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Questions & Answers about Ek het ’n geheime plan.
What is ’n and why does it have an apostrophe?
’n is the indefinite article in Afrikaans, equivalent to a or an in English. It’s actually a shortened form of een (meaning “one”), and the apostrophe marks the missing e. You use ’n before singular, countable nouns.
Why is het used here instead of another word like hê or hou?
The infinitive “to have” in Afrikaans is hê, but in the present tense you conjugate it as ek het, jy het, hy het, etc. So het is simply the present-tense form of hê. You wouldn’t use hou, because that means “to hold,” not “to have.”
Why does geheim take an –e in geheime?
In Afrikaans, adjectives receive an –e ending (the “weak” form) whenever they directly precede a noun that has a definite or indefinite marker (like die, my, hierdie, or ’n). Since geheime comes before plan (which is introduced by ’n), the adjective takes –e.
How do you pronounce geheime plan?
• geheime: /xəˈhaɪmə/ (“khuh-HY-muh”), with the “g” as a guttural sound (like Scottish “loch”) and stress on the second syllable.
• plan: /plan/ (“plahn”), with a short “a” as in “father.”
Does Afrikaans have grammatical gender or number that affects words like plan?
No, Afrikaans does not assign gender to nouns—there is no masculine, feminine or neuter article. Plurals are formed with endings (e.g. planne), but the singular plan stays the same here.
Is the noun plan in Afrikaans the same as English plan? Are there any differences?
Yes, plan is a direct cognate of the English plan, and it carries the same meanings in Afrikaans—there are no tricky false-friend issues in this case.
Can you form a question with het like “Het ek ’n geheime plan?” Do you invert the verb?
When het is used as a main verb (“to have”), it does not invert in questions. You keep the normal word order (subject–verb–object) and signal a question by rising intonation:
• Statement: Ek het ’n geheime plan.
• Question (spoken): Ek het ’n geheime plan?
If you say Het ek ’n geheime plan?, it sounds very formal or old-fashioned.