vra (to ask) — Full Forms | Afrikaans Grammar

Vra is the everyday verb for "to ask" — asking a question, asking for something, asking a favour. It is regular and easy to conjugate, but English speakers stumble on what comes after it: who do you ask, and how do you introduce a yes/no question. Afrikaans marks the person you ask with vir, and it introduces an embedded yes/no question with of ("whether"), not with dat ("that"). Get those two patterns right and vra is yours.

The forms

Vra is fully regular. Like most Afrikaans verbs it has one present-tense form for every subject, builds its perfect with het + ge-, and its future with sal.

Tense	Form	Example
Present	vra	Ek vra — I ask
Perfect (past)	het gevra	Ek het gevra — I asked
Future	sal vra	Ek sal vra — I'll ask
Infinitive	(om te) vra	om te vra — to ask
Imperative	vra	Vra hom! — Ask him!

The present is the same word for everyone — ek vra, jy vra, hy vra, ons vra, hulle vra. The past participle is gevra, with no extra -d or -t.

Ek vra altyd eers voordat ek iets leen.

I always ask first before I borrow anything.

Sy het gevra waar die stasie is.

She asked where the station is.

Ek sal vir die kelner vra om die rekening te bring.

I'll ask the waiter to bring the bill.

vra vir: who you ask

This is the construction English speakers most often get wrong. In English you "ask someone" directly — ask the man, ask him — with no preposition. In Afrikaans the person you ask is normally introduced by vir.

Vra vir die man waar die toilet is.

Ask the man where the toilet is.

Ek het vir hom gevra om te help.

I asked him to help.

Vra vir jou ma — sy sal weet.

Ask your mother — she'll know.

This vir is the same dative-marking vir you meet with verbs like gee ("give") and sê ("tell / say to"): it flags the recipient or the person on the receiving end of the action. It is not the vir meaning "for"; it is a grammatical marker of the indirect object. For the full picture of this construction, see the dative vir and compare the closely parallel verb sê (to say / tell), which marks its addressee the same way (Ek het vir hom gesê).

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"Ask someone" is vra vir iemand, not just vra iemand. The vir is the same little word that marks the recipient with gee (give) and sê (tell). Whenever there's a person on the receiving end of vra, reach for vir.

In casual speech you may occasionally hear the bare Vra hom ("ask him") without vir, especially with a pronoun, but the vir version is the safe default and is never wrong.

vra om: making a request

When you ask for something to be done — a request — Afrikaans uses vra om followed by te + infinitive. This is the "ask to / ask someone to" pattern.

Ons het gevra om vroeër te begin.

We asked to start earlier.

Hy het vir my gevra om die deur oop te maak.

He asked me to open the door.

Notice how vir my (the person asked) and om ... te maak (the request) combine cleanly: vra vir [person] om te [do something].

vra of: asking a yes/no question

Here is the other classic trap. When vra introduces an embedded yes/no question — "ask whether / if" — Afrikaans uses of, never dat. English "ask if/whether" maps onto Afrikaans vra of; using dat ("that") here is a transfer error and simply ungrammatical.

Ek het gevra of hy saamkom.

I asked whether he's coming along.

Sy vra of die winkel nog oop is.

She's asking if the shop's still open.

Vra vir hulle of ons later kan kom.

Ask them whether we can come later.

The reason is logical: of means "whether / if" and is the proper conjunction for an open yes/no question; dat means "that" and introduces a statement, not a question. Since asking whether leaves the answer open, only of fits. (For the verb-order details inside these embedded questions, see indirect questions, which this page deliberately leaves to that fuller treatment.)

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For yes/no questions, it's vra of — "ask whether". Never vra dat. The clue is in the meaning: of = whether (answer still open), dat = that (a settled statement). A question keeps the answer open, so it must be of.

vra versus versoek

Both vra and versoek can mean "request", but they sit at opposite ends of the register scale. Vra is the all-purpose everyday verb. Versoek is markedly formal — the verb of official letters, signage, and polite notices — and it sounds stiff in ordinary conversation.

Verb	Register	Typical use
vra	everyday	any asking, spoken or written
versoek	formal / official	notices, official correspondence, polite requests

Mag ek jou iets vra?

May I ask you something? (everyday)

Besoekers word versoek om stil te bly.

Visitors are requested to remain quiet. (formal notice)

In speech you would never tell a friend Ek versoek jou om te kom; you would say Ek vra jou om te kom. Save versoek for the written, official register.

Common mistakes

❌ Vra die man waar die stasie is.

Incorrect — the person asked needs vir: vra vir die man.

✅ Vra vir die man waar die stasie is.

Ask the man where the station is.

❌ Ek het gevra dat hy saamkom.

Incorrect — for a yes/no question use of (whether), not dat (that).

✅ Ek het gevra of hy saamkom.

I asked whether he's coming along.

❌ Ek het vir hom gevraag.

Incorrect — the past participle is gevra (no -g), not the Dutch gevraagd.

✅ Ek het vir hom gevra.

I asked him.

❌ Ek versoek jou om saam te kom. (to a friend)

Too formal for conversation — versoek belongs to official register.

✅ Ek vra jou om saam te kom.

I'm asking you to come along.

Key takeaways

Vra is regular: present vra, perfect het gevra, future sal vra, participle gevra.
The person you ask takes vir: vra vir die man, vra vir hom — the same dative vir used with gee and sê.
A request is vra om
- te
  - infinitive: vra om te begin.
An embedded yes/no question uses of ("whether"), never dat: vra of hy kom.
Versoek also means "request" but is formal/official; use plain vra in everyday speech.

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