Weather and Impersonal Verbs: reën, sneeu, waai, dit gebeur | Afrikaans Grammar

Weather verbs in Afrikaans share one rigid trait: they have no real subject. Nothing does the raining — so Afrikaans plugs the empty subject slot with the dummy pronoun dit ("it"), exactly as English does in it is raining. This page collects the everyday weather verbs and a handful of close impersonal cousins in one lookup table, with the dit-form and the perfect (dit het gereën) side by side. It does not re-teach the dummy-dit mechanism — for that, see impersonal dit and daar; for the rich idiom layer, see weather idioms.

The reference table

Every verb below takes dit as its grammatical subject, sits in second position, and forms its perfect with het + a fully regular ge- participle. None of them ever takes a plural agreement or a different subject.

Verb	Meaning	Present (dit-form)	Perfect (dit het …)
reën	to rain	dit reën	dit het gereën
sneeu	to snow	dit sneeu	dit het gesneeu
waai	to blow (of wind)	dit waai	dit het gewaai
hael	to hail	dit hael	dit het gehael
donder	to thunder	dit donder	dit het gedonder
gebeur	to happen	dit gebeur	dit het gebeur
lyk	to seem, look	dit lyk	dit het gelyk

The participles are textbook-regular: prefix ge-, no ending, no stem change — reën → gereën, waai → gewaai. The only one that trips English speakers is gebeur ("happened"), which has no ge- prefix because the verb already begins with the unstressed prefix be-, and such prefixes block ge- (compare begin → begin, betaal → betaal). For why be-, ver-, ge- verbs skip the ge-, see impersonal dit and daar and the broader inseparable-prefix rule it links to.

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Weather verbs are strictly impersonal: the only subject they ever accept is dit. You cannot say die reën reën ("the rain rains") or give them a plural subject. If you find yourself wanting a real subject, you want a noun construction instead — die reën val ("the rain falls"), die wind waai ("the wind blows") — where reën and wind are nouns, not the impersonal verb.

Weather verbs in real sentences

The present dit-form is the default for live weather; the perfect reports weather that is over.

Vat 'n sambreel saam — dit reën al die hele oggend.

Take an umbrella — it's been raining all morning.

Dit het die hele nag gesneeu; die hele dorp is wit.

It snowed all night; the whole town is white.

Dit waai vandag verskriklik — hou jou hoed vas.

It's blowing terribly today — hold on to your hat.

Dit het so gehael dat die motor se kap duike het.

It hailed so hard that the car's bonnet is dented.

Dit het die hele nag gedonder en gereën.

It thundered and rained all night.

Notice the last one: when two weather verbs share the same dit, you do not repeat it — dit het … gedonder en gereën, with both participles racing to the end of the clause. That clause-final stacking of participles is the normal Afrikaans perfect, nothing special to weather. (To talk about lightning itself, Afrikaans normally uses the noun weerlig with a real verb — die weerlig het geslaan, "the lightning struck" — rather than an impersonal weather verb.)

The impersonal cousins: dit gebeur and dit lyk

Two non-weather verbs behave identically because they too describe something with no real agent. Dit gebeur ("it happens") and dit lyk ("it seems / it looks") both lean on dummy dit, and both are extremely common.

Dit gebeur nie elke dag dat 'n mens so 'n kans kry nie.

It doesn't happen every day that one gets such a chance.

Dit lyk asof dit later gaan reën.

It looks as if it's going to rain later.

Dit het sommer net gebeur — niemand het dit beplan nie.

It just happened — nobody planned it.

Dit lyk is almost always followed by asof ("as if") or of when it introduces a clause: dit lyk asof…, dit lyk of…. With an adjective it takes no linker: dit lyk goed ("it looks good"). These evaluation verbs, together with the existential daar is, are gathered in the broader impersonal and weather verbs reference — this page stays focused on the weather core.

Intensifying with reduplication

Afrikaans loves to double a word for emphasis, and weather verbs are no exception. Dit reën-reën (often written dit reën reën) paints steady, on-and-off rain rather than a downpour — the doubling adds a sense of "keeps on lightly raining." This is the same reduplication machinery that gives plek-plek ("here and there") and hardloop-hardloop ("running along"); see reduplication for the full pattern.

Dit reën-reën nou al twee dae lank, niks reëns van betekenis nie.

It's been drizzling on and off for two days now, no real rain.

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Reduplication on a weather verb signals low intensity spread over time, not a single strong burst. Dit reën is "it's raining"; dit reën-reën is closer to "it keeps spitting." For a real downpour you reach for the idiom layer instead — dit reën pype stokke ("it's pouring") — covered in weather idioms.

Quick contrast for English speakers

English and Afrikaans agree on the dummy subject — both say it rains / dit reën — so the dit itself is intuitive. The two genuine traps are elsewhere. First, English lets you nominalise freely ("the snow is falling"), and so does Afrikaans, but you must then switch from the impersonal verb to a noun + ordinary verb: die sneeu val, not die sneeu sneeu. Second, the perfect: English keeps "it rained" as one word, while Afrikaans builds a two-part perfect with het and a participle that flies to the end — dit het gereën, never dit gereën het in a main clause and never dit is gereën (weather verbs take het, not is).

Die sneeu het oornag op die berge gelê.

The snow lay on the mountains overnight.

Common mistakes

❌ Dit is reën.

Incorrect — reën is the verb here, not a noun; with the verb you need no 'is'.

✅ Dit reën.

It's raining.

❌ Die reën reën hard.

Incorrect — reën is strictly impersonal; with a real subject use a noun + ordinary verb.

✅ Die reën val hard. / Dit reën hard.

The rain is falling hard. / It's raining hard.

❌ Dit is gereën gisteraand.

Incorrect — weather verbs take het, not is, in the perfect.

✅ Dit het gisteraand gereën.

It rained last night.

❌ Dit het gebebeur.

Incorrect — gebeur already starts with the prefix be-, so it takes no extra ge-.

✅ Dit het gebeur.

It happened.

❌ Dit lyk dit gaan reën.

Incorrect — dit lyk needs asof or of before a clause.

✅ Dit lyk asof dit gaan reën.

It looks as if it's going to rain.

Key takeaways

Weather verbs — reën, sneeu, waai, hael, donder — are strictly impersonal: their only subject is the dummy dit, and they never pluralise. (For lightning, Afrikaans uses the noun weerlig with an ordinary verb — die weerlig slaan/blits — not an impersonal weather verb.)
Their perfect is fully regular with het
- ge-participle: dit het gereën / gesneeu / gewaai / gehael / gedonder. Never is.
gebeur ("happen") and lyk ("seem") behave the same way; gebeur skips ge- in the perfect (dit het gebeur) because of its be- prefix, and dit lyk needs asof/of before a clause.
To give a weather event a real subject, switch to a noun + ordinary verb: die reën val, die wind waai.
Reduplication (dit reën-reën) signals light, drawn-out weather — see reduplication. For the dummy-dit mechanism see impersonal dit and daar; for the full impersonal inventory see the impersonal verbs reference.

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