Vandag is ’n mooi dag.

to be

Breakdown of Vandag is ’n mooi dag.

• mooi: beautiful
• vandag: today
• ’n: a

Questions & Answers about Vandag is ’n mooi dag.

What does ’n in Vandag is ’n mooi dag mean and why does it have an apostrophe?

’n is the indefinite article in Afrikaans, equivalent to a or an in English. It’s historically a contraction of een (“one”), and the apostrophe marks the missing vowel. Today it’s simply the standard way to say “a.”

How do you pronounce vandag and the “g” in dag?

vandag is pronounced roughly “fun-DAHKH,” with the stress on the second syllable. Both vandag and dag end in a guttural “g” (a voiced velar fricative), similar to the “ch” in Scottish “loch” or German “Bach.” If that sound is hard, you can approximate with a soft “kh” or even a regular “g” as in “go.”

Why is Vandag capitalized here but not always in writing?

It’s capitalized only because it begins the sentence. In Afrikaans, adverbs of time like vandag are not normally capitalized unless they’re the very first word of a sentence.

Why doesn’t mooi take an -e ending before dag, and do adjectives ever change for number or gender?