Some verbs do not describe an action at all. Instead they act like an equals sign, linking a subject on the left to a description on the right: she *is tired, he **becomes a doctor, it **looks good. These are the *copular (or linking) verbs, and Afrikaans has a small, high-frequency set of them — wees (to be), word (to become), lyk (to seem / look), bly (to stay / remain) and voel (to feel). They share two features worth learning together: each takes a bare complement with no agreement endings, and apart from wees none of them has anything irregular about it. Get this group right and a surprising amount of everyday Afrikaans falls into place.
What a copular verb does
A copular verb does not transfer an action onto an object. It connects the subject to a predicate — either an adjective (tired, cold) or a noun (a doctor, friends) — that says what the subject is, becomes, seems, remains or feels like. The thing on the right is not an object being acted upon; it describes the subject itself.
Sy is moeg.
She is tired.
Hy word dokter.
He is becoming a doctor.
Dit lyk lekker.
It looks delicious.
In each case, moeg, dokter and lekker point straight back at the subject. That is the test for a copula: if you can swap the verb for is and the sentence still describes the subject, you are dealing with a linking verb.
is and wees: the verb "to be"
The everyday present-tense form is is, and like every Afrikaans verb it never changes for person or number — ek is, jy is, hy is, ons is, hulle is are all identical. (You will recognise this from the verb overview: Afrikaans verbs do not conjugate.)
| Form | Use | Example |
|---|---|---|
| is | present tense, every subject | Ek is gereed. |
| was | past tense | Ek was gereed. |
| wees | infinitive & imperative | Probeer kalm wees. / Wees stil! |
The lemma — the dictionary form — is wees, but you only ever say wees itself in two places: as an infinitive (after a modal or om te) and as an imperative (a command). The finite present form is is, and the past is the irregular was.
Sy is gelukkig in haar nuwe werk.
She is happy in her new job.
Wees asseblief stil — die baba slaap.
Please be quiet — the baby is sleeping.
Jy moet versigtig wees op die nat pad.
You must be careful on the wet road.
For the complete paradigm of wees — present, past, infinitive, the rare gewees participle — see the wees verb reference. This page is about the family of linking verbs as a group, not the full table.
word: the dynamic counterpart of wees
Here is the single most useful insight on this page. wees describes a state — what something is. word describes a change of state — what something becomes. They are a matched pair: wees is static, word is dynamic.
| State (wees / is) | Change (word) |
|---|---|
| Dit is koud. — It is cold. | Dit word koud. — It is getting cold. |
| Hy is dokter. — He is a doctor. | Hy word dokter. — He is becoming a doctor. |
| Sy is kwaad. — She is angry. | Sy word kwaad. — She is getting angry. |
English splits this work between be and become / get, and learners often reach for is where Afrikaans wants word. If a temperature, mood or situation is changing, use word.
Dit word koud — trek 'n trui aan.
It's getting cold — put on a jumper.
Die kinders word groot.
The children are growing up.
Moenie kwaad word nie.
Don't get angry.
There is a deeper payoff. The same verb word is also the passive auxiliary — the word you use to say something gets done: Die brood *word gebak (The bread is baked / gets baked). That is no coincidence: a passive is just another kind of change happening to the subject. So learning *word as "become" here directly seeds the passive voice with word.
lyk, bly and voel
The remaining three round out the set.
lyk means to seem or to look (a certain way) — an appearance or impression. Note that it is usually followed by an adjective directly; when followed by a noun-like comparison it takes na (lyk na = looks like).
Jy lyk moeg — het jy goed geslaap?
You look tired — did you sleep well?
Die plan lyk goed op papier.
The plan looks good on paper.
bly means to stay / remain — to continue in a state. (It also means to live / reside somewhere, which is the same idea of remaining in place.)
Bly stil, asseblief.
Stay quiet, please.
Ons bly vriende, wat ook al gebeur.
We'll stay friends, whatever happens.
voel means to feel — your internal state. Afrikaans says I feel tired with a bare adjective, exactly like the others.
Ek voel sleg oor gister.
I feel bad about yesterday.
The complement is bare — no -e ending
This is the rule English speakers break most. In Afrikaans, an adjective sitting before a noun (attributive) often takes an -e ending: 'n moeg*e man (a tired man). But an adjective in a copular predicate — *after is, word, lyk, bly, voel — stays in its bare dictionary form with no -e:
| Attributive (before noun) | Predicative (after copula) |
|---|---|
| die koue water — the cold water | Die water is koud. — The water is cold. |
| 'n moeë kind — a tired child | Die kind is moeg. — The child is tired. |
| 'n lekker ete — a tasty meal | Die ete is lekker. — The meal is tasty. |
Die koffie is warm.
The coffee is hot.
Sy bly kalm onder druk.
She stays calm under pressure.
The logic: an attributive adjective is dressing up a noun and inflects to match it; a predicative adjective is the whole point of the sentence, standing on its own, so it needs no decoration. The full story lives on the predicative adjectives page.
No progressive for "to be"
English has a progressive (am being, is becoming) and learners sometimes try to reconstruct it. Afrikaans has no progressive tense at all — least of all for stative be. A simple is covers "am / is / are" and "am being":
Hy is vandag baie stil.
He is being very quiet today.
To stress an action in progress, Afrikaans uses besig om te (busy doing) — but never with stative wees. You cannot be "busy being".
Common mistakes
❌ Die water is koue.
Incorrect — added the -e ending to a predicative adjective.
✅ Die water is koud.
The water is cold.
❌ Dit is koud buite (when the temperature is dropping).
Incorrect for a change in progress — is describes a fixed state, not a change.
✅ Dit word koud buite.
It's getting cold outside.
❌ Ek het gister siek gewees.
Awkward — wees has a real past tense, so use it.
✅ Ek was gister siek.
I was sick yesterday.
❌ Hy is besig om moeg te wees.
Incorrect — there is no progressive of stative 'be'; you cannot be 'busy being tired'.
✅ Hy is moeg.
He is tired.
❌ Sy lyk na moeg.
Incorrect — lyk takes a bare adjective directly, not na before an adjective.
✅ Sy lyk moeg.
She looks tired.
Key takeaways
- The copular verbs is/wees, word, lyk, bly, voel link a subject to a predicate that describes it.
- is is the present, was the past, wees the infinitive/imperative — and wees is the only verb with a real one-word past tense.
- word is the dynamic twin of wees: use it for any change of state, and it doubles as the passive auxiliary.
- The predicate adjective after a copula is bare — no -e ending, unlike an attributive adjective.
- Afrikaans has no progressive for "to be"; a plain is covers am / is / are / am being.
Now practice Afrikaans
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Start learning Afrikaans→Related Topics
- wees (to be) — Full FormsA1 — The complete forms of wees 'to be' — present is, preterite was, future sal wees — the single most irregular verb in Afrikaans.
- Predicative AdjectivesA1 — Predicative adjectives — those after wees, word, lyk, bly — stay bare in Afrikaans, with no ending and no agreement, whatever the subject.
- The Passive with wordB1 — How Afrikaans forms the dynamic (action) passive with word plus a past participle, and why word — not is — is the auxiliary for an action being carried out.
- Afrikaans Verbs: The Big PictureA1 — Afrikaans verbs do not conjugate for person or number — one form serves every subject, and tense is built with a small set of auxiliaries.
- The Past Tense: het + ge-participleA1 — Afrikaans has one ordinary past tense — het plus a ge-participle at the end of the clause — and it covers both 'I walked' and 'I have walked'.