Die gees van hierdie reël is duidelik.

to be

Breakdown of Die gees van hierdie reël is duidelik.

• hierdie: this
• van: of
• duidelik: clear

Questions & Answers about Die gees van hierdie reël is duidelik.

Why is die used at the beginning, and does it just mean the?

Yes. Die is the Afrikaans definite article, so here it means the.

A useful thing for English speakers to know is that Afrikaans does not have grammatical gender the way German does. So die can be used with all kinds of nouns, not just one gender. In this sentence, die gees means the spirit.

What does gees mean here? Is it a literal spirit or ghost?

Here gees is being used in a figurative sense. It means something like the spirit, underlying intention, or general principle of the rule.

So in this sentence, gees does not mean a ghost. It is closer to how English uses the spirit of the law.

How does van work in this sentence?

Van usually means of.

So die gees van hierdie reël is literally structured like the spirit of this rule.

English sometimes prefers of and sometimes uses 's, but Afrikaans very often uses van for this kind of relationship.

Could Afrikaans also use se instead of here?