Die oogkontak is belangrik.

to be

Breakdown of Die oogkontak is belangrik.

• belangrik: important
• die oogkontak: eye contact

Questions & Answers about Die oogkontak is belangrik.

Why is it die and not het here?

In Afrikaans, die is the definite article for the in most everyday sentences. It is used for singular and plural nouns:

• die boek = the book
• die boeke = the books
• die oogkontak = the eye contact

Unlike Dutch or German, Afrikaans does not change the article for grammatical gender.

Het is not the normal Afrikaans word for the. An English speaker may expect something like Dutch here, but in Afrikaans, die is correct.

What kind of word is oogkontak?

Oogkontak is a noun. It means eye contact.

It is also a compound noun, which is very common in Afrikaans. It is made from:

• oog = eye
• kontak = contact

So Afrikaans joins them into one word: oogkontak.

This is very normal in Afrikaans, just as in many Germanic languages.

Why is oogkontak written as one word?

Afrikaans often writes compound nouns as one word, even when English writes them as two words.

So:

• English: eye contact
• Afrikaans: oogkontak

This is something English speakers need to get used to, because Afrikaans compounds are usually closed up into a single word.