Die dansmaat dans goed.

The dance partner dances well.

Breakdown of Die dansmaat dans goed.

• goed: well
• dans: to dance
• die dansmaat: dance partner

Questions & Answers about Die dansmaat dans goed.

Why does die mean the here? Doesn’t Afrikaans have different words for masculine, feminine, and neuter nouns?

No. In Afrikaans, die is the normal definite article for all nouns, regardless of gender.

So:

• die man = the man
• die vrou = the woman
• die kind = the child

Afrikaans does not keep the grammatical gender system that languages like German do, and it is much simpler than Dutch in this respect.

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What does dansmaat mean, and why is it written as one word?

Dansmaat is a compound noun:

• dans = dance
• maat = mate, partner, companion

Together, dansmaat means dance partner.

Afrikaans, like Dutch and German, very often writes compound nouns as one word. English sometimes writes these as two words, but Afrikaans usually combines them:

• dansmaat = dance partner
• skoolkind = school child
• huisdeur = house door / front door

So writing dans maat would normally be incorrect here.

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Why does dans appear twice in Die dansmaat dans goed?