Die watervoël het 'n lang snawel.

to have

Breakdown of Die watervoël het 'n lang snawel.

• 'n: a
• lank: long
• die watervoël: waterbird

Questions & Answers about Die watervoël het 'n lang snawel.

Why does the sentence start with Die? Does it mean the here?

Yes. Die is the Afrikaans definite article, and here it means the.

So:

• Die watervoël = the water bird / the waterfowl

A useful thing to know is that Afrikaans uses die for all genders and all nouns in the singular and plural, so it is much simpler than languages like German or Dutch.

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

Watervoël is a compound noun:

• water = water
• voël = bird

Together, watervoël literally means water bird.

Afrikaans often writes compound nouns as one word, just like Dutch and German often do. So where English says water bird, Afrikaans commonly says watervoël.

What is the function of het in this sentence?