glo is two words wearing the same costume. First it is the ordinary verb "to believe" — ek glo jou, "I believe you". But the same little word leads a second life as a hearsay particle meaning "apparently, supposedly, so they say" — hy het glo gewen, "he apparently won". The two are not really related in meaning, and the wonderful thing about Afrikaans is that you tell them apart purely by where the word sits in the sentence. This page gives you the verb in full and shows you how to recognise the particle; for the deep treatment of the particle as one of Afrikaans's evidential markers (alongside seker and sekerlik), see evidential markers. For glo as a member of the believing-and-knowing family, see cognition verbs.
The basic forms
As a verb, glo is perfectly regular: present glo, perfect het geglo, future sal glo.
| Tense / form | Form | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Present | glo | ek glo, jy glo, ons glo |
| Perfect (past) | het geglo | ek het geglo |
| Future | sal glo | ek sal glo |
| Infinitive | (om te) glo | om te glo |
| Imperative | glo! | Glo my! |
Ek glo jou, moenie bekommerd wees nie.
I believe you, don't worry.
Niemand het haar storie geglo nie.
Nobody believed her story.
The participle is het geglo — single g sound, regular ge- prefix, no surprises. Because glo ends in a vowel, there is no extra ending: geglo, not geglooi or gegloo.
The verb glo — three frames
glo + a direct object: believing a person or a claim
You believe someone (ek glo jou) or something (ek glo die storie) with a plain object, exactly as in English.
Glo my, dit was nie maklik nie.
Believe me, it wasn't easy.
Ek kan dit nie glo nie!
I can't believe it!
glo in / glo aan — believing in something
To believe in something — its existence, its value, a principle — Afrikaans uses glo in or glo aan. glo in is the everyday choice; glo aan leans slightly more abstract or formal, and is the usual frame for believing in things like ghosts or fate.
Sy glo in jou — sy weet jy kan dit doen.
She believes in you — she knows you can do it.
Glo jy aan spoke?
Do you believe in ghosts?
Hy glo nie aan toeval nie.
He doesn't believe in coincidence.
glo dat — believing a whole statement
To believe that something is the case, use glo dat — and as with dink dat, the dat is often dropped in speech.
Ek glo dat alles op die ou end regkom.
I believe that everything works out in the end.
Ons glo hy is onskuldig.
We believe he's innocent.
The particle glo — "apparently"
Now the second life. When glo appears in the middle of a clause, not as the main verb but tucked in among the other words, it stops meaning "believe" and becomes a hearsay marker: the speaker is reporting something they were told but won't vouch for. The closest English equivalents are "apparently", "supposedly", "they say", or "I hear".
Hy het glo die wedstryd gewen.
He apparently won the match.
Die winkel is glo môre toe.
The shop is apparently closed tomorrow.
Sy gaan glo emigreer.
She's reportedly going to emigrate.
Look at where glo sits. In Hy het glo die wedstryd gewen, the real main verb is gewen (won), with het as its auxiliary; glo is wedged into the so-called middle field, between the subject-plus-auxiliary and the rest of the clause. It is not doing any of the work of "believe" — nobody in that sentence is believing anything. It simply flags the whole report as second-hand. Crucially, with the particle glo the speaker is often distancing themselves from the claim ("so they say — don't blame me if it's wrong"), which is the opposite of the verb's commitment.
Telling the two apart
The test is simple: find the main verb. If glo itself is the main verb of the clause, it means "believe". If there is another main verb and glo is sitting beside it in the middle of the sentence, it is the "apparently" particle. Compare:
Ek glo hy het gewen.
I believe he won. (glo is the main verb — 'believe')
Hy het glo gewen.
He apparently won. (gewen is the main verb — glo means 'apparently')
These two sentences are made of nearly the same words but say very different things. The first is your own conviction; the second is a rumour you're passing on without endorsing.
Common mistakes
❌ Ek glo aan jou storie.
Wrong frame — believing a claim takes a plain object: glo jou storie.
✅ Ek glo jou storie.
I believe your story.
❌ Glo jy in spoke?
Marginal — the fixed everyday phrase for ghosts/fate uses glo aan.
✅ Glo jy aan spoke?
Do you believe in ghosts?
❌ Glo, hy het gewen.
Incorrect — the hearsay particle sits inside the clause, not fronted like an interjection.
✅ Hy het glo gewen.
He apparently won.
❌ Hy het gewen geglo.
Incorrect — the particle glo is not a verb and has no participle; it stays in the middle field as glo.
✅ Hy het glo gewen.
He apparently won.
❌ Ek het jou nie geglo.
Incorrect — a negated clause needs the closing nie.
✅ Ek het jou nie geglo nie.
I didn't believe you.
Key takeaways
- As a verb, glo is regular: glo / het geglo / sal glo.
- Three frames: glo
- object (believe a person/claim), glo in/aan (believe in something), glo dat (believe a statement).
- The same word glo in the middle field is a hearsay particle meaning "apparently" — and often signals the speaker's distance from the claim.
- Tell them apart by the main verb: if glo is the main verb it means "believe"; if another verb is, glo means "apparently".
Now practice Afrikaans
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Start learning Afrikaans→Related Topics
- Evidential Particles: seker, glo, blykbaarB2 — How seker (inference), glo (hearsay) and blykbaar (visible evidence) mark the source of what you're claiming — a grammatical move English handles only with whole phrases.
- Cognition Verbs: dink, glo, weet, verstaan, onthou, vergeetB1 — A lookup table of Afrikaans mental-state verbs, organised by what complement each one takes (dat-clause, om te, direct object) and how it builds the perfect — including the no-ge- inseparables verstaan, vergeet and besef.