Die sterftesertifikaat is gereed.

to be

Breakdown of Die sterftesertifikaat is gereed.

• gereed: ready
• die sterftesertifikaat: death certificate

Questions & Answers about Die sterftesertifikaat is gereed.

How do I pronounce Die here? Is it like the English word die?

No. In Afrikaans, die is pronounced roughly like dee.

So the sentence begins with dee, not with the English sound of die.

This is very important because die is an extremely common Afrikaans word meaning the.

What does die mean, and does it change for gender?

Die means the.

Unlike languages such as German or Dutch, Afrikaans does not have different definite articles for masculine, feminine, and neuter nouns. It simply uses die for all of them.

It is also used for plural nouns, so the same word can mean:

• the certificate
• the certificates

You work out singular or plural from the noun itself and the context.

Why is sterftesertifikaat written as one long word?

Afrikaans usually writes compound nouns as a single word.

So what English writes as death certificate, Afrikaans writes as sterftesertifikaat.

This is very normal in Afrikaans. The sentence contains:

• sterfte = death
• sertifikaat = certificate

Together they form one compound noun: sterftesertifikaat.

Is the s in sterftesertifikaat some special linking letter?