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

© 2026 Elon Automation B.V.

Learn Hardcore Afrikaans: Die tarief is duur. - The rate is expensive.

Hardcore Afrikaans
/Correcting a municipal utility account
/Die tarief is duur.

Die tarief is duur.

Word

Die tarief is duur.

Meaning

The rate is expensive.

Part of speech

sentence

Pronunciation

Course

Hardcore Afrikaans

Lesson

Correcting a municipal utility account

Breakdown of Die tarief is duur.

the tariff; the rate

Elon.io is an online learning platform

We have an entire course teaching Afrikaans grammar and vocabulary.

Start learning Afrikaans now

Questions & Answers about Die tarief is duur.

What does die mean here? Is it just the?

Yes. In this sentence, die is the definite article, so it works like English the.

A useful thing to remember is that Afrikaans die is much simpler than articles in many European languages:

it does not change for grammatical gender
it is used for both singular and plural definite nouns

So:

die tarief = the rate / the tariff
die tariewe = the rates / the tariffs

What does tarief mean exactly?

Tarief usually means a rate, tariff, fare, or charge, depending on context.

So it can be used for things like:

service rates
phone or electricity tariffs
transport fares
official charges

It does not always mean exactly the same thing as English price. A general price is often prys, while tarief is more like a set or official rate/fee.

Is is the same as English is?

Yes. Is is the present-tense form of to be, just like English is.

So:

Die tarief is duur. = The rate is expensive.

This is one of the easy parts for English speakers, because Afrikaans is looks and works very similarly here.

Why is duur after is?

Because duur is the adjective describing die tarief, and after is Afrikaans commonly places the adjective in this same kind of pattern:

subject + is
- adjective

So:

Die tarief is duur.
Die kos is lekker.
Die kamer is groot.

This is very similar to English:

The rate is expensive.
The food is tasty.
The room is big.

Why doesn’t duur change form here?

Because here it is being used after the verb is, as a predicate adjective.

In that position, Afrikaans adjectives normally stay in their basic form:

Die tarief is duur.
Die motor is vinnig.
Die huis is groot.

For learners, the key point is simple: after is, the adjective usually appears in its plain dictionary form.

Can duur mean anything else besides expensive?

Yes. Duur can also be a verb meaning to last.

For example:

Die fliek duur twee ure. = The movie lasts two hours.

But in Die tarief is duur, it is clearly an adjective, because it comes after is and describes the tariff/rate.

So here it means expensive, not lasts.

How do you pronounce Die tarief is duur?

A rough English-friendly guide is:

Die ≈ dee
tarief ≈ ta-REEF
is ≈ iss
duur has no exact English equivalent, but you can think of it roughly as düür, with a rounded vowel a bit like German ü

So the whole sentence is roughly:

dee ta-REEF iss düür

The hardest word for most English speakers is duur, because the vowel is not a normal English vowel.

How would I make this sentence negative?

You use Afrikaans nie ... nie negation:

Die tarief is nie duur nie.

That means The rate is not expensive.

This double negative pattern is very common in Afrikaans, so it is worth learning early.

How do I turn it into a question?

Usually you just put the verb first:

Is die tarief duur?

That means Is the rate expensive?

This is very similar to English word order in yes/no questions.

Is the word order always this straightforward?

In simple statements like this, yes:

Die tarief is duur.

That is a very normal Afrikaans sentence pattern.

A helpful rule is that in a main clause, the finite verb tends to stay in the second position. So if something else comes first, is still stays second:

Vandag is die tarief duur. = Today the rate is expensive.

So the basic sentence is simple, but the bigger rule behind it is the Afrikaans verb-second pattern.

Your questions are stored by us to improve Elon.io