Die syspieël is skoon.

to be

Breakdown of Die syspieël is skoon.

• skoon: clean
• die syspieël: side mirror

Questions & Answers about Die syspieël is skoon.

What does die mean here?

Here, die is the definite article, so it means the.

In Afrikaans, die is used for:

• singular nouns: die syspieël = the side mirror
• plural nouns as well: die syspieëls = the side mirrors

So unlike languages that have different words for masculine, feminine, or plural the, Afrikaans keeps it simple: die works in all those cases.

Also, it is only capitalized here because it is the first word of the sentence.

Why is syspieël written as one word?

Afrikaans, like Dutch and German, very often forms compound nouns by writing them as a single word.

So:

• sys = side
• spieël = mirror
• syspieël = side mirror

English usually writes this as two words, but Afrikaans prefers one compound noun. This is very normal in the language.

How do you pronounce syspieël, especially the ë?

The ë tells you that the vowels are pronounced in separate syllables.

So spieël is not one smooth vowel sound. It is pronounced in two parts, roughly:

• spie-ël

And syspieël is roughly:

• sy-spie-ël

A very rough English-style guide would be something like say-spee-ul, though that is only approximate.

The important thing to notice is:

• the ë breaks the sound up
• it prevents the word from being read as one single vowel sequence