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Questions & Answers about Baie mense praat Afrikaans.
What does Baie mean in this sentence?
In this context Baie means many or a lot of. It functions as a quantifier modifying mense.
Why is mense used instead of mens?
Mens is singular ( person ) and its plural form is mense ( people ). So to say people you use mense.
Why is there no definite article before Baie mense?
Afrikaans typically omits an article when making a general statement about people in the plural with words like baie, min, alle, etc. You would only add the definite article die if you mean many of the people, for example baie van die mense.
Why is the verb praat the same for all subjects?
Afrikaans verbs do not change their form in the present tense for different subjects. Whether the subject is ek (I), jy (you), hy (he) or hulle (they), the verb stays praat.
Why doesn’t the sentence use in before Afrikaans when talking about the language?
When talking about speaking a language, Afrikaans normally drops the preposition in, so you say praat Afrikaans, not praat in Afrikaans. You could use in to emphasize the medium, as in Ek skryf in Afrikaans.
Why is Afrikaans capitalized?
Afrikaans is a proper noun (the name of a language), so it follows the rule of always capitalizing names of languages, just like English, Spanish, or French.
How is Baie mense praat Afrikaans pronounced?
The approximate pronunciation is BIE-yuh MEN-suh PRAHT AF-ri-kahns.
- Baie: BIE-yuh
- mense: MEN-suh
- praat: PRAHT (like the a in father)
- Afrikaans: AF-ri-kahns