Ditransitive Verbs with vir (Reference) | Afrikaans Grammar

A ditransitive verb takes two objects: a thing and a recipient. Give takes something given and someone to give it to; send, bring, show, tell, buy, lend, and sell all work the same way. In Afrikaans the recipient is marked with vir — gee dit vir my (give it to me), stuur 'n brief vir haar (send a letter to her). This page is a lookup table for those verbs, each with its two possible orderings.

Note that this vir is a different animal from the prepositional-object vir on verbs with van and vir. There, vir is the fixed preposition a verb governs (sorg vir, bang vir); the verb means nothing without it. Here, vir marks the dative recipient — the person who receives — and it can often be left out entirely when the recipient comes first (gee my dit). For the deep treatment of vir as an object marker, see vir as the indirect-object marker.

The reference table

For each verb, "double object" puts the recipient before the thing with no vir; "vir-phrase" puts the recipient after the thing, marked with vir.

Verb	Meaning	Double object	vir-phrase
gee	to give	gee my dit	gee dit vir my
stuur	to send	stuur my dit	stuur dit vir my
bring	to bring	bring my dit	bring dit vir my
wys	to show	wys my dit	wys dit vir my
vertel	to tell	vertel my dit	vertel dit vir my
koop	to buy (for)	koop my dit	koop dit vir my
leen	to lend	leen my dit	leen dit vir my
verkoop	to sell	verkoop my dit	verkoop dit vir my

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Both orderings are correct Afrikaans, but they are not equally natural in every case. The choice is driven by what the recipient is: a bare pronoun recipient prefers the double-object order (gee my dit), while a full noun recipient prefers the vir-phrase (gee dit vir die kind). The next section makes this concrete.

The soft ordering rule: pronoun vs full noun

This is the one piece of real grammar on an otherwise list-shaped page, and it is worth drilling. Both gee my dit and gee dit vir my are grammatical — but speakers lean one way or the other depending on the recipient:

Pronoun recipient → double-object order (recipient first, no vir). Gee my dit sounds more natural than gee dit vir my when the recipient is a short pronoun like my, hom, haar, ons. The little pronoun wants to sit close to the verb.
Full-noun recipient → vir-phrase (recipient after the thing, with vir). Gee dit vir die kind is the natural choice; gee die kind dit with a full noun feels clumsy and is usually avoided.

Gee my dit gou — ek is haastig.

Give it to me quickly — I'm in a hurry.

Gee dit vir die kind voordat sy huil.

Give it to the child before she cries.

The logic is "light before heavy": short, known elements (pronouns) come early, longer, more informative elements (full noun phrases) come late. English does something similar — give me it vs give it to the man — but Afrikaans is more consistent about it, and the vir makes the dividing line visible.

Stuur my die foto's as jy kan.

Send me the photos if you can.

Stuur die foto's vir jou ouma — sy sal dit geniet.

Send the photos to your grandmother — she'll enjoy them.

The verbs in use

gee, stuur, bring — handing over

These three are the core "transfer" verbs: give, send, bring. All take a recipient marked with vir in the vir-phrase order.

Bring vir my 'n glas water, asseblief.

Bring me a glass of water, please.

Ek het die pakkie vir die bure gestuur.

I sent the parcel to the neighbours.

wys, vertel — showing and telling

You show and tell things to people too. Wys vir my (show me), vertel vir hom (tell him). Note that vertel almost always wants its recipient even when English leaves it out.

Wys vir my hoe die toestel werk.

Show me how the device works.

Vertel vir die kinders die storie van die wolf.

Tell the children the story of the wolf.

koop, leen, verkoop — commerce

These add a transactional flavour. With koop (buy) the vir-person is usually the beneficiary — the one you buy for — rather than a recipient who literally receives from your hand; Afrikaans uses the same vir for both. Leen (lend) and verkoop (sell) take a genuine recipient.

Ek het 'n nuwe fiets vir my seun gekoop.

I bought a new bike for my son.

Kan jy vir my twintig rand leen tot môre?

Can you lend me twenty rand until tomorrow?

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When the thing given is also a pronoun, the double-object order can get heavy (gee my dit is fine, but stacking two pronouns is the limit). With a pronoun recipient and a pronoun thing, the cleanest spoken form is usually the double-object gee my dit; speakers tend to avoid gee dit vir my only when both are unstressed and the sentence would otherwise drag.

Common mistakes

❌ Gee dit my.

Incorrect — with the thing first, the recipient needs vir: gee dit vir my.

✅ Gee dit vir my.

Give it to me.

❌ Gee die kind dit.

Awkward — a full-noun recipient prefers the vir-phrase: gee dit vir die kind.

✅ Gee dit vir die kind.

Give it to the child.

❌ Stuur vir ek die foto's.

Incorrect — after vir use the object form my, not the subject ek.

✅ Stuur vir my die foto's.

Send me the photos.

❌ Wys dit my hoe dit werk.

Incorrect — recipient after the thing takes vir: wys dit vir my (or wys my dit).

✅ Wys vir my hoe dit werk.

Show me how it works.

❌ Ek het 'n geskenk my suster gekoop.

Incorrect — the beneficiary needs vir: vir my suster gekoop.

✅ Ek het 'n geskenk vir my suster gekoop.

I bought a present for my sister.

Key takeaways

Ditransitive verbs (gee, stuur, bring, wys, vertel, koop, leen, verkoop) mark the recipient with vir: gee dit vir my.
Two orderings exist: double object (gee my dit, recipient first, no vir) and vir-phrase (gee dit vir my, recipient last, with vir).
Soft rule: a pronoun recipient prefers the double-object order (gee my dit); a full-noun recipient prefers the vir-phrase (gee dit vir die kind). This is "light before heavy".
After vir, use the object pronoun form (my, hom, haar), never the subject form (ek, hy, sy).
This recipient vir is distinct from the prepositional-object vir of verbs with van and vir; for the full object-marker story see vir as the indirect-object marker.

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