Sy koop blou skoene in dieselfde winkelsentrum, maar hulle is nie duur nie.

She buys blue shoes in the same shopping centre, but they are not expensive.

Breakdown of Sy koop blou skoene in dieselfde winkelsentrum, maar hulle is nie duur nie.

• sy: she
• hulle: they
• wees: to be
• in: in
• nie: not
• koop: to buy
• maar: but
• die winkelsentrum: the shopping centre
• blou: blue
• die skoen: the shoe
• dieselfde: the same
• duur: expensive

Questions & Answers about Sy koop blou skoene in dieselfde winkelsentrum, maar hulle is nie duur nie.

Why is there no article before blou skoene?

In Afrikaans, you can use plural nouns without an article when you mean “some” or speak generally.

• blou skoene simply means “blue shoes” (some blue shoes).
• If you wanted a singular indefinite shoe, you’d say ’n blou skoen.
• To emphasize “a few,” you could even say ’n paar blou skoene.

Why doesn’t blou become bloue before a plural noun?

Adjectives in Afrikaans are inflected (get an -e) only in certain situations:

1. Before a definite noun (with die or a demonstrative).
2. Before an indefinite singular noun.
   Also, adjectives that already end in a vowel (like blou) never take -e.
   Here, blou skoene is an indefinite plural, so no -e is added.

What does dieselfde mean, and why isn’t there a die before it?

dieselfde means “the same.” It acts like a demonstrative determiner and can stand in for die + same word.

• in dieselfde winkelsentrum = “in the same shopping center.”
  You may optionally say in die dieselfde winkelsentrum, but the extra die is often dropped because dieselfde already carries the “the same” meaning.

How does the negation nie … nie work in hulle is nie duur nie?

Afrikaans uses double negation around the element being negated:

• The first nie goes before the verb or adjective (here duur).
• The second nie comes at the end of the clause or phrase.
  So hulle is nie duur nie literally “they are not expensive,” with two nie particles required.

Why is hulle used to refer to the shoes?

In Afrikaans, hulle is the third-person plural pronoun for both people and things. There is no separate “they” for objects.

• hulle can refer to any plural noun, animate or inanimate.

Why is the verb koop in second position in Sy koop blou skoene?

Afrikaans main clauses follow the V2 (verb-second) rule:

1. First position: one element (often the subject or an adverbial).
2. Second position: the finite verb.
   Here, Sy (subject) is first, koop (verb) is second, then the object blou skoene.

Why does in dieselfde winkelsentrum come after the object and not at the very front?

The neutral (unmarked) word order in Afrikaans is Subject–Verb–Object–Adverbial (SVOA).

• Prepositional phrases like in dieselfde winkelsentrum are adverbials, so they typically follow SVO.
• You can front them (e.g. In dieselfde winkelsentrum koop sy blou skoene), but then you still keep the verb in second position (V2).