Gister het ek groente by die winkel gekoop.

Yesterday I bought vegetables at the store.

Breakdown of Gister het ek groente by die winkel gekoop.

• ek: I
• hê: to have
• by: at
• koop: to buy
• die winkel: the store
• die groente: the vegetable
• gister: yesterday

Questions & Answers about Gister het ek groente by die winkel gekoop.

What does Gister mean and why is it at the beginning of the sentence?

Gister means “yesterday.” In Afrikaans you can front a time adverbial for emphasis or flow. When a time word like Gister comes first, it triggers the V2 (verb‐second) rule: the finite verb (here het) follows immediately, then the subject.

Why is het used in this sentence?

Afrikaans does not have a simple‐past verb ending. Instead you use the auxiliary het plus a past participle to form the past tense (similar to English “have bought”). So Gister het ek … gekoop literally follows “have I … bought” to mean “I bought … yesterday.”

How do we form the past participle like gekoop?

Most regular verbs simply take the prefix ge- plus the bare stem. For koop (to buy):
• Stem = koop
• Past participle = ge + koop = gekoop
Irregular verbs may change the stem vowels or add different endings, but ge- is the regular marker.

Where does the past participle (gekoop) go in the sentence?

Thanks to the V2 word order, the finite verb (auxiliary) is always second. Everything else (objects, adverbials) comes next, and the past participle lands at the very end of the clause. So the pattern is:

1. Adverbial (Gister)
2. Auxiliary (het)
3. Subject (ek)
4. Objects/Adverbials (groente by die winkel)
5. Past participle (gekoop)

Why do we say groente without an article?

Here groente is an uncountable (mass) noun—“vegetables” in general—so no article is needed. If you wanted “the vegetables,” you’d say die groente, or ’n paar groente for “a few vegetables.”

Why is the location expressed as by die winkel and not in die winkel?

By means “at” in the sense of the place where you transact business. You buy at the shop (by die winkel). In die winkel would stress physically being inside the building, which is less common when describing the act of purchasing.

Can we also say Ek het gister groente by die winkel gekoop instead?

Yes. If you place the subject first, you don’t front the time adverbial, but the rest stays the same. That yields:
Ek het gister groente by die winkel gekoop.

Could we replace die winkel with ’n winkel?

Absolutely. Use ’n winkel (“a shop”) when you mean any shop, not a specific one:
Gister het ek groente by ’n winkel gekoop.