Sy studeer politiek.

she

Breakdown of Sy studeer politiek.

• studeer: to study
• die politiek: politics

Questions & Answers about Sy studeer politiek.

How do I know Sy means she here and not his?

Because of its job in the sentence.

In Sy studeer politiek, Sy comes before the verb studeer, so it is the subject pronoun and means she.

Afrikaans sy can also mean his, but then it works as a possessive and is followed by a noun, for example:

• sy boek = his book
• sy motor = his car

So in this sentence, Sy must mean she.

Why is Sy capitalized?

It is capitalized only because it is the first word of the sentence.

If it appeared later in the sentence, it would normally be lowercase:

• Ek dink sy studeer politiek.

Afrikaans does not capitalize pronouns the way German capitalizes nouns.

Why doesn’t studeer change for she?

Because Afrikaans verbs usually do not change according to the subject the way English verbs sometimes do.

So you get:

• ek studeer
• jy studeer
• sy studeer
• ons studeer

Unlike English, there is no special -s form like she studies. The same verb form is used for all persons in the present tense.

Why is there no extra word like is or does?