Word
Die enjin is koud.
Meaning
The engine is cold.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
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Questions & Answers about Die enjin is koud.
What does die mean in this sentence?
Die is the Afrikaans definite article, so here it means the.
A useful thing to remember is that Afrikaans uses die for:
- singular nouns: die enjin = the engine
- plural nouns: die enjins = the engines
Unlike English, you do not change it for gender, and unlike Dutch or German, there is no separate article like de/het or der/die/das.
Does enjin have a gender, like masculine or feminine?
No. Afrikaans does not use grammatical gender the way many European languages do.
So enjin is not treated as masculine, feminine, or neuter in everyday grammar. That is one reason why the article is simply die.
This makes Afrikaans easier for English speakers, because you do not have to memorize noun genders.
Why is the verb is used here?