Ons huis het die mooiste tuin.

to have

Breakdown of Ons huis het die mooiste tuin.

• die huis: the house
• ons: our
• die tuin: the garden

Questions & Answers about Ons huis het die mooiste tuin.

What does Ons mean in Ons huis het die mooiste tuin? It looks like “we,” but here is it “our”?

In Afrikaans ons can serve as both a subject pronoun (“we/us”) and a possessive pronoun (“our/ours”).
• When ons stands alone before a verb (e.g. Ons het…), it means “we.”
• When ons comes directly before a noun (no verb in between), it’s possessive: Ons huis = “our house.”

Why is the verb het used here? How do you form “have” in the present tense?

The verb hê (“to have”) is conjugated in the present tense with het for nearly every person:
• Ek het
• Jy het
• Hy/sy/dit het
• Ons het
• Julle het
• Hulle het
So Ons huis het… simply means “Our house has….”

What is the word order in this sentence? Is it the same as English?

Yes. In a straightforward statement with a full verb, Afrikaans uses Subject-Verb-Object (SVO), just like English:
Subject = Ons huis (“our house”)
Verb = het (“has”)
Object = die mooiste tuin (“the most beautiful garden”)

Why do we use die before mooiste tuin? When would you choose die instead of ’n?