The verbs for living and dying carry one big surprise for anyone coming from Dutch or German: in Afrikaans they form the perfect with het ("have"), not is ("be") — even sterf ("die"), a textbook change-of-state verb that is gestorven in Dutch, is het gesterf in Afrikaans. This page covers leef / lewe ("to live") and sterf ("to die"), their forms, the two spellings of "live," and the polite ways to talk about death. The one place is does appear is the passive is gebore ("was born") — and understanding why is the key to the whole system.
leef or lewe? Two spellings, one verb
Afrikaans accepts two forms of the verb "to live": leef and lewe. They are interchangeable in meaning; the difference is largely one of feel and frequency. lewe is also the noun ("life," die lewe), and as a verb it is the more common everyday choice; leef sounds a touch more vigorous and turns up in fixed phrases like leef en laat leef ("live and let live"). Both are fully standard — pick one and stay consistent within a sentence. The participle follows the spelling you chose: het gelewe or het geleef.
Ons leef in 'n tyd waarin alles vinnig verander.
We live in a time when everything changes fast.
My oupa het sy hele lewe lank op dieselfde plaas gelewe.
My grandfather lived his whole life on the same farm.
Forms
| Verb | Present | Perfect | Future | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| leef / lewe | leef / lewe | het geleef / het gelewe | sal leef / lewe | live, be alive |
| sterf | sterf | het gesterf | sal sterf | die |
| doodgaan | gaan dood | het doodgegaan | sal doodgaan | die (plainer / for animals, plants) |
Die plant het doodgegaan omdat niemand dit natgemaak het nie.
The plant died because nobody watered it.
The big one: even "die" takes het
In Dutch and German, verbs marking a change of state — to die, to fall, to become — take "be" in the perfect (hij is gestorven, er ist gestorben). Afrikaans abolished that whole distinction. Almost every verb forms its perfect with het, full stop. So "he died" is hy het gesterf, never hy is gesterf. This is the single most common Dutch-transfer error here, and it is worth drilling: the is-perfect simply does not exist in modern standard Afrikaans for active verbs.
Sy oupa het verlede winter ná 'n lang siekte gesterf.
His grandfather died last winter after a long illness.
Baie soldate het in daardie veldslag gesterf.
Many soldiers died in that battle.
Die ou hond het rustig in sy slaap doodgegaan.
The old dog died peacefully in its sleep.
So why is "was born" different?
Here is the apparent exception that proves the rule: is gebore ("was born"). Ek is in 1990 gebore — "I was born in 1990." This looks like the is-perfect, but it is not. is gebore is a passive: nobody "borns themselves"; you are born, the object of someone else's act. gebore here is a passive participle behaving like an adjective (you can say 'n pasgebore baba, "a newborn baby"). So is is doing copula/passive duty, exactly as in die deur is gesluit ("the door is/was locked"). The active "die," by contrast, is something you do (or undergo as a subject), so it follows the normal het rule. Same logic explains is oorlede ("has passed away" / "is deceased"), where oorlede is treated as a state-describing adjective.
My ma is in Kaapstad gebore, maar het in Pretoria grootgeword.
My mother was born in Cape Town but grew up in Pretoria.
Die tweeling is presies om middernag gebore.
The twins were born at exactly midnight.
Talking about death politely
As in English, plainly saying sterf can feel blunt. Afrikaans has gentler, attested alternatives. is oorlede ("has passed away") is the standard neutral-to-formal phrase you will read in news and death notices. heengaan ("to depart / pass on," literally "go away") is a softer, more elevated euphemism, used with het: hy het heengegaan. Both are widely used; reserve heengaan for solemn or written contexts.
Mevrou Botha is gistermôre in die ouderdom van 89 oorlede.
Mrs Botha passed away yesterday morning at the age of 89.
Die digter het rustig in haar slaap heengegaan.
The poet passed away peacefully in her sleep.
Why this matters for English speakers
For an English speaker the het-everywhere rule is a gift — you don't have to learn a list of "be"-verbs the way you would in German or French. The trap is the opposite one: if you have studied Dutch first, you will instinctively reach for is gesterf, and it will sound foreign to an Afrikaans ear. Train the reflex het gesterf. The only is you want with these verbs is the passive is gebore — and once you see that gebore is really an adjective ("born"), even that stops feeling like an exception.
Common mistakes
❌ Hy is verlede jaar gesterf.
Wrong — a Dutch-transfer error; active 'die' takes het in Afrikaans.
✅ Hy het verlede jaar gesterf.
He died last year.
❌ Ek het in 1990 gebore.
Wrong — 'be born' is passive, so it takes is, not het.
✅ Ek is in 1990 gebore.
I was born in 1990.
❌ Die kat is doodgegaan.
Wrong — doodgaan is an active verb and takes het in the perfect.
✅ Die kat het doodgegaan.
The cat died.
❌ My ouma het in 'n klein dorpie gelewe het.
Wrong — only one het; doubling it is a common slip.
✅ My ouma het in 'n klein dorpie gelewe.
My grandmother lived in a small town.
Key takeaways
- "Live" has two interchangeable spellings, leef and lewe; lewe is the more common everyday form and also the noun.
- Active perfects all take het: het geleef / gelewe, het gesterf, het doodgegaan — there is no is-perfect for active verbs.
- is gebore ("was born") and is oorlede ("passed away") take is because they are passive / adjectival, not because they mark a change of state.
- doodgaan (separable, het doodgegaan) is the plain everyday "die"; sterf is slightly more formal; heengaan and is oorlede are polite ways to speak of death.
- Coming from Dutch, retrain the reflex from is gestorven to het gesterf — see het vs is in the perfect for the full rule.
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