Ons hoef nie ongewenste klere te skenk nie.

We need not donate unwanted clothes.

Breakdown of Ons hoef nie ongewenste klere te skenk nie.

• ons: we
• die klere: the clothes
• hoef nie ... te ... nie: need not; do not have to
• ongewens: unwanted

Questions & Answers about Ons hoef nie ongewenste klere te skenk nie.

Why are there two nie’s in Ons hoef nie ongewenste klere te skenk nie?

Afrikaans normally uses double negation. That means a negative sentence often has:

• one nie earlier in the sentence
• and another nie at the end

So:

• Ons hoef nie ... nie = We do not have to ...

This is one of the most important sentence patterns in Afrikaans.
In this sentence, the first nie comes after the finite verb hoef, and the second nie closes off the whole negative statement.

A very rough pattern is:

• Subject + verb + nie + rest of sentence + nie

So here:

• Ons = subject
• hoef = finite verb
• nie = first negative marker
• ongewenste klere te skenk = rest of the sentence
• nie = second negative marker

What does hoef mean here?