Ons ontmoet die nuwe buurman, en hy glimlag.

We meet the new male neighbor, and he smiles.

Breakdown of Ons ontmoet die nuwe buurman, en hy glimlag.

• hy: he
• ons: we
• die: the
• nuwe: new

Questions & Answers about Ons ontmoet die nuwe buurman, en hy glimlag.

Why is ons used here? Does it only mean we?

In this sentence, ons is the subject and means we.

A useful thing to know is that Afrikaans uses ons for both we and us, depending on the job it is doing in the sentence.

• Ons ontmoet die buurman. = We meet the neighbor.
• Hy sien ons. = He sees us.

So unlike English, Afrikaans does not switch between we and us in the form of the word.

Why is it ons ontmoet and not something like ons ontmoets or ons ontmoet with a different ending?

Because Afrikaans verbs usually do not change form for different subjects in the present tense.

So you get:

• ek ontmoet
• jy ontmoet
• hy ontmoet
• ons ontmoet
• hulle ontmoet

This is much simpler than English, where you have I meet but he meets. In Afrikaans, the verb normally stays the same.

What is die doing here, and does it change for gender or number?