Hy werk alleen.

He works alone.

Breakdown of Hy werk alleen.

• hy: he
• werk: to work
• alleen: alone

Questions & Answers about Hy werk alleen.

How do you pronounce Hy werk alleen?

A rough guide for an English speaker:

• Hy: sounds a bit like hay, but with a different vowel quality in careful Afrikaans pronunciation. Many learners start with hay as an approximation.
• werk: roughly like verk, since w in Afrikaans is pronounced like English v.
• alleen: roughly ah-layn.

So an English-friendly approximation is:

hay verk ah-LAYN

What does hy mean, and is it always written with a capital letter?

Hy means he.

It is only capitalized here because it is at the beginning of the sentence. In the middle of a sentence, it would normally be hy with a lowercase h.

Examples:

• Hy werk alleen.
• Ek dink hy werk alleen.

Why is it werk and not something like works?