Mission—Team—FAQ—Privacy—Terms—Sponsors—Grammar—Typing Course—Donate

© 2026 Elon Automation B.V.

Learn Hardcore Afrikaans: Die kamer is egter klein. - The room is small, however.

Hardcore Afrikaans
/Making weekend plans
/Die kamer is egter klein.

Die kamer is egter klein.

Word

Die kamer is egter klein.

Meaning

The room is small, however.

Part of speech

sentence

Pronunciation

Course

Hardcore Afrikaans

Lesson

Making weekend plans

Breakdown of Die kamer is egter klein.

Questions & Answers about Die kamer is egter klein.

Why does the sentence start with die? Is that just the?

Yes. In this sentence, die means the.

A useful thing to know is that Afrikaans uses die as the definite article for all nouns:

die kamer = the room
die man = the man
die vrou = the woman
die kinders = the children

Unlike languages such as German or Dutch, Afrikaans does not have different forms of the for grammatical gender.

Does kamer mean exactly the same as English room?

Usually, yes. Kamer commonly means room.

It is related to English chamber, so the similarity is not accidental. In everyday Afrikaans, kamer is the normal word for a room in a house, hotel, building, and so on.

Examples:

slaapkamer = bedroom
badkamer = bathroom
woonkamer = living room

Why is is the same as in English?

Elon.io is an online learning platform

We have an entire course teaching Afrikaans grammar and vocabulary.

Start learning Afrikaans now

Because Afrikaans and English are both Germanic languages, some very common words can look familiar. Is is the present-tense form of to be here, just like English is.

In Afrikaans:

Ek is = I am
Jy is = you are
Hy/Sy is = he/she is
Ons is = we are
Hulle is = they are

So Afrikaans does not change the verb the way English does with am / is / are. The form is stays the same.

What does egter do in the sentence?

Egter means however, nevertheless, or sometimes though, depending on context.

In Die kamer is egter klein, it adds a contrast:

maybe the room is nice,
maybe the hotel is good,
however, the room is small.

So the feeling is:

The room is, however, small or
The room is small, though

Why is egter placed after is?

That is a normal position for this kind of adverb in Afrikaans.

In a simple main clause, the verb usually comes early in the sentence, and adverbs like egter often come after it:

Die kamer is egter klein.

This may feel slightly formal or written, but it is correct.

Afrikaans word order often places the finite verb in the second position in main clauses. After that, elements like egter can appear before the adjective or other complements.

Could I use maar instead of egter?

Sometimes yes, but they are not always interchangeable.

egter = however / nevertheless
maar = but

If you want to connect two clauses, maar is often the more natural choice:

Die hotel is mooi, maar die kamer is klein. = The hotel is nice, but the room is small.

If you are making a more formal contrast within one clause, egter works well:

Die kamer is egter klein.

So egter sounds a bit more formal or written than maar.

Why is klein not changed in any way? Shouldn’t the adjective have an ending?

Here klein comes after the verb is, so it is a predicate adjective. In Afrikaans, predicate adjectives normally do not take an ending.

So:

Die kamer is klein. = The room is small.

Compare that with adjectives before nouns, where endings can sometimes appear:

’n klein kamer = a small room
die klein kamer = the small room

In your sentence, klein stays plain because it comes after is.

Is the word order basically the same as English here?

Yes, very similar.

Afrikaans:

Die kamer = subject
is = verb
egter = adverb
klein = adjective/complement

So the structure is close to:

The room is however small.

Natural English would more often say:

The room is, however, small. or
The room is small, however.

So the grammar is quite approachable for an English speaker.

Does Afrikaans have grammatical gender for kamer?

No. Afrikaans nouns do not have grammatical gender in the way Dutch or German nouns do.

So kamer is just kamer. You do not need to learn it as masculine, feminine, or neuter, and the article stays die.

That is one reason Afrikaans grammar is often simpler for English speakers than some other Germanic languages.

How is the sentence pronounced?

A simple approximate pronunciation is:

duh KAH-mer is EGH-ter klayn

A few notes:

die is usually pronounced roughly like duh in standard Afrikaans, not like English die
kamer sounds like KAH-mer
egter has a guttural g sound, like a throaty sound not found in standard English
klein sounds roughly like klayn

If you cannot make the Afrikaans g yet, that is very normal for English speakers.

Could the sentence also be written without egter?

Yes:

Die kamer is klein. = The room is small.

Adding egter does not change the basic statement; it adds a sense of contrast. So without egter, the sentence is simply neutral. With egter, it suggests this is true despite something else.

Is this a formal sentence or something people would actually say?

It is correct and natural, but egter can sound a bit more formal or written than everyday speech in some contexts.

In casual speech, people might more often say something like:

Die kamer is klein, maar ...
Die kamer is darem klein. depending on tone and meaning
Die kamer is nogal klein. = The room is rather small

So Die kamer is egter klein is perfectly good Afrikaans, especially in writing or careful speech.

Your questions are stored by us to improve Elon.io