Learn Hardcore Afrikaans: Sy bel weer, maar die selfoon bly stil; ek hoor net my broer lag. - She calls again, but the cellphone remains silent; I only hear my brother laugh.

In Afrikaans bel simply means to call (on the phone). You don’t need a particle such as op or aan—unlike Dutch opbellen or English “call up,” you just say bel. For example, sy bel my = “she calls me.”

Why don’t the verbs bel, bly, hoor and lag change form in the third person? There’s no -s ending like in English.

Afrikaans verbs do not conjugate for person or number. You use the same basic form with all subjects:

ek bel / jy bel / sy bel / ons bel …
ek hoor / hy hoor / julle hoor …
No extra endings, so the verb stays identical regardless of who’s doing the action.

What does bly mean in bly stil? Could you just say die selfoon is stil instead?

Here bly means “remain” or “stay”. bly stil = “remain silent” or “stay quiet.” You could say die selfoon is stil (“the phone is silent”), but bly adds the sense of continuing to be silent rather than just describing its current state.

How are the adverbs weer (“again”) and net (“only”/“just”) positioned in these clauses, and why is it bly stil rather than stil bly?

Afrikaans follows a V2 rule in main clauses: the finite verb is in the second position, and adverbs normally follow immediately after that verb. So:

Sy bel weer – weer comes right after bel.
Ek hoor net my broer lag – net follows hoor, before the object/complement.
As for bly stil, bly is the verb (position 2 after the subject), while stil is an adjective/adverb describing how it remains, so it naturally follows the verb.

Why is there no te before lag in hoor … lag? In English one might think “hear him to laugh,” and in Dutch it’s “horen … lachen.”

Verbs of perception in Afrikaans (such as hoor, sien, help) take a bare infinitive with no te. For example:

Ek hoor my broer lag
Hy sien die kat spring
This is standard: you just place the infinitive directly after the perception verb.

Why does the sentence use die selfoon with the definite article instead of a possessive like my selfoon or haar selfoon?

Using die (“the”) here refers generically to “the cellphone in question” (context makes clear whose phone it is). If you wanted to stress ownership, you could say my selfoon or haar selfoon, but die selfoon is idiomatic when the setting already tells you whose device you mean.

What is the function of maar in this sentence, and does it change the word order like subordinating conjunctions in German?

maar is a coordinating conjunction meaning “but.” It links two independent clauses:

Sy bel weer,
maar die selfoon bly stil.
Because it’s coordinating, it does not push the verb to the end. Each clause retains the normal V2 order.

Why is there a semicolon before ek hoor net my broer lag instead of a comma or full stop?

In Afrikaans, a semicolon ( ; ) is used much like in English: to connect closely related independent clauses that could each stand alone but are tied in meaning. You could substitute a period or comma (with a conjunction), but the semicolon here emphasizes the tight link between the phone’s silence and hearing only the brother laugh.