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?