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Questions & Answers about Die balkon kry sonlig.
Why does die mean the here? Does Afrikaans have grammatical gender?
Die is the normal definite article in Afrikaans, so here it means the in the balcony.
Afrikaans does not use grammatical gender the way languages like German or Dutch do. That means you do not have to learn different words for the depending on whether a noun is masculine, feminine, or neuter. In most ordinary cases, die works for all nouns in the singular and also for plurals.
So:
- die balkon = the balcony
- die huis = the house
- die kinders = the children
That is much simpler than in many other European languages.
What does kry mean exactly? Is it really the usual word for gets?
Yes. Kry very often means get, receive, or obtain.
In this sentence, Die balkon kry sonlig, the idea is that the balcony gets or receives sunlight. In natural English, you might translate it as:
- The balcony gets sunlight
- The balcony receives sunlight
- The balcony gets sun
So kry is a very normal and common verb here.
Why is there no special verb ending for die balkon? Shouldn’t the verb change like in English?