoon ("I clean the bathroom"). The participle is the solid skoongemaak — ge- sits between skoon and gemaak. In an infinitive it splits again: om die huis skoon te maak ("to clean the house").
Ons maak elke Saterdag die hele huis skoon.
We clean the whole house every Saturday.
Het jy al die venster skoongemaak? Dit lyk nog vuil.
Have you cleaned the window yet? It still looks dirty.
stryk and vee — iron and sweep
stryk ("to iron") takes the participle gestryk: hemde stryk ("iron shirts"). It also has a literal sense of "stroke / smooth," but in the home it's ironing.
Ek haat dit om te stryk, maar my werkshemde moet netjies wees.
I hate ironing, but my work shirts have to be neat.
vee ("to sweep") takes gevee: vloere vee ("sweep floors"), die stoep vee ("sweep the porch"). The separable afvee means "to wipe off / wipe down."
Sal jy gou die kombuisvloer vee voordat die gaste kom?
Will you quickly sweep the kitchen floor before the guests arrive?
A day of chores in the past
Putting the chores together in the past tense lines up the participles — six plain ge- forms and one solid separable one.
Ek het vanoggend kos gekook, die skottelgoed gewas, die vloere gevee en die hele huis skoongemaak.
This morning I cooked food, washed the dishes, swept the floors, and cleaned the whole house.
There the only "split" verb, skoonmaak, surfaces as skoongemaak, while gekook, gewas, and gevee take their front ge-.
Common mistakes
❌ Ek skoonmaak die kombuis elke dag.
Incorrect — skoonmaak splits in a main clause: ek maak die kombuis skoon.
✅ Ek maak die kombuis elke dag skoon.
I clean the kitchen every day.
❌ Het jy die venster geskoonmaak?
Incorrect — the participle is solid with ge- inside: skoongemaak.
✅ Het jy die venster skoongemaak?
Have you cleaned the window?
❌ Hy het eiers gefry vir ontbyt. (meaning: fried)
Incorrect — Afrikaans uses bak for frying too: eiers gebak.
✅ Hy het eiers gebak vir ontbyt.
He fried eggs for breakfast.
❌ Ons het die vleis gekook op die kole. (meaning: barbecued)
Incorrect — cooking over coals is braai, not kook: vleis gebraai.
✅ Ons het die vleis op die kole gebraai.
We braaied the meat over the coals.
❌ Ek het my hemde gevee. (meaning: ironed)
Incorrect — vee is sweep; ironing is stryk: hemde gestryk.
✅ Ek het my hemde gestryk.
I ironed my shirts.
Key takeaways
- One separable verb: skoonmaak splits (maak ... skoon) and its participle is the solid skoongemaak. The rest take a plain front ge-: gekook, gebak, gebraai, gewas, gestryk, gevee.
- bak = bake AND fry — the food decides: brood bak (oven), eiers bak (pan).
- braai is barbecuing over coals and a cultural institution; no one English word covers it.
- was here = washing things (dishes, clothes); washing yourself is on daily-routine verbs.
- Match the verb to the chore: kos kook, brood bak, vleis braai, vloere vee, hemde stryk.
Now practice Afrikaans
Reading grammar gets you part of the way. The exercises are where it sticks — free, no signup needed.
Start learning Afrikaans→Related Topics
- 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.
- Procedural Text: A Recipe (Original, A2)A2 — An original simple Afrikaans recipe, annotated for imperatives, separable verbs, quantity phrases and sequence adverbs.
- Daily-Routine Verbs: opstaan, aantrek, was, eet, slaap, werkA1 — A lookup table of the everyday Afrikaans routine verbs — opstaan, aantrek, uittrek, was, eet, slaap, werk — set in a morning-to-night narrative, showing the present, the split form, and the participle of each.