Sy eet nog ’n appel.

to eat

Breakdown of Sy eet nog ’n appel.

• die appel: the apple
• sy: she
• nog ’n: another

Questions & Answers about Sy eet nog ’n appel.

What does Sy mean?

Sy is the third-person singular subject pronoun in Afrikaans, equivalent to she in English.

How is eet used here and how would you translate it?

eet is the present-tense form of the verb eet (to eat). In English you can render it as eats (simple present) or is eating (present continuous), since Afrikaans uses one form for both.

What do nog and ’n mean individually, and what does nog ’n mean together?

nog on its own can mean more, still, or yet. ’n is the indefinite article (a/an). Combined, nog ’n means another or one more.

Why is the indefinite article written as ’n with an apostrophe, and how is that different from een?

The apostrophe in ’n shows it’s a shortened form of een. As ’n it functions as the article a/an, whereas the full word een is the numeral one.

What is the word order in Sy eet nog ’n appel?

It follows a straightforward Subject-Verb-Object order:

• Subject: Sy
• Verb: eet
• Object phrase: nog ’n appel

How do you indicate that she’s eating right this moment, since English uses “is eating”?

Afrikaans normally uses the simple present for both ongoing and habitual actions, relying on context for meaning. To emphasize a truly continuous action, you can say:
Sy is besig om nog ’n appel te eet (She is busy eating another apple).

How is appel pronounced and why are there two p’s?

appel is pronounced roughly AH-pəl. The double pp signals that the vowel a is short; a single p after a vowel could lengthen it.

What changes if you omit nog and say Sy eet ’n appel?

Without nog, Sy eet ’n appel simply means She (is) eating an apple. Adding nog makes it She is eating another apple (one more in addition to what came before).