Ek drink eers water en eet dan brood.

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Breakdown of Ek drink eers water en eet dan brood.

• eet: to eat
• die brood: the bread
• drink: to drink

Questions & Answers about Ek drink eers water en eet dan brood.

Why does the sentence use both eers and dan? Isn’t that repetitive?

Not really. eers ... dan ... is a very common Afrikaans pairing, just like first ... then ... in English.

So:

• eers marks the first action
• dan marks the next action

Using both makes the sequence especially clear and natural.

You can leave one out in some contexts, but the full pair sounds neat and idiomatic:

• Ek drink eers water en eet dan brood. = very clear sequence
• Ek drink eers water en eet brood. = still understandable
• Ek drink water en eet dan brood. = possible, but less balanced

Why is there no second ek after en?

Because Afrikaans often leaves out the subject in the second part of a coordinated sentence when it is the same as the first one.

So these are both possible:

• Ek drink eers water en eet dan brood.
• Ek drink eers water en ek eet dan brood.

The version without the second ek is shorter and very natural.

English usually keeps the subject more often, but Afrikaans can omit it when the meaning is still clear.

Why does the second part start with eet right after en?