Afrikaans splits the English verb "to know" into two verbs, and ken is the one you use for being acquainted with — knowing a person, a place, a song, a language. It is one of the first verbs where English speakers stumble, because English uses the single word "know" for everything. This page gives you the full forms of ken and the one distinction you must internalise: ken for acquaintance, weet for facts.
Conjugation
Like almost all Afrikaans verbs, ken has a single present-tense form for every person — there is no -s on the third person, no endings to memorise. The past is the regular perfect with het plus the participle geken, and the future is sal plus the infinitive.
| Tense | Form | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Present | ken | Ek ken haar. |
| Perfect (past) | het ... geken | Ek het haar lank geken. |
| Future | sal ... ken | Jy sal hom gou ken. |
| Infinitive | (om te) ken | Dis lekker om mense te ken. |
| Imperative | ken | Ken jouself. (Know yourself.) |
The present is invariant across all persons:
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| ek (I) | ek ken |
| jy / u (you) | jy ken / u ken |
| hy / sy / dit (he/she/it) | hy ken / sy ken / dit ken |
| ons (we) | ons ken |
| julle (you pl.) | julle ken |
| hulle (they) | hulle ken |
What ken takes as its object
ken always takes a direct object — a thing or person you are acquainted with. The most natural objects are people, places, languages, and works (songs, books, films).
Ek ken haar van die universiteit af.
I know her from university.
Ken jy Kaapstad goed?
Do you know Cape Town well?
Hy ken die liedjie uit sy kop.
He knows the song by heart.
Ek ken nie veel Afrikaans nie, maar ek leer.
I don't know much Afrikaans, but I'm learning.
The perfect: het geken
In the past, ken behaves as a fully regular verb: het in second position, the participle geken at the clause end.
Ek het haar al jare geken voordat ons getrou het.
I had known her for years before we got married.
Het jy sy pa geken?
Did you know his father?
ken vir — the colloquial personal object
In everyday speech, when the object of ken is a person, Afrikaans often inserts vir before them: ek ken vir hom ("I know him"). This vir is a marker of a personal direct object, not the preposition "for". It is colloquial and very common in spoken Afrikaans, especially with names and people.
Ek ken vir Sannie al jare.
I've known Sannie for years.
Ken jy vir hom?
Do you know him?
You can always drop the vir — ek ken hom, ken jy hom? are equally correct and slightly more neutral in register. Adding it sounds warm and conversational; leaving it out is the safer choice in formal writing. The construction belongs to a wider pattern of vir marking human objects, treated under subject and object pronouns.
ken vs weet — the distinction that matters
This is the heart of the page. English "know" hides two different verbs that Afrikaans keeps strictly apart:
- ken = to be acquainted with something — a person, a place, a thing. It takes a noun object.
- weet = to know a fact — that something is the case. It takes a clause (dat ...) or a fact-like object.
| ken (acquaintance) | weet (facts) |
|---|---|
| Ek ken haar. (I know her.) | Ek weet waar sy woon. (I know where she lives.) |
| Ek ken Kaapstad. (I know Cape Town.) | Ek weet dat dit ver is. (I know that it's far.) |
| Ek ken die antwoord. (I know the answer — am familiar with it.) | Ek weet die antwoord. (I know the answer — as a fact.) |
Ek ken haar, maar ek weet nie waar sy nou bly nie.
I know her, but I don't know where she lives now.
Ek weet nie hoe laat dit is nie.
I don't know what time it is.
The test is reliable: if the object is a person, place, or thing → ken; if it's a fact, a piece of information, or a "that/where/how/whether" clause → weet. Speakers from French (connaître / savoir) or German (kennen / wissen) will recognise this instantly — Afrikaans draws the line in exactly the same place, so you can transfer the distinction directly. The full decision guide is on weet vs ken, and weet has its own reference at weet.
leer ken — to get to know
A high-frequency idiom worth memorising: leer ken means "to get to know / to become acquainted with". Literally "learn-know", it expresses the process of becoming acquainted, where plain ken expresses the resulting state.
Ek wil jou graag beter leer ken.
I'd really like to get to know you better.
Ons het mekaar op universiteit leer ken.
We got to know each other at university.
Notice the perfect of leer ken: het ... leer ken, with both verbs as bare infinitives at the clause end — the same double-infinitive clustering you meet with perception and causative verbs.
Common collocations and set phrases
A handful of fixed expressions with ken are worth banking whole, because they come up constantly and they reinforce the "acquaintance" core meaning.
| Phrase | Meaning | Example |
|---|---|---|
| iemand van aansien ken | to know someone by sight | Ek ken hom van aansien. |
| uit jou kop ken | to know by heart | Sy ken die gedig uit haar kop. |
| jou plek ken | to know your place | Hy ken sy plek. |
| ken geen grense nie | to know no bounds | Haar geduld ken geen grense nie. |
Ek ken hom net van aansien — ons het nog nooit gepraat nie.
I only know him by sight — we've never spoken.
Sy ken die hele gedig uit haar kop.
She knows the whole poem by heart.
Note the last table row: ken geen grense nie ("knows no bounds") is a fixed idiom where ken governs geen — and it still closes with the obligatory nie, exactly like any other negative clause.
A note on ken vir versus the dative vir
Do not confuse the colloquial object-marking ken vir hom ("know him") with the everyday preposition vir meaning "for". In ek koop vir hom 'n geskenk ("I buy him a gift"), vir marks a recipient; in ek ken vir hom, vir marks a personal direct object and adds nothing to the meaning — you could drop it. Context and the verb tell them apart: ken never takes a "for"-recipient, so a vir after ken can only be the personal-object marker.
Ek ken vir hom, maar ek koop niks vir hom nie.
I know him, but I'm not buying him anything.
Common mistakes
❌ Ek weet haar.
Incorrect — a person takes ken, not weet.
✅ Ek ken haar.
I know her.
❌ Ek ken dat sy in Pretoria woon.
Incorrect — a 'that'-clause (a fact) takes weet, not ken.
✅ Ek weet dat sy in Pretoria woon.
I know that she lives in Pretoria.
❌ Ek ken Kaapstad nie goed.
Incorrect — the negation must close: a closing nie is missing.
✅ Ek ken Kaapstad nie goed nie.
I don't know Cape Town well.
❌ Ek het haar geweet vir jare.
Incorrect — 'known a person for years' is ken: het haar geken.
✅ Ek het haar jare lank geken.
I knew her for years.
Key takeaways
- ken = "to know / be acquainted with" a person, place, or thing; it takes a noun object.
- Forms are regular: present ken (all persons), perfect het ... geken, future sal ... ken.
- Colloquial ken vir marks a personal object (ek ken vir hom); drop the vir in formal writing.
- ken (acquaintance) vs weet (facts) is the key split — ken a noun, weet a clause — mirroring French connaître/savoir and German kennen/wissen.
- leer ken = "to get to know"; its perfect is het ... leer ken with the two verbs clustered at the end.
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
- weet vs ken (know a fact vs know a person)A2 — How Afrikaans splits English 'know' into weet (know a fact) and ken (be acquainted with a person, place or thing), with the rule, examples, and the edge cases.
- weet (to know a fact) — Full FormsA2 — Full forms of weet — present weet, perfect het geweet, future sal weet, and the archaic preterite wis — plus the all-important split with ken: weet is for facts, ken is for people and things you're acquainted with.
- verstaan, weet, ken: Knowing and UnderstandingB2 — A reference table for the three verbs English's 'know' and 'understand' spread across — verstaan (understand), weet (know a fact), ken (be acquainted) — with the object each takes and the diagnostic for picking the right one.
- 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.
- Subject and Object PronounsA1 — The full Afrikaans personal pronoun set — ek/my, jy/jou, hy/hom, sy/haar and the rest — with subject and object forms and where they go in a sentence.