The Preterite-Keeping Verbs (Reference Table) | Afrikaans Grammar

This is a reference page: a single table of the only Afrikaans verbs that keep a true simple past tense. Here is the fact that makes Afrikaans verbs so much easier than English or German: Afrikaans threw away almost its entire simple-past tense. For practically every verb, the past is built with het + ge- (the perfect): ek loop → ek het geloop, sy eet → sy het geëet. There is no I walked / I ate simple-past form. The handful of verbs on this page are the survivors — the closed set that kept an old synthetic preterite (was, kon, sou, moes, wou) instead. Count them and you will find the entire "irregular past" of the language is about twelve forms. For how to use these forms in sentences, see the preterite overview; this page is the lookup table.

The complete table

Every verb that keeps a synthetic past is listed here. There are no others.

Present	Preterite (simple past)	Perfect alternative	Meaning	Frequency
is / wees	was	(het gewees)	is / to be → was	everyday — essential
kan	kon	—	can → could	everyday — essential
sal	sou	—	will → would	everyday — essential
moet	moes	—	must → had to	everyday — essential
wil	wou	(het wou)	want → wanted	everyday — essential
mag	mog	het mag	may → was allowed to	rare / dated
hê	had	het gehad	have → had	bookish; spoken uses het gehad
weet	wis	het geweet	know → knew	bookish; spoken uses het geweet
dink	dag / dog	het gedink	think → thought	archaic / literary

That is the whole list. Notice the structure: the five core modals (kan, sal, moet, wil — plus the marginal mag), the verb to be, and three bookish leftovers (hê, weet, dink). Nothing else in the language has a simple past.

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The five everyday forms to drill until automatic are was, kon, sou, moes, wou. These five — "to be" plus the four live modals — carry essentially all real-world use of the Afrikaans preterite. The rest of the page is recognition-only.

The five essential forms (use these daily)

was — the past of is / wees

was is by far the most important. It is the simple past of both is and wees (to be), and unlike the others it has no everyday perfect rival — you say ek was, not ek het gewees, in ordinary speech (het gewees exists but is heavier and less common).

Ek was gister siek, daarom was ek nie by die werk nie.

I was sick yesterday, which is why I wasn't at work.

Dit was 'n lang dag — ek is bly dit is verby.

It was a long day — I'm glad it's over.

The four live modals form their past synthetically. These are everyday, high-frequency, and have no het ge- alternative — there is no het gekan; the past of kan is simply kon.

Ek kon nie slaap nie, want die bure se musiek was te hard.

I couldn't sleep, because the neighbours' music was too loud.

Sy sou kom, maar haar kar het gebreek.

She would have come, but her car broke down.

Ons moes vroeg opstaan om die bus te haal.

We had to get up early to catch the bus.

Hy wou nog 'n koppie koffie hê voor ons ry.

He wanted another cup of coffee before we left.

Note the everyday meanings: kon = could, sou = would, moes = had to, wou = wanted to. Sou also builds the conditional ("would"), and moes often carries a sense of obligation in the past ("had to"). See modals in the past for usage.

The marginal and bookish forms (recognise, don't produce)

mog — the dated past of mag

mog (past of mag, "may / be allowed to") is largely archaic. In modern Afrikaans the idea "was allowed to" is expressed with mag + perfect or rephrased; mog survives mainly in older texts and set expressions. Recognise it; do not reach for it in speech.

In daardie jare mog 'n vrou nie alleen reis nie. (gedateerd)

In those years a woman wasn't allowed to travel alone. (dated)

had, wis, dag/dog — replaced by het ge- in speech

These three keep an old preterite that is now bookish or literary. In everyday Afrikaans they are almost always replaced by the regular perfect:

had (past of hê) → spoken het gehad
wis (past of weet) → spoken het geweet
dag / dog (past of dink) → spoken het gedink

Bookish preterite	Everyday replacement	Meaning
ek had	ek het gehad	I had
ek wis	ek het geweet	I knew
ek dag / dog	ek het gedink	I thought

Ek het nie geweet jy is terug nie — wanneer het jy aangekom?

I didn't know you were back — when did you arrive?

Ons het altyd gedink hy sal eendag terugkom.

We always thought he'd come back one day.

Hy wis nie wat om te sê nie. (literêr — gewone taal: het nie geweet nie)

He didn't know what to say. (literary — everyday speech: het nie geweet nie)

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If you write had, wis or dag/dog in casual Afrikaans, it sounds like a line from an old novel. Default to het gehad, het geweet, het gedink in speech and reserve the synthetic forms for deliberately literary register.

On the dag / dog spelling

The old preterite of dink appears as both dag and dog in older sources, with dog the more common literary spelling. Both are archaic; the everyday past of dink is het gedink. You only need to recognise either spelling when reading older Afrikaans — you will never need to produce it.

Why these forms matter for word order

There is a practical reason the synthetic preterites are worth drilling beyond "they are the past tense": they behave like single finite verbs, which keeps your sentences short and clean. A perfect-tense sentence pushes the participle to the very end (Ek het gister baie hard gewerk), but a preterite keeps the one verb in second position (Ek was gister baie moeg) with nothing sent to the end. This matters most with the modals, because the modal past lets you avoid a clumsy double construction.

Preterite (clean)	Meaning
Ek kon nie kom nie.	I couldn't come.
Ons moes lank wag.	We had to wait long.
Sy sou dit nooit doen nie.	She would never do it.

Notice how the negation wraps the clause (nie ... nie) around the preterite exactly as it does around any finite verb — Ek kon nie kom nie — with no participle to juggle. This is part of why kon, sou, moes, wou feel so natural in speech: they slot into the ordinary second-position verb spot and let the rest of the sentence fall into place.

Ek wou jou bel, maar ek kon nie my foon kry nie.

I wanted to call you, but I couldn't find my phone.

Sy sou graag wou help, maar sy moes werk toe gaan.

She would gladly have helped, but she had to go to work.

Why this list is the whole story

The payoff of collecting these in one place: the entire "irregular past tense" of Afrikaans fits on a single page. German learners memorise hundreds of strong-verb preterites; English has its own long list (went, saw, took, brought...). Afrikaans has roughly twelve forms, and nine of them are on this table — with only five in genuine everyday use. Every other verb in the language, regular or not, forms its past with het + ge-. Once you have was, kon, sou, moes, wou automatic, you have mastered the synthetic past completely; everything else is the predictable perfect.

Common mistakes

❌ Ek het gekan nie slaap nie.

Incorrect — kan has no het ge- past; use kon: Ek kon nie slaap nie.

✅ Ek kon nie slaap nie.

I couldn't sleep.

❌ Sy het gewil nog koffie hê.

Incorrect — the past of wil is wou: Sy wou nog koffie hê.

✅ Sy wou nog koffie hê.

She wanted more coffee.

❌ Ek het gewas siek gister.

Incorrect — the past of is/wees is was, not a het ge- form: Ek was gister siek.

✅ Ek was gister siek.

I was sick yesterday.

❌ Ek wis nie van die partytjie nie. (in gewone gesprek)

Stiff/literary in conversation — say: Ek het nie van die partytjie geweet nie.

✅ Ek het nie van die partytjie geweet nie.

I didn't know about the party.

❌ Ons moet gister vroeg opstaan.

Incorrect tense — the past of moet is moes: Ons moes gister vroeg opstaan.

✅ Ons moes gister vroeg opstaan.

We had to get up early yesterday.

Key takeaways

Afrikaans abandoned its simple past for almost all verbs; the normal past is the perfect with het + ge-.
Only a closed set keeps a synthetic preterite — about twelve forms, nine listed here.
The five essential forms are was (be), kon (kan), sou (sal), moes (moet), wou (wil) — high-frequency, with no het ge- alternative for the modals.
mag → mog is dated; recognise it, don't produce it.
hê → had, weet → wis, dink → dag/dog are bookish/literary and are normally replaced by het gehad / het geweet / het gedink in speech.
This single table is the entire irregular past tense of Afrikaans — far smaller than English or German.

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