Geen wonder dat valmatte onder klimwande lê nie.

No wonder crash mats lie under climbing walls.

Breakdown of Geen wonder dat valmatte onder klimwande lê nie.

• nie: not
• onder: under
• lê: to lie
• geen wonder dat ...: no wonder that

Questions & Answers about Geen wonder dat valmatte onder klimwande lê nie.

What does geen wonder mean here?

Geen wonder is the Afrikaans equivalent of no wonder. Literally, wonder is wonder, and geen means no / none, but together they form a fixed expression.

So Geen wonder ... nie is not meant to be analyzed too literally word by word every time; it works as one idiomatic pattern meaning it is not surprising that...

Why is there a nie at the end if geen already makes the sentence negative?

This is a very common Afrikaans pattern called negative concord.

Afrikaans often uses:

• an earlier negative word such as geen, niks, niemand, etc.
• and then a second nie later in the clause

So Geen wonder ... nie is the normal Afrikaans way to say No wonder ...

This is not an English-style double negative. It does not cancel itself out. It is just standard Afrikaans grammar.

Also, in this sentence the final nie belongs to the whole Geen wonder ... nie frame. The part after dat is not negative by itself.

What is dat doing in the sentence?

Dat means that and introduces a subordinate clause.

So the structure is basically:

Geen wonder + dat + explanation

That explanation is:

valmatte onder klimwande lê

English often leaves that out, but Afrikaans very commonly keeps dat in sentences like this.