Die waarde is belangrik.

to be

Breakdown of Die waarde is belangrik.

• belangrik: important
• die waarde: the value

Questions & Answers about Die waarde is belangrik.

What does die mean here, and is it pronounced like English die?

No. In this sentence, die is the definite article, meaning the.

It is not pronounced like the English verb die. In Afrikaans, die is usually pronounced roughly like dee.

So:

• die waarde = the value

Why is it die waarde and not something like de waarde or het waarde?

Afrikaans uses one main definite article: die for all nouns.

Unlike some other languages:

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

So you get:

• die waarde = the value
• die waardes = the values

This is much simpler than Dutch or German article systems.

What part of speech is waarde?