Die indieningsdatum is vandag.

The submission date is today.

Breakdown of Die indieningsdatum is vandag.

• wees: to be
• vandag: today
• die indieningsdatum: submission date

Questions & Answers about Die indieningsdatum is vandag.

What does die mean here, and is it pronounced like the English word die?

Here, die means the.

It is not pronounced like the English verb die. In Afrikaans, die is usually pronounced like dee.

A useful thing to remember is that Afrikaans uses die as the definite article for both singular and plural nouns in many normal cases:

• die boek = the book
• die boeke = the books

So in Die indieningsdatum is vandag, die simply means the.

Why is indieningsdatum written as one long word?

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

So:

• indiening = submission
• datum = date
• indieningsdatum = submission date

The last part usually tells you the main thing the word is:

• indieningsdatum is a kind of datum.

This is very normal in Afrikaans, so learners should get used to seeing long nouns written as single words.

How is indieningsdatum built up?