Hoe gaan dit?

A rough English-friendly pronunciation is:

hoo khahn dut

More precisely:

• Hoe sounds roughly like who
• gaan has the Afrikaans g, which is a throaty sound not found in standard English. If you cannot make it yet, an English g or soft h-like attempt will usually still be understood.
• dit is often said with a very short, weak vowel, so it can sound a bit like dut

So a natural approximation is:

Hoo khahn dut?

Word by word:

• Hoe = how
• gaan = go / goes / is going
• dit = it

So the literal sense is:

How goes it?

That is why it feels a lot like English How’s it going?, even though the usual translation shown to learners is often How are you?

Because this expression is built like How is it going? rather than directly How are you?

In Afrikaans, Hoe gaan dit? is a very normal way to ask about someone’s general state or how things are going. English does something similar in How’s it going?

So even though dit literally means it, the whole phrase naturally means something like:

• How are things going?
• How are you?
• How’s it going?

It is quite neutral and very common. You can use it in many everyday situations.

It works:

• with friends
• with classmates
• with coworkers
• in polite everyday conversation

If you want to be more explicit, especially in a more polite or careful context, you can say:

• Hoe gaan dit met jou? = how are you? / how is it going with you?
• Hoe gaan dit met u? = a more formal you

So Hoe gaan dit? by itself is normal, friendly, and widely usable.

Some common answers are:

• Dit gaan goed. = It’s going well.
• Goed, dankie. = Good, thanks.
• Baie goed. = Very well.
• Nie sleg nie. = Not bad.
• Dit gaan okay. = It’s going okay.
• Dit gaan nie goed nie. = It’s not going well.

If you want to ask back, you can add:

• En met jou? = And you?
• En met u? = And you? (formal)

A very natural exchange is:

• Hoe gaan dit?
• Goed, dankie. En met jou?

Both are correct, but they feel slightly different.

• Hoe gaan dit? is shorter and very common. It means How are you? / How’s it going?
• Hoe gaan dit met jou? is more explicit: How is it going with you?

You might use met jou when:

• you want to be especially clear
• several people are present
• you are contrasting one person with another
• you want a slightly fuller sentence

In many everyday situations, the short version Hoe gaan dit? is enough.

Not usually. That is not the normal idiomatic way to ask How are you?

A learner may want to build it directly from English, but Afrikaans normally uses:

• Hoe gaan dit?
• Hoe gaan dit met jou?

So it is better to learn Hoe gaan dit? as a set expression.

Gaan is the verb to go, and here it is used in the present tense.

An important Afrikaans point is that verbs usually do not change form depending on the subject the way English verbs do.

For example, English has:

• I go
• he goes

But Afrikaans keeps the same basic verb form much more often. So in Hoe gaan dit?, gaan stays gaan.

That makes the structure simpler for learners:

• Hoe = question word
• gaan = verb
• dit = subject

Afrikaans question word order often puts the verb early in the sentence, as you see here.

It can match both, depending on context.

Because the literal idea is How goes it?, it is especially close to:

• How’s it going?
• How are things going?

But in real conversation, people often use it where English speakers would simply say:

• How are you?

So the exact English translation can vary, even though the Afrikaans sentence stays the same.

Both.

Sometimes it is a genuine question and the speaker wants to know how you are doing.

Sometimes it works more like a routine greeting, just like English:

• How are you?
• How’s it going?

In those cases, a short reply is perfectly natural:

• Goed, dankie.
• Nie sleg nie.
• Baie goed.

So learners should know that it does not always invite a long, detailed answer.

Not always. In natural speech, dit is often unstressed and reduced.

So careful speech might sound clearer, but everyday speech may sound a bit more relaxed, with dit becoming very light.

That means learners may hear something closer to:

Hoe gaan d’t?

or a very weak dit sound.

Still, when you are learning, it is completely fine to pronounce all three words clearly:

Hoe gaan dit?

That is a good, safe starting point.