Die motor steek ons verby.

The car overtakes us.

Breakdown of Die motor steek ons verby.

• ons: us
• die motor: the car
• verbysteek: to overtake; pass another vehicle

Questions & Answers about Die motor steek ons verby.

Does steek by itself mean pass/overtake here?

Not by itself. The full verb here is verbysteek, which means to pass or to overtake. Afrikaans often has separable verbs, where one part appears earlier and another part appears at the end of the clause.

So in Die motor steek ons verby, you should understand steek ... verby as one unit: verbysteek.

On its own, steek often has other meanings, such as stick, stab, poke, or put/place depending on context.

Why is verby at the end of the sentence?

Because verbysteek is a separable verb.

In a normal main clause, Afrikaans puts the finite verb early in the sentence, usually in second position. The separable part then moves to the end.

So:

• Die motor steek ons verby.

But the dictionary form is:

• verbysteek

And in other structures you can see it differently:

• dat die motor ons verbysteek
• om ons verby te steek
• Die motor sal ons verbysteek

So the split form in your sentence is completely normal.

Why is it ons? Does ons mean both we and us?