Voorheen het die terreinplan die eiendomsgrens gewys.

to have

Breakdown of Voorheen het die terreinplan die eiendomsgrens gewys.

• wys: to show
• die terreinplan: site plan
• die eiendomsgrens: property boundary

Questions & Answers about Voorheen het die terreinplan die eiendomsgrens gewys.

Why does the sentence use het ... gewys instead of a simple past form?

Afrikaans very often uses the perfect tense where English might use a simple past.

So het ... gewys literally looks like has shown, but in normal Afrikaans it can simply mean showed or showed previously, depending on context.

• het = the auxiliary verb, like has/have
• gewys = the past participle of wys (show)

So:

• Voorheen het die terreinplan die eiendomsgrens gewys.
• Literally: Previously, the site plan has shown the property boundary.
• Natural English: Previously, the site plan showed the property boundary.

This is very normal Afrikaans usage.

Why is het in the second position?