help ("to help") and werk ("to work") sit next to each other in any beginner's vocabulary list, and learners assume they behave alike. They do not. werk is the model regular verb — het gewerk, no surprises. help belongs to a small, special class (the perception and causative verbs): it takes no ge-, it is followed by a bare infinitive rather than om te, and in the perfect it produces a strange-looking double infinitive — het my help dra ("helped me carry"). Learning the two together makes the class membership of help stand out. For the wider grammar of that class, see perception verbs and the perception and causative group; this page is about the forms.
The forms, side by side
| Form | help (help) | werk (work) |
|---|---|---|
| Infinitive | (om te) help | (om te) werk |
| Present (all persons) | ek / jy / hy help | ek / jy / hy werk |
| Perfect (past) | het help (+ infinitive) | het gewerk |
| Future | sal help | sal werk |
| Imperative (sg.) | Help! | Werk! |
The headline contrast is in the perfect. werk does the ordinary thing — prefix ge-, giving gewerk. help, when it has no following verb, can also appear as gehelp (e.g. Hy het my gehelp, "he helped me"). But the moment help introduces a second verb, it switches into its special class behaviour: no ge-, and a double infinitive. That switch is the whole story below.
Ek het die hele naweek gewerk en is nou pootuit.
I worked all weekend and I'm exhausted now.
Sal jy my asseblief help met die afwas?
Will you please help me with the dishes?
help + bare infinitive: no om te
When help introduces an activity you help with, that activity comes as a bare infinitive — no om and no te. You say Ek help jou dra ("I'm helping you carry"), not Ek help jou om te dra. This is the same pattern as the perception verbs (Ek sien hom kom, "I see him coming") and the causative laat (Ek laat hom wag, "I make him wait"): a bare verb, stacked directly on.
Ek help jou die tafel dra — dit is te swaar vir een mens.
I'll help you carry the table — it's too heavy for one person.
Kan jy my help soek? Ek het my sleutels verloor.
Can you help me look? I've lost my keys.
Sy het aangebied om my te help skoonmaak.
She offered to help me clean.
That last example is worth a second look: the om te belongs to aangebied om te help ("offered to help"), but the verb after help — skoonmaak — is still a bare infinitive. The help + bare infinitive rule holds no matter what comes before it.
The double-infinitive perfect: het my help dra
This is the form that catches everyone. When help + infinitive goes into the past, you do not get het gehelp dra. Instead, help appears in its bare infinitive form, immediately followed by the other infinitive — het my help dra ("helped me carry"). Two infinitives stack at the end of the clause, and there is no ge- in sight. The auxiliary het alone marks the past.
Hy het my die kaste help dra tot by die bakkie.
He helped me carry the cupboards to the bakkie (pickup).
Die bure het ons help soek toe die hond weggeraak het.
The neighbours helped us search when the dog went missing.
My broer het my help verhuis oor die naweek.
My brother helped me move over the weekend.
Compare this with werk, which never does anything of the kind — it just takes ge- and stops: het gewerk. The contrast is the point. werk is the textbook regular verb; help quietly belongs to the perception and causative club, and its double-infinitive perfect is the membership badge.
help vir: the helped person (regional)
In many varieties of spoken Afrikaans you may hear vir placed before the person being helped — help vir my, help vir Jan — exactly as the dative vir marks objects of other verbs. This is widespread in everyday speech, especially in some communities and registers; in careful written standard Afrikaans the bare object (help my, help Jan) is the norm. Both are understood everywhere.
Sal jy nie vir my help dra nie? Dit is te swaar.
Won't you help me carry this? It's too heavy.
Hy het vir die ou dame oor die straat help loop.
He helped the old lady cross the street.
werk: collocations with by, as and aan
werk is regular, but it leans on three prepositions you should bank as set frames, because they map onto three different ideas English splits differently.
- werk by
- a place or employer = "work at" (your workplace): werk by 'n bank, werk by die hospitaal.
- werk as
- a role = "work as" (your job title): werk as 'n onderwyser, werk as ingenieur.
- werk aan
- a project = "work on" (the thing you are busy with): werk aan 'n nuwe boek, werk aan die motor.
Sy werk by 'n groot prokureursfirma in die stad.
She works at a big law firm in the city.
Ek werk as 'n verpleegster in die noodeenheid.
I work as a nurse in the emergency unit.
Hulle werk al maande lank aan daardie brug.
They've been working on that bridge for months.
Notice that werk as typically takes a bare role noun or one with the article (as onderwyser / as 'n onderwyser are both fine), while werk by points at the institution and werk aan points at the task. Keeping the three apart is mostly a matter of asking where / what role / on what.
Common mistakes
❌ Ek help jou om te dra.
Incorrect — help takes a bare infinitive, with no om te.
✅ Ek help jou dra.
I'm helping you carry.
Don't insert om te after help. The following verb is bare — help dra, help soek, help skoonmaak — like English "help carry."
❌ Hy het my gehelp dra.
Incorrect — in the past, help + verb gives a double infinitive: het ... help dra.
✅ Hy het my help dra.
He helped me carry it.
When help governs another verb, the perfect is the double infinitive het … help dra, not het gehelp dra. (On its own, with no second verb, het gehelp is fine: Hy het my gehelp.)
❌ Ek is die hele dag gewerk.
Incorrect — werk takes het, not is, in the perfect.
✅ Ek het die hele dag gewerk.
I worked all day.
Afrikaans builds the perfect with het for the vast majority of verbs, werk among them. Is gewerk is wrong here.
❌ Sy werk in 'n onderwyser.
Wrong preposition — a job role takes as, not in.
✅ Sy werk as 'n onderwyser.
She works as a teacher.
For the role you do, use werk as. werk by is for the place, werk aan is for the project.
Key takeaways
- werk is fully regular: present werk, perfect het gewerk, future sal werk.
- help belongs to the perception and causative class: bare infinitive after it (help dra), no ge- when it governs a verb.
- In the past, help + verb gives a double infinitive: het my help dra, not het gehelp dra. On its own, het gehelp is fine.
- Spoken Afrikaans often adds vir before the helped person (help vir my); standard writing keeps the bare object.
- werk governs three frames: werk by (place), werk as (role), werk aan (project).
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Start learning Afrikaans→Related Topics
- Perception Verbs: sien, hoor, voel + infinitiveB2 — Verbs of perception like sien, hoor and voel take an object plus a bare infinitive for the perceived event, and join the double infinitive in the perfect — ek het hom hoor sing.
- Perception and Causative Verbs Together: sien, hoor, voel, laat, helpB2 — One reference table for the Afrikaans verbs that take a bare infinitive and form the double-infinitive perfect — sien, hoor, voel, laat, help and the modals — showing why they form a single syntactic class.