Almal eet brood.

Everyone eats bread.

Breakdown of Almal eet brood.

• eet: to eat
• die brood: the bread
• almal: everyone

Questions & Answers about Almal eet brood.

What does almal mean, and what part of speech is it?

Almal is an indefinite pronoun meaning everyone or all (of a group). In this sentence it functions as the subject.

Why doesn’t eet change form when the subject is almal?

In Afrikaans the present‐tense verb stays the same for every person and number. You always use eet for “I eat,” “you eat,” “he/she eats,” “we eat,” almal eet, etc.

Why is there no article before brood, and what does that imply?

Here brood is a mass noun used generically (“bread” in general). Generic, uncountable nouns in Afrikaans normally appear without ’n (the indefinite article) or die (the definite article).

Can I say Almal eet die brood? How does that change the meaning?

Yes. Adding die (“the”) makes it specific: Almal eet die brood means everyone is eating the bread (some particular loaf(s) already mentioned), not bread in general.

What about Almal eet ’n brood? What does ’n signify here?