Wysheid kom met ervaring.

Wisdom comes with experience.

Breakdown of Wysheid kom met ervaring.

• met: with
• kom: to come
• die ervaring: the experience
• die wysheid: wisdom

Questions & Answers about Wysheid kom met ervaring.

What does each word mean in Wysheid kom met ervaring?

• wysheid = wisdom
• kom = comes
• met = with
• ervaring = experience

So the sentence is literally Wisdom comes with experience.

Why is there no word for the or a in this sentence?

Afrikaans often leaves out an article when speaking about something in a general, abstract way.

Here, wysheid and ervaring are abstract nouns, so Afrikaans naturally says:

• Wysheid kom met ervaring.

rather than something like Die wysheid kom met die ervaring, which would sound much more specific and less natural in this proverb-like statement.

English does the same sometimes with abstract nouns, but not always as freely.

Why is kom used here instead of a word meaning arrives?

In Afrikaans, kom can mean both a physical come and a more general come/arrive/develop/appear depending on context.

In this sentence, kom means something like:

• comes
• develops
• is gained

So Wysheid kom met ervaring means that wisdom develops as experience grows.

Why is it met ervaring and not something like van ervaring?