Impersonal and Weather Verbs Reference | Afrikaans Grammar

Afrikaans has a whole family of constructions with no real subject. They split into four jobs — describing the weather, evaluating how something seems, asserting that something exists, and the everyday "how are things going" frame — and each job has its own dummy element, either dit or daar. This page is the master inventory of those frames so you can look any of them up at a glance. It does not re-teach the dummy-dit/daar mechanism (see impersonal dit and daar), and it treats weather only in passing — the weather verbs get their own full table on weather and impersonal verbs.

The full inventory

Category	Construction	Pattern	Meaning
Weather	dit reën / sneeu / waai / hael	dit + verb	it's raining / snowing / etc.
Evaluation	dit lyk (asof)	dit + verb + asof/of	it seems / looks (as if)
Evaluation	dit blyk (dat)	dit + verb + dat	it turns out / appears that
Evaluation	dit voel (asof)	dit + verb + asof	it feels (as if)
Evaluation	dit klink (asof)	dit + verb + asof	it sounds (as if)
Existence	daar is / daar was	daar + wees	there is / there was
Existence	daar kom / daar staan	daar + verb	there comes / there stands
Event	dit gebeur (dat)	dit + verb + dat	it happens (that)
Greeting	dit gaan goed met …	dit gaan + adv + met + person	things are going well for …

The dividing line is simple: dit fills the subject slot when the construction has no logical subject at all (weather, "it seems", "it happens"), while daar is a presentative — it announces that something exists or appears, and a real noun follows ("there is a problem"). Mixing them up is the single most common error, and we return to it below.

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Dit is a placeholder where nothing real does the action; daar is a spotlight that introduces a new thing onto the stage. Test yourself with the English: if the natural English is "it …" (it's raining, it seems), use dit; if it's "there …" (there is, there were), use daar. The two are not interchangeable.

Weather (in brief)

The weather verbs all take dit and form a regular perfect with het: dit het gereën, dit het gewaai. Because they have a full table of their own, here is just one example as a pointer — see weather and impersonal verbs for the complete list, the perfect forms, and the reduplication trick (dit reën-reën).

Dit het die hele naweek gereën, so ons het binne gebly.

It rained the whole weekend, so we stayed indoors.

Evaluation: dit lyk, dit blyk, dit voel, dit klink

These verbs report an impression — how something appears, feels, or sounds. They take dit and usually link to a clause with asof ("as if") or dat ("that"). The crucial split: dit lyk / voel / klink prefer asof, while dit blyk ("it turns out / it appears") prefers dat.

Dit lyk asof hulle die wedstryd gaan wen.

It looks as if they're going to win the match.

Dit blyk dat die foutjie al jare lank daar was.

It turns out that the little mistake had been there for years.

Dit voel asof ek hierdie boek al gelees het.

It feels as if I've read this book before.

Dit klink asof iemand by die deur klop.

It sounds as if someone is knocking at the door.

With a bare adjective and no clause, the linker drops away: dit lyk goed ("it looks good"), dit voel sleg ("it feels bad"). The asof/dat only appears when a full clause follows.

Existence: daar is, daar was

To say something exists, Afrikaans uses daar plus a verb of being or appearing. Daar is ("there is") and its past daar was ("there was") are the backbone; daar can also pair with verbs like kom, staan, lê, hang to present something onto the scene. The real subject is the noun that follows, and the verb agrees with it, not with daar.

Daar is nog koffie in die kan as jy wil hê.

There's still coffee in the pot if you want some.

Daar was 'n lang ry by die poskantoor vanoggend.

There was a long queue at the post office this morning.

Daar kom 'n bus aan — kom ons hardloop!

There comes a bus — let's run!

For the syntax of presentative daar (why the noun lands where it does), see impersonal dit and daar.

Events: dit gebeur

Dit gebeur ("it happens") describes an occurrence with no agent, and links to a dat-clause when you spell out what happens. Note the participle is gebeur with no extra ge- (the be- prefix blocks it).

Dit gebeur soms dat die trein laat is.

It sometimes happens that the train is late.

Dit het sommer net gebeur — niemand is te blameer nie.

It just happened — nobody is to blame.

The greeting frame: dit gaan goed met …

This is the construction every learner meets on day one without realising it is impersonal. Dit gaan … met [person] literally means "things are going … for [person]," and it is the idiomatic way Afrikaans asks after and reports on someone's wellbeing. The question Hoe gaan dit met jou? ("How are you?") and its answer Dit gaan goed met my, dankie ("I'm doing well, thanks") are built on exactly this frame — the dit is the same impersonal placeholder, and the person is marked with met.

Hoe gaan dit met jou? — Dit gaan goed met my, dankie.

How are you? — I'm well, thanks.

Dit gaan deesdae nie te goed met die ou winkel op die hoek nie.

Things aren't going too well for the old shop on the corner these days.

Dit het lank sleg met hom gegaan, maar nou's hy weer op die been.

Things went badly for him for a long time, but now he's back on his feet.

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You cannot drop the dit in Hoe gaan dit met jou? — the dummy subject is obligatory. A learner who says Hoe gaan met jou? sounds as off as an English speaker saying "How going with you?" The whole greeting hangs on the impersonal frame; for the surrounding politeness routines see greetings.

Common mistakes

❌ Dit is 'n probleem met die rekenaar.

Incorrect (meaning: there is a problem) — existence needs daar, not dit.

✅ Daar is 'n probleem met die rekenaar.

There's a problem with the computer.

❌ Daar lyk asof dit gaan reën.

Incorrect — 'it seems' is an impression, so it takes dit, not daar.

✅ Dit lyk asof dit gaan reën.

It looks as if it's going to rain.

❌ Hoe gaan met jou?

Incorrect — the dummy dit cannot be omitted.

✅ Hoe gaan dit met jou?

How are you?

❌ Dit blyk asof die plan werk.

Incorrect — dit blyk takes dat, not asof.

✅ Dit blyk dat die plan werk.

It turns out that the plan works.

❌ Dit gaan goed vir my.

Incorrect — the wellbeing frame marks the person with met, not vir.

✅ Dit gaan goed met my.

I'm doing well.

Key takeaways

Afrikaans impersonal constructions fall into four jobs: weather, evaluation, existence, and the wellbeing/greeting frame.
dit fills an empty subject slot (weather, dit lyk, dit gebeur, dit gaan goed met…); daar is the presentative that introduces a new thing (daar is, daar was). Do not swap them.
Evaluation verbs split on their linker: dit lyk / voel / klink take asof, but dit blyk takes dat.
The everyday greeting Hoe gaan dit met jou? is this same impersonal dit frame — the dit is obligatory and the person is marked with met. See greetings.
For the full weather table and reduplication, see weather and impersonal verbs; for the underlying dummy-subject syntax, see impersonal dit and daar.

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