Die diefstal het gister gebeur.

The theft happened yesterday.

Breakdown of Die diefstal het gister gebeur.

• hê: to have
• gister: yesterday
• gebeur: to happen
• die diefstal: theft

Questions & Answers about Die diefstal het gister gebeur.

Why are there two dies at the beginning: Die diefstal?

They are two different things:

• The first Die means the.
• The second word is diefstal, which means theft.

So Die diefstal simply means the theft.

It only looks odd because the noun diefstal happens to begin with the same letters as the article die.

What is the basic word order in Die diefstal het gister gebeur?

The sentence follows normal Afrikaans main-clause word order:

• Die diefstal = subject
• het = finite verb / auxiliary
• gister = time expression
• gebeur = main verb (past participle form here)

So the pattern is roughly:

Subject + finite verb + time + main verb

This is very common in Afrikaans main clauses.

Why is het used here?