Ons herbegin die telefoon.

we

Breakdown of Ons herbegin die telefoon.

• die telefoon: the telephone
• herbegin: to restart

Questions & Answers about Ons herbegin die telefoon.

What does ons mean here?

Here, ons means we.

It is the subject pronoun of the sentence, so it tells you who is doing the action:

• Ons herbegin die telefoon. = We restart the phone.

A useful note: ons can also mean our in other contexts, but in this sentence it clearly means we because it comes before the verb.

Why is the verb herbegin not changed for ons?

Because Afrikaans verbs usually do not change according to the subject in the present tense.

So you get the same basic verb form with different subjects:

• Ek herbegin
• Jy herbegin
• Hy herbegin
• Ons herbegin

This is much simpler than English, where you have forms like I restart but he restarts. In Afrikaans, herbegin stays the same.

What does herbegin literally mean?