Questions & Answers about Ek het drie boeke.
What does Ek mean, and is it always capitalized?
Ek means I.
It is only capitalized at the beginning of a sentence, just like I in English sentence-initial position. Unlike English, Afrikaans does not capitalize its word for I everywhere. So:
- Ek het drie boeke. = I have three books.
- Hy sê ek het drie boeke. = He says I have three books.
In the second sentence, ek is lowercase because it is not at the start.
Why is het used here? Does it mean have?
Yes. In this sentence, het means have:
- Ek het drie boeke. = I have three books.
Afrikaans does not change the verb for different persons in the present tense the way English does. So:
- Ek het = I have
- Jy het = you have
- Hy/Sy het = he/she has
- Ons het = we have
- Hulle het = they have
So even where English says has, Afrikaans still uses het.
Why isn’t it ek have or something closer to English?