Die hond stop buite die huis.

The dog stops outside the house.

Breakdown of Die hond stop buite die huis.

• die hond: the dog
• die: the
• die huis: the house
• buite: outside

Questions & Answers about Die hond stop buite die huis.

What is the purpose of die in this sentence, and why does it appear twice?

die is the definite article in Afrikaans (equivalent to “the” in English). It doesn’t change for gender or number, so you use die for both singular and plural, and for all nouns. That’s why it appears before hond (“the dog”) and again before huis (“the house”).

Why doesn’t the verb stop change form for the third-person singular (like English “stops”)?

Afrikaans verbs in the present tense are invariant across person and number. Whether the subject is ek, jy, hond, ons, honde, etc., the verb form stays stop. There is no extra -s for third person.

What does buite mean, and why is it placed before die huis?

buite means “outside.” It functions as a preposition here, so it precedes its object die huis. In Afrikaans, as in English, prepositions normally come before the noun phrase they govern:
buite die huis = outside the house

How do I form the plural of hond and huis?