Word
Het jy ooit beurtkrag ervaar?
Meaning
Have you ever experienced scheduled power cuts?
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Breakdown of Het jy ooit beurtkrag ervaar?
jy
you
hê
to have
ervaar
to experience
die beurtkrag
the scheduled power cuts
Questions & Answers about Het jy ooit beurtkrag ervaar?
What kind of sentence is Het jy ooit beurtkrag ervaar?, and why does it start with het?
It is a yes/no question.
In Afrikaans, the finite verb usually comes first in a direct yes/no question. Here, het is the auxiliary verb meaning have.
So the basic idea is:
- statement order: Jy het ... ervaar.
- question order: Het jy ... ervaar?
That fronting of het is what makes it a question.
Is het jy ... ervaar basically the same as the English present perfect, as in Have you ever experienced ...?
Yes, very close.
Het ... ervaar is the normal Afrikaans perfect construction, and in this sentence it matches English have experienced very well.
A useful thing to remember is that Afrikaans uses this perfect form very often, including in places where English might simply use the past tense. So a learner will see het + main verb a lot.
Why is ervaar at the very end of the sentence?