Sy skryf 'n brief aan haar suster.

she

Breakdown of Sy skryf 'n brief aan haar suster.

• 'n: a
• skryf: to write
• die suster: the sister

Questions & Answers about Sy skryf 'n brief aan haar suster.

What is the basic word order in Sy skryf 'n brief aan haar suster?

The sentence uses the normal Afrikaans subject–verb–object pattern:

• Sy = subject
• skryf = verb
• 'n brief = direct object
• aan haar suster = prepositional phrase telling you who the letter is addressed to

So the structure is:

She + writes + a letter + to her sister

This is very similar to normal English word order.

What does Sy mean here, and why is it capitalized?

Here Sy means she.

It is capitalized only because it is the first word of the sentence.
If it appeared in the middle of a sentence, it would be sy.

A useful thing to know is that sy can also mean his in other contexts, for example:

• sy boek = his book

So context matters:

• Sy skryf = She writes
• sy suster = his sister

Why is 'n written with an apostrophe, and how do you pronounce it?