Questions & Answers about Die bus kom uiteindelik.
Afrikaans typically uses the simple present tense for both simple and progressive actions. So kom covers English comes and is coming. If you really want to stress the ongoing nature, you can use a progressive construction—e.g.
• Die bus is besig om te kom (The bus is busy to come)—but in everyday speech kom is sufficient.
uiteindelik means finally. In Afrikaans the default position for most time and manner adverbs is after the main verb or at the end of the clause. The pattern here is:
Subject – Verb – (Object) – Adverbial of time
so Die bus (Subject) kom (Verb) uiteindelik (Adverbial of time).
A broad phonetic guide:
• Die: /diː/ (“dee”)
• bus: /bʏs/ (short “u” as in English “put”)
• kom: /kɔm/ (like English “come” with a more open “o”)
• uiteindelik: /œyˈtei̯ntlək/ (the “ui” is the diphthong [œy], similar to German “eu”)
Putting it all together: /diː bʏs kɔm œyˈtei̯ntlək/.
uiteindelik breaks down into three pieces:
• uit- (out)
• einde (end)
• -lik (-ly)
Literally “out-end-ly,” giving the sense of reaching the end—finally. Recognizing uit-, einde, and the common adjective-to-adverb suffix -lik will help you decode other words (e.g. uiteen, eindelik, moontlik).