Die klimmaat het hoogtevrees; geen wonder dat hy nie abseil nie.

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Breakdown of Die klimmaat het hoogtevrees; geen wonder dat hy nie abseil nie.

• hê: to have
• nie: not
• geen wonder dat ...: no wonder that

Questions & Answers about Die klimmaat het hoogtevrees; geen wonder dat hy nie abseil nie.

What does klimmaat mean? Is it a normal Afrikaans word?

Klimmaat means a climbing partner or climbing buddy.

It is built from:

• klim = climb / climbing
• maat = mate / buddy / partner

Afrikaans makes compounds very freely, so a word like klimmaat is perfectly natural and easy for an Afrikaans speaker to understand, even if it feels very transparent to an English learner.

Why is hoogtevrees written as one word?

Because Afrikaans usually writes compounds as a single word.

Here:

• hoogte = height
• vrees = fear

So hoogtevrees literally means height-fear, which corresponds to fear of heights in English.

This is very common in Afrikaans. English often uses separate words where Afrikaans prefers one compound word.

Why does the sentence say het hoogtevrees?

Because hoogtevrees hê is the normal Afrikaans expression for to have a fear of heights.

So:

• Die klimmaat het hoogtevrees = The climbing partner has a fear of heights

Afrikaans often uses hê / het with things that are treated as something a person has, including certain fears and conditions.

Why is it geen wonder and not nie wonder nie?