verloor ("to lose") and wen ("to win") are perfect opposites in meaning, and a neat lesson in form. They line up against each other in every match report and every card game, but in the perfect tense they part ways: wen takes the ordinary participle gewen, while verloor — carrying the unstressed prefix ver- — takes no ge- at all and stays verloor. One antonym pair, two participle patterns. This page gives you both verbs, their collocations, and the reason behind the split.
The forms
| Verb | Present | Perfect | Future | Imperative |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| verloor | verloor | het verloor | sal verloor | (Moenie verloor nie!) |
| wen | wen | het gewen | sal wen | Wen! |
The present is one form for every subject: ek verloor, jy verloor, ons wen, hulle wen. The contrast lives in the perfect column — het gewen with ge-, het verloor with none. (An imperative of verloor is unusual in real speech; you would normally hear the negative Moenie verloor nie!, "Don't lose!")
Ons het verloor, maar dit was 'n goeie wedstryd.
We lost, but it was a good match.
Sy het die prys gewen.
She won the prize.
Watter span sal die liga vanjaar wen?
Which team will win the league this year?
Why verloor takes no ge-
verloor belongs to the family of verbs built on an unstressed prefix — here ver-. Afrikaans cannot stack the participle ge- on top of such a prefix, because the prefix already fills that slot and is treated as part of the verb. So the participle is simply the bare verb: verloor → verloor, just like verkoop → verkoop and verstaan → verstaan. wen, with no prefix, takes the regular ge-: wen → gewen.
The stress confirms it: verLOOR stresses the second syllable, leaving ver- weak and unstressed — the signature of a prefix that blocks ge-. For the full set of these prefixes (ver-, be-, ge-, ont-, her-, er-), see inseparable prefixes.
Hy het sy sleutels weer verloor.
He lost his keys again.
Ek het my foon op die trein verloor.
I lost my phone on the train.
verloor: losing a game, losing your keys
verloor covers the full English range of "lose" — losing a contest, losing an object, losing money, even losing weight or losing your way. It takes a direct object (the match, your keys, the money) and needs no preposition for it.
Ons span het die wedstryd met twee doele verloor.
Our team lost the match by two goals.
Hulle het baie geld op die aandelemark verloor.
They lost a lot of money on the stock market.
Ek het heeltemal die pad verloor in daardie dorp.
I completely lost my way in that town.
One reflexive idiom worth knowing: jou kop verloor ("lose your head," lose your composure) works just as it does in English.
Moenie jou kop verloor nie — ons het nog tyd.
Don't lose your head — we still have time.
wen: winning matches and prizes
wen covers winning a contest, a prize, a bet, an election. Like verloor it takes a plain direct object — die wedstryd wen, die prys wen, die verkiesing wen — with no preposition.
Wie het gewen?
Who won?
As ons hierdie wedstryd wen, is ons in die eindstryd.
If we win this match, we're in the final.
Sy het 'n beurs gewen om in die buiteland te studeer.
She won a scholarship to study abroad.
The pair in one sentence
Because they are opposites, wen and verloor constantly share a clause — somebody wins, somebody loses.
Een span moet wen en die ander moet verloor — gelykop is nie 'n opsie nie.
One team has to win and the other has to lose — a draw isn't an option.
For the broader set of verbs about gaining and losing — kry ("get"), kwytraak ("get rid of"), kos ("cost") — and how they pattern, see transaction verbs.
Common mistakes
❌ Ons het die wedstryd geverloor.
Incorrect — verloor takes no ge-; the participle is verloor.
✅ Ons het die wedstryd verloor.
We lost the match.
❌ Sy het die prys gewin.
Incorrect — the participle is gewen, not the Dutch-flavoured gewin (which is a noun, 'profit').
✅ Sy het die prys gewen.
She won the prize.
❌ Ons het teen die wedstryd verloor.
Incorrect — verloor takes a bare object; teen marks the opponent, not the match: verloor die wedstryd / verloor teen die ander span.
✅ Ons het die wedstryd teen die ander span verloor.
We lost the match against the other team.
❌ Wie het gewin?
Incorrect — same trap: the participle is gewen.
✅ Wie het gewen?
Who won?
Key takeaways
- wen is regular: perfect het gewen, future sal wen.
- verloor carries the unstressed prefix ver-, which blocks the participle ge-: the perfect is het verloor, identical to the infinitive.
- The participle is the only place these antonyms diverge in form — gewen versus verloor — and the prefix is the reason.
- Both take a plain direct object (die wedstryd wen / verloor); the opponent, when named, takes teen ("against").
- Watch the participles: never geverloor, never gewin.
Now practice Afrikaans
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Start learning Afrikaans→Related Topics
- Inseparable Prefixes: be-, ver-, ont-, her-, er-, ge-B1 — The unstressed bound prefixes be-, ge-, her-, ont-, ver- and er- that never detach from the verb and suppress the ge- of the past participle — with stress as the diagnostic.
- Transaction Verbs: koop, verkoop, betaal, kos, leen, ruilA2 — A lookup table of the core Afrikaans commerce verbs — koop, verkoop, betaal, kos, leen, ruil, bestel — with each one's participle, a natural example, and notes on the no-ge inseparables and the lend/borrow trap in leen.