Breakdown of Ek sluit die hek voordat ek gaan slaap.
Questions & Answers about Ek sluit die hek voordat ek gaan slaap.
Afrikaans often uses the simple present for routines or habitual actions.
• Ek sluit die hek voordat ek gaan slaap describes a regular nightly habit.
If you want to talk about a single future event rather than a routine, you can add a future auxiliary:
• Ek sal vanaand die hek sluit voordat ek gaan slaap.
• voordat is a conjunction meaning before that must be followed by a full clause (subject + verb).
• voor is primarily a preposition meaning in front of, though it can sometimes be used colloquially for before in time.
In standard Afrikaans you use voordat to introduce a time‐clause. You might hear Ek sluit die hek vor ek slaap in casual speech, but voordat ek slaap is the correct form in writing and careful speech.
In Afrikaans, gaan + infinitive expresses an imminent or intended action—similar to English “going to.”
• Ek slaap = I sleep (state or habit)
• Ek gaan slaap = I’m going to sleep (about to start sleeping)
When a subordinate clause leads off, it stays verb‐final, and the main clause keeps the verb‐second (V2) rule.
Voordat ek gaan slaap, sluit ek die hek.
Here sluit comes immediately after the comma, because in the main clause the conjugated verb must occupy the second position.
You have two natural options:
- Using sal for the future:
Ek sal vanaand die hek sluit voordat ek gaan slaap. - Using gaan
- infinitive as a near‐future marker:
Ek gaan vanaand die hek sluit voordat ek slaap.
- infinitive as a near‐future marker: