dra is one of those quietly useful Afrikaans verbs that covers ground English splits across three: you carry a box, you wear a hat, and a bridge bears the weight of traffic — and all three are dra. The single most important thing to nail is the difference between dra ("wear, have on") and aantrek ("put on"): English uses "wear" for both the act of putting clothes on and the state of having them on, but Afrikaans keeps them apart. This page covers the forms of dra and its three core senses, with a careful look at the wear-versus-put-on distinction.
Core forms
dra is short and irregular only in that its participle is gedra (not the spelling you might guess from a long-vowel verb). One present form serves every person; the perfect is het gedra, the future sal dra, the imperative the bare Dra!
| Form | Afrikaans | English |
|---|---|---|
| Infinitive | (om te) dra | to carry / wear / bear |
| Present (all persons) | ek / jy / hy dra | I / you / he carry / wear |
| Perfect | het gedra | carried / wore / have worn |
| Future | sal dra | will carry / wear |
| Imperative | Dra! | Carry it! / Wear it! |
Hy dra die swaar kas alleen tot by die bakkie.
He's carrying the heavy crate to the pickup all by himself.
Elke kind het sy eie tas skool toe gedra.
Each child carried their own bag to school.
Sense 1: carrying an object
This is the most concrete sense — moving something while supporting its weight, usually in your hands or arms. English "carry" maps onto it directly.
Kan jy die sakke vir my dra? My hande is vol.
Can you carry the bags for me? My hands are full.
Sy het die baba die hele pad gedra omdat hy gehuil het.
She carried the baby the whole way because he was crying.
Wat dra jy daar — dit lyk swaar?
What are you carrying there — it looks heavy?
Sense 2: wearing clothes
Here is where Afrikaans and English part ways. dra is the verb for wearing — having a garment, hat, glasses or jewellery on your body as a state. It describes the situation, not the action of getting dressed.
Sy dra 'n rooi rok na die troue.
She's wearing a red dress to the wedding.
Hy dra altyd 'n hoed in die son — hy verbrand maklik.
He always wears a hat in the sun — he burns easily.
Dra jy nie 'n bril nie? Ek dog jy kan nie sonder een lees nie.
Don't you wear glasses? I thought you couldn't read without them.
Sense 3: bearing weight or a burden
dra also covers bearing in the sense of supporting weight or load — a bridge bearing traffic, a wall bearing a roof, a person bearing a responsibility. This extends naturally into figurative use.
Die ou brug dra steeds die hele dorp se verkeer.
The old bridge still bears all the town's traffic.
Hierdie muur dra die dak, so ons kan dit nie sommer afbreek nie.
This wall bears the roof, so we can't just knock it down.
Sy dra die hele gesin se las op haar skouers.
She bears the whole family's burden on her shoulders.
dra versus aantrek: wear versus put on
This is the distinction worth slowing down for. English "wear" is overloaded — "I'm wearing a coat" (state) and "wait, let me wear a coat" (which English speakers actually render as "put on"). Afrikaans never blurs the two:
- dra = the static state of having something on. Sy dra 'n jas. = "She's wearing a coat" (she has it on).
- aantrek = the dynamic act of putting clothes on. Sy trek 'n jas aan. = "She's putting on a coat" (the act of getting into it).
So "Put on a jacket, it's cold" is Trek 'n baadjie aan, never Dra 'n baadjie — that would mean "Wear a jacket (as a general habit)." And once it is on, you are dra-ing it. The mirror-image verb is uittrek ("take off"). For the full separable pair, see trek aan and trek uit.
Trek gou 'n trui aan — buite is dit yskoud.
Quickly put on a jumper — it's freezing outside.
Sodra sy die trui aangetrek het, dra sy dit die hele dag.
As soon as she's put the jumper on, she wears it all day.
Common mistakes
❌ Dra jou jas aan — dit reën.
Wrong verb — for the act of putting on, use aantrek (trek aan), not dra.
✅ Trek jou jas aan — dit reën.
Put on your coat — it's raining.
The classic transfer error: English "wear" doubles as a command to put something on, so learners reach for dra. For the action, it must be aantrek.
❌ Sy het gister 'n pragtige rok aangedra.
Not a word — there is no 'aandra' for clothes; either she 'gedra' (wore) it or 'aangetrek' (put it on).
✅ Sy het gister 'n pragtige rok gedra.
She wore a beautiful dress yesterday.
❌ Hy dra die boodskap na sy ma toe.
Off — for delivering a message you 'bring' or 'take' it (bring / vat), not 'carry' it in this sense.
✅ Hy vat die boodskap na sy ma toe.
He takes the message to his mother.
dra is about physically supporting weight; for delivering something to someone, Afrikaans uses bring ("bring") or vat ("take").
❌ Ek het 'n bril aangetrek om te lees.
Wrong — you don't 'trek aan' glasses; you 'sit' them on (sit op) or simply 'dra' them.
✅ Ek het 'n bril opgesit om te lees.
I put on glasses to read.
Glasses are opsit ("put on" — for things that sit on you) for the action, and dra for the state. Aantrek is for garments you step or pull into.
Key takeaways
- dra is the all-purpose verb for carrying (an object), wearing (clothes, as a state) and bearing (weight or a burden) — three English verbs in one.
- The perfect is always het gedra.
- The crucial split: dra = the static state of having clothes on; aantrek = the dynamic act of putting them on. See trek aan and trek uit.
- For delivering something to someone, use bring or vat, not dra — see giving verbs.
- Glasses and hats are opsit for the action ("put on") and dra for the state ("wear").
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- aantrek and uittrek — to dress and undressA2 — Full forms of the separable pair aantrek (put on / get dressed, het aangetrek) and uittrek (take off / undress, het uitgetrek) — the main-clause split plus their optional reflexive use (jou aantrek = dress oneself).
- Giving and Showing Verbs: gee, wys, bied, skenk, leenB1 — A lookup table of the Afrikaans ditransitive transfer verbs — gee, wys, bied, skenk, leen, oorhandig — all sharing the vir-recipient frame, with each one's participle, both object frames, and a natural example.
- Inseparable Prefixes: be-, ver-, ont-, her-, er-, ge-B1 — The unstressed bound prefixes be-, ge-, her-, ont-, ver- and er- that never detach from the verb and suppress the ge- of the past participle — with stress as the diagnostic.