English splits vehicular motion across two verbs and frets over which to use: you drive a car but ride a bike or a horse, and you "go by" train. Afrikaans uses a single verb for the whole lot — ry. You ry a car, you ry a bike, you ry a horse, and you ry on the train. It means "drive," "ride" and "travel by vehicle" rolled together, and you almost never have to decide which English word it maps to. This page covers its forms — note the perfect is het gery, never is gery — and the very common pairing with the directional toe.
Core forms
ry is short and regular. One present form serves every person, the perfect is het gery, the future is sal ry, and the imperative is the bare Ry!
| Form | Afrikaans | English |
|---|---|---|
| Infinitive | ry | to drive / ride / travel by |
| Present (all persons) | ek / jy / hy / ons / hulle ry | I / you / he / we / they drive |
| Perfect | het gery | drove / have driven |
| Future | sal ry | will drive |
| Imperative | Ry! | Drive! / Go! |
Ons ry elke jaar met die trein see toe vir die vakansie.
Every year we take the train to the coast for the holidays.
Ek het gister twee uur lank in die reën huis toe gery.
Yesterday I drove home for two hours in the rain.
One verb for drive, ride and travel-by
The big lesson is that ry covers all vehicular motion, so you do not over-specify. Whether you are at the wheel, on a saddle, or just a passenger on a bus, the verb is ry. What you are travelling in or on is added with met ("with / by") — ry met die bus, ry met die trein — or simply named as the object — perd ry ("ride a horse"), fiets ry ("ride a bike").
Sy het as kind elke naweek perd gery op die plaas.
As a child she rode horses every weekend on the farm.
My seun leer tans fiets ry sonder die stutwieletjies.
My son is learning to ride a bike without the training wheels now.
Ons ry saam werk toe — dis goedkoper so.
We carpool to work — it's cheaper that way.
ry + toe: where you're driving to
Afrikaans loves the directional toe, which comes after the destination to mean "to" a place. With ry this is everyday: werk toe ry (drive to work), dorp toe ry (drive to town), strand toe ry (drive to the beach). The destination + toe usually sits before the verb, or before gery in the perfect.
Ek ry werk toe — sien jou vanaand.
I'm driving to work — see you tonight.
Kom ons ry dorp toe en koop bietjie kos vir die naweek.
Let's drive into town and buy some food for the weekend.
Hulle het Sondag plaas toe gery om die familie te besoek.
On Sunday they drove to the farm to visit the family.
Imperative: Ry veilig!
The bare imperative Ry! means "Drive!" or "Off you go!" The warm everyday send-off is Ry veilig! — "Drive safely!" — what you say to someone leaving by car.
Dis donker buite — ry veilig, en bel my as jy daar is.
It's dark out — drive safely, and call me when you get there.
Die lig is groen — ry nou, anders toeter die mense agter ons.
The light's green — go now, otherwise the people behind us will hoot.
Why English speakers overthink this
English makes you choose a verb based on how you are travelling — drive if you steer, ride if you sit. That choice carries real information in English, so learners assume Afrikaans must distinguish them too and go hunting for separate words. There aren't any: ry does both, and the question of whether you were steering or merely riding along is left to context or to met ("Ek het met die bus gery" makes clear you were a passenger). Let go of the drive/ride split — it simply isn't a category in Afrikaans.
The second instinct to suppress is the Dutch/German one: motion verbs feel like they should take "be." They don't in Afrikaans. het gery, every time.
Common mistakes
❌ Ek is gister dorp toe gery.
Wrong — a Dutch-transfer error; ry takes het, not is, in the perfect.
✅ Ek het gister dorp toe gery.
I drove to town yesterday.
❌ Sy het perd gedryf.
Wrong — 'ride a horse' is perd ry, not 'drive'; ry covers riding too.
✅ Sy het perd gery.
She rode a horse.
❌ Ek ry na werk.
Off — Afrikaans uses toe after the destination for everyday direction, not 'na' before it.
✅ Ek ry werk toe.
I'm driving to work.
❌ Ons ry in die trein see toe.
Less natural — you travel 'met' (by) the train, not 'in' it, for this sense.
✅ Ons ry met die trein see toe.
We're taking the train to the coast.
Key takeaways
- ry is the all-purpose vehicular-motion verb: drive, ride (bike, horse) and travel by any vehicle — one verb where English uses several.
- The perfect is always het gery — never is gery, even though it is a motion verb.
- Name the vehicle with met (ry met die bus) or as a bare object (perd ry, fiets ry).
- Direction uses toe after the destination: werk toe ry, dorp toe ry — see direction with toe.
- Everyday phrases: Ons ry saam ("we carpool"), Ry veilig! ("drive safely!").
- The Dutch-style is-perfect for motion verbs is the most common error — see Dutch-transfer perfect errors.
Now practice Afrikaans
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Start learning Afrikaans→Related Topics
- Motion Verbs: gaan, kom, loop, ry, vlieg, swemA2 — A usage reference for common Afrikaans motion verbs — gaan, kom, loop, ry, stap, hardloop, vlieg, swem — all of which take het (never is) in the perfect, plus the directional toe-phrase.
- 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.