Motion verbs — going, coming, walking, driving, flying, swimming — are where Dutch and German speakers reliably go wrong in Afrikaans, because in those languages many of them form the perfect with to be (Dutch zijn, German sein). Afrikaans swept that whole distinction away: every motion verb forms the perfect with het, exactly like every other verb. Ek het geloop, ek het gery, ek het gevlieg — never is. This page is a usage reference for the common motion verbs, each with its perfect form and a sentence built around a directional toe-phrase.
The reference table
Every verb below forms its perfect with het + ge-participle. The "toe-phrase" column shows the typical destination pattern; see direction: na, toe, uit, deur for how toe works.
| Verb | Meaning | Perfect | Example with toe |
|---|---|---|---|
| gaan | to go | het gegaan | Ek het strand toe gegaan. |
| kom | to come | het gekom | Sy het huis toe gekom. |
| loop | to walk / go | het geloop | Ons het skool toe geloop. |
| ry | to drive / ride | het gery | Hy het werk toe gery. |
| stap | to walk (on foot, stroll) | het gestap | Ons het dorp toe gestap. |
| hardloop | to run | het gehardloop | Sy het huis toe gehardloop. |
| vlieg | to fly | het gevlieg | Ek het Kaap toe gevlieg. |
| swem | to swim | het geswem | Hulle het oewer toe geswem. |
het, not is — the whole story
In Dutch you must say ik ben gelopen ("I have walked", literally "I am walked") because motion-and-change-of-state verbs select zijn. Afrikaans abolished this. There is exactly one auxiliary for the active perfect — het — and it never varies by verb class. So:
Ek het gister vyf kilometer gehardloop.
I ran five kilometres yesterday.
Ons het met die vakansie Durban toe gery.
We drove to Durban for the holidays.
Sy het vroeg huis toe gegaan want sy was moeg.
She went home early because she was tired.
The only time you will ever see is + participle is the passive (Die deur is oopgemaak — "The door was opened"), which is a completely different construction, not a perfect. No active sentence with a motion verb uses is. For the full account of why Afrikaans has only one perfect auxiliary, see choosing the perfect auxiliary: het; for the specific Dutch error, see Dutch transfer: is vs het in the perfect.
Die voëls het in 'n lang ry oor die berge gevlieg.
The birds flew over the mountains in a long line.
Die kinders het tot by die boei geswem.
The children swam all the way to the buoy.
The directional toe-phrase
Afrikaans has a beloved way of saying "to (a place)": the postposition toe, which comes after the destination. Huis toe (homeward), werk toe (to work), strand toe (to the beach), Kaap toe (to Cape Town). It pairs naturally with motion verbs, and in the perfect it sits just before the participle at the end of the clause: Ek het strand toe gegaan.
Kom ons loop see toe voor dit donker word.
Let's walk to the sea before it gets dark.
Hy ry elke oggend met die fiets werk toe.
He rides his bike to work every morning.
Note the word order in the perfect: the destination-plus-toe goes to the end, and the participle comes right after it — huis toe gegaan, Kaap toe gevlieg. Forgetting the toe (or replacing it with a bare na) is a common slip; toe is the idiomatic everyday marker for "to a place" with these verbs.
Ons het ná die fliek dadelik huis toe gestap.
After the film we walked straight home.
Wanneer het julle laas Kaap toe gevlieg?
When did you last fly to Cape Town?
gaan and kom: motion verb and grammatical helper
Two members of this group lead double lives. Gaan is both a motion verb ("go") and the everyday future auxiliary ("going to"); kom is both "come" and a casual helper in kom kuier (come and visit). When gaan is the future helper, it takes a bare infinitive and there is no perfect to worry about — ek gaan môre werk ("I'm going to work tomorrow") is future, not past. But when gaan is a real motion verb, it behaves like all the others on this page: perfect with het, participle gegaan.
Ek gaan môre vroeg dorp toe.
I'm going to town early tomorrow.
Kom kuier gerus 'n slag by ons.
Do come and visit us sometime.
The takeaway is that even these grammatically loaded verbs do not break the rule: whenever they describe actual movement and you put them in the past, the auxiliary is het, never is.
Common mistakes
❌ Ek is huis toe gegaan.
Incorrect — Dutch/German transfer; Afrikaans uses het: ek het huis toe gegaan.
✅ Ek het huis toe gegaan.
I went home.
❌ Sy is gister vyf kilometer gehardloop.
Incorrect — motion verbs take het, never is: sy het gehardloop.
✅ Sy het gister vyf kilometer gehardloop.
She ran five kilometres yesterday.
❌ Ons het Durban gery.
Incorrect — missing the directional marker; use toe: Durban toe gery.
✅ Ons het Durban toe gery.
We drove to Durban.
❌ Hulle is na die oewer geswem.
Incorrect — both errors: is should be het, and the destination wants toe: oewer toe geswem.
✅ Hulle het oewer toe geswem.
They swam to the shore.
❌ Hy het huis toe gevlieg gegaan.
Incorrect — one motion verb per clause; don't stack gevlieg and gegaan.
✅ Hy het huis toe gevlieg.
He flew home.
Key takeaways
- All Afrikaans motion verbs — gaan, kom, loop, ry, stap, hardloop, vlieg, swem — form the perfect with het, never is. This is the single most useful generalisation in the group.
- The participles are regular: het gegaan, het gekom, het geloop, het gery, het gestap, het gehardloop, het gevlieg, het geswem.
- The only is + participle you ever meet is the passive, not an active perfect — see choosing the perfect auxiliary: het.
- "To a place" is the postposition toe, placed after the destination and before the participle: huis toe gegaan, Kaap toe gevlieg. See direction: na, toe, uit, deur.
- If you carry over Dutch zijn or German sein for these verbs, you will produce wrong sentences — Dutch transfer: is vs het covers exactly this slip.
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Start learning Afrikaans→Related Topics
- Choosing the Perfect Auxiliary: hetB1 — Afrikaans uses het as the perfect auxiliary for every active verb — there is no hebben/zijn or haben/sein split — and the only is + participle you ever meet is the passive, not an active perfect.
- Direction: na, toe, uit, deurA2 — How Afrikaans marks movement toward and away from a place — the distinctive postposition toe (huis toe), the preposition na, and the source markers uit and van … af.
- Dutch Transfer: is vs het in the PerfectB1 — Dutch speakers reflexively use is (zijn) for motion verbs in the perfect — Afrikaans uses het for every active perfect and keeps is only for the passive.