Kry is the Afrikaans verb for "to get" or "to receive" — and like English get, it is wildly productive. On its own it means receive; paired with an adjective it means feel or become (a state coming over you); locked into fixed expressions it means manage or find. The grammar is dead simple; the trick is the collocations, and that is where most of this page lives. Learning kry's partner words is worth far more than memorising any conjugation, because Afrikaans uses kry where English reaches for feel, become, manage, or be allowed.
The forms
Kry is regular. Present and infinitive are kry; the perfect is het gekry; the future uses sal. The imperative is the bare stem.
| Form | Afrikaans | English |
|---|---|---|
| Infinitive | (om te) kry | to get / receive |
| Present | ek/jy/hy kry | I/you/he get(s) |
| Perfect (past) | het gekry | got / received / have got |
| Future | sal kry | will get |
| Conditional | sou kry | would get |
| Imperative (sg.) | Kry! | Get! |
No person agreement: ek kry, ons kry, hulle kry. The past is het gekry for everyone.
Ek het 'n present vir my verjaarsdag gekry.
I got a present for my birthday.
Jy sal nog 'n kans kry, moenie bekommerd wees nie.
You'll get another chance, don't worry.
The plain sense: receive / obtain
In its bare meaning, kry is receive or get hold of. This is the literal use and it is straightforward — a subject, the verb, and the thing received.
Het jy my boodskap gekry?
Did you get my message?
Ons kry nie genoeg slaap die laaste tyd nie.
We aren't getting enough sleep lately.
The experiencer pattern: kry + sensation = "feel / become"
This is the single most important thing on the page, because there is no English equivalent and learners never guess it. When you pair kry with an adjective or noun of bodily sensation, it stops meaning "receive" and means feel or become — a state settling over you. You are not the agent receiving an object; you are the experiencer of a state.
Ek kry koud — kan ons die venster toemaak?
I'm cold — can we close the window?
Die kinders het honger gekry op pad huis toe.
The children got hungry on the way home.
Hy het seergekry toe hy van die fiets af val.
He got hurt when he fell off the bike.
So kry koud = "feel cold", kry honger = "get/become hungry", kry seer (written seerkry as a unit) = "get hurt". Notice that English would use be (I am cold) or get (get hungry) — Afrikaans uses kry for the onset of the feeling, the cold or hunger coming over you. There is a real semantic nuance here: ek is koud describes you as cold to the touch (a thing's temperature), while ek kry koud describes you feeling cold (an experiencer's sensation). Mixing them up is a genuine error, not just a stylistic slip.
The idiom: dit reg kry = "to manage / pull it off"
Reg means "right" or "correct", and dit reg kry literally reads "get it right" — but as a fixed expression it means to manage to do something, to pull it off, to succeed in. In the perfect, reg and the participle fuse into one word: reggekry.
Ek weet nie hoe sy dit reggekry het nie, maar die hele projek was betyds klaar.
I don't know how she managed it, but the whole project was finished on time.
As jy dit kan regkry om voor vyf hier te wees, sien ons jou.
If you can manage to be here before five, we'll see you.
This is one of the most useful idioms in everyday Afrikaans — it is how you say manage to without any verb meaning "manage". Note the spelling: present tense dit regkry (one word), perfect dit reggekry (the ge- slots inside, reg-ge-kry).
Other high-frequency collocations
Kry also pairs with quantities and outcomes in ways that are worth banking as chunks. Lekker kry is to enjoy oneself / have a good time; swaar kry is to struggle / have a hard time; klaar kry is to finish / get done.
Ons het regtig lekker gekry by die see naweek.
We really had a good time at the coast this weekend.
Baie mense kry deesdae finansieel swaar.
Many people are struggling financially these days.
These are light-verb constructions — kry carries almost no meaning of its own and the adjective supplies the content. See light verbs for the wider family of these patterns.
Common Mistakes
❌ Ek is koud.
Misleading for a person — this says you are cold to the touch, like an object, not that you feel cold.
✅ Ek kry koud.
I'm (feeling) cold.
This is the classic transfer error from English I am cold. Ek is koud describes your body temperature as a property (a corpse is koud); to say you feel cold, you need the experiencer construction ek kry koud.
❌ Ek het honger.
This is a Dutch/English-style calque; standard Afrikaans uses kry for the onset of hunger.
✅ Ek kry honger.
I'm getting hungry.
While ek is honger ("I am hungry", as a current state) does exist in Afrikaans, the becoming-hungry meaning is ek kry honger. Use kry when the hunger is setting in.
❌ Ek het dit reg gekry.
Incorrect spelling — in the perfect, reg fuses with the participle: reggekry.
✅ Ek het dit reggekry.
I managed it / I pulled it off.
In the perfect of a separable construction like regkry, the ge- prefix goes inside the word, giving the single form reggekry — not reg gekry as two words.
❌ Ek het my message gekry.
Incorrect — 'message' is an English word; the Afrikaans is boodskap.
✅ Ek het my boodskap gekry.
I got my message.
A vocabulary reminder rather than a grammar one: under pressure learners drop in English nouns. The thing received still needs to be an Afrikaans word — boodskap, brief, present.
Key Takeaways
- kry is regular: present kry, perfect het gekry, future sal kry, imperative Kry!. No person agreement.
- Plain kry = receive / get hold of.
- kry + sensation is the experiencer construction: kry koud = feel cold, kry honger = get hungry, seerkry = get hurt. There is no English parallel — learn the chunk.
- ek is koud (temperature of a body) vs ek kry koud (a person feeling cold) is a real meaning difference, not a free choice.
- dit reggekry is the everyday idiom for to manage / pull it off; mind the fused spelling in the perfect.
Now practice Afrikaans
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Start learning Afrikaans→Related Topics
- The kry-Passive and Recipient PassiveC1 — How the everyday verb kry ('get') builds a recipient-focused, colloquial passive-like construction that mirrors the English get-passive, alongside the idiomatic dit reggekry.
- Light-Verb Collocations: maak, doen, neem, gee, kry, vatB2 — The support-verb engine of Afrikaans — which of maak, doen, neem, gee, kry, vat goes with which noun, and why English calques fail.