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Questions & Answers about Ons werk nie in die nag nie.
Why are there two instances of nie in this sentence?
Afrikaans uses a double-negation construction. The first nie comes right after the verb (or the element being negated), and the second nie sits at the end of the clause to complete the negative.
Why is nie placed immediately after werk and again at the very end?
In Afrikaans negation, you put the first nie directly after the verb (or object/adverb you want to negate) and the second nie at the end of the sentence. So here werk nie negates “work” and the final nie closes off the negative clause.
Why doesn’t werk change form for ons (we)?
Afrikaans present-tense verbs are not inflected for person or number (unlike English “works” for he/she). You simply use werk for ek (I), jy (you), ons (we), hulle (they), etc.
Why do we say in die nag instead of something like “at night”?
Afrikaans expresses certain time periods (morning, afternoon, night) with in + the definite article die. So in die nag literally means “in the night,” which corresponds to English “at night.”
Could we replace in die nag with snags?
Yes. snags is an adverb meaning “at night,” so you could say:
Ons werk nie snags nie.
This is shorter and equally correct.
Is it ever acceptable to drop the final nie?
No. In standard Afrikaans double negation, omitting the final nie results in an incomplete and therefore ungrammatical negation. You need both.