Die slaapkamer is skoon.

to be

Breakdown of Die slaapkamer is skoon.

• skoon: clean
• die slaapkamer: the bedroom

Questions & Answers about Die slaapkamer is skoon.

Why does die mean the here? Does Afrikaans have grammatical gender like Dutch or German?

In this sentence, die is the definite article, so it means the.

Afrikaans is much simpler than Dutch or German in this area:

• die = the for singular nouns
• die = the for plural nouns too

So Afrikaans does not use different forms of the depending on gender the way German does. You do not need to learn masculine, feminine, or neuter articles for nouns in everyday Afrikaans.

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How is slaapkamer built? Is it a compound word?

Yes. slaapkamer is a compound noun:

• slaap = sleep
• kamer = room

So slaapkamer literally means sleep-room, which is the normal Afrikaans word for bedroom.

Compound nouns are very common in Afrikaans, just as in Dutch and German, and often more common than in English.

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Why is the word order Die slaapkamer is skoon and not something else?