Sy skryf 'n nuwe lys uit die kookboek neer voordat ons vertrek.

she

Breakdown of Sy skryf 'n nuwe lys uit die kookboek neer voordat ons vertrek.

• ons: we
• die: the
• 'n: a

Questions & Answers about Sy skryf 'n nuwe lys uit die kookboek neer voordat ons vertrek.

What does Sy mean here? Could it mean something else?

Here Sy means she.

A useful thing to know is that lowercase sy can also mean his in other sentences. Because this sentence starts with Sy, the capital letter does not help you tell which one it is. The grammar does:

• Sy skryf = She writes
• sy boek = his book

So in this sentence, because Sy is followed by the verb skryf, it is clearly the subject pronoun she.

Why is it skryf and not something like skrywe or a special she writes form?

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

So you get:

• ek skryf = I write
• jy skryf = you write
• hy skryf = he writes
• sy skryf = she writes
• ons skryf = we write

That is much simpler than English, where you have I write but she writes.

What exactly is 'n?