Learn Hardcore Afrikaans: Die kombuis is skoon, en kamerdiens bring warm kos. - The kitchen is clean, and room service brings warm food.

die is the Afrikaans definite article (equivalent to English “the”). It is used with both singular and plural nouns to mark them as definite or specific.

How do you pronounce sk in skoon, and what sound does the double oo make?

In most Afrikaans accents, sk is pronounced as [s x] – an s followed by a harsh ch (voiceless velar fricative). The double oo in skoon is a long [uː], so skoon sounds roughly like “schoon” (rhyming with English “spoon”).

Is skoon an adjective or a verb? Why doesn’t it have a ge- prefix?

skoon is an adjective meaning clean. In Afrikaans, adjectives do not take the ge- prefix; that prefix appears only on past participles of verbs (e.g. gemaak from maak, “to make”).

Why doesn’t the verb bring end in -s, as in English “brings”?

Afrikaans verbs are not inflected for person or number in the present tense. You use the base (infinitive) form for all persons: “ek bring,” “jy bring,” “hy bring,” etc.

What is kamerdiens, and why is it one word?

kamerdiens is a compound noun from kamer (room) + diens (service), literally “room service.” In Afrikaans, compound nouns are normally written as a single word.

Why is there no article before kamerdiens? Could you say die kamerdiens?

Leaving out the article makes the statement general (“room service brings hot food” as a concept). You could say die kamerdiens if you refer to a specific hotel’s room service (“The room service at Hotel X…”).

Why doesn’t warm get an -e before kos?

Adjectives in Afrikaans take an -e ending when they modify definite or plural nouns (e.g. die groot huis, twee rooi appels). Here warm kos is indefinite singular, so warm remains uninflected.

Does the comma before en have to be there?

No. In Afrikaans, a comma before the coordinating conjunction en (“and”) is optional and usually omitted. It may be inserted for clarity or a pause, but the sentence is correct with or without it.