Die voorval het vanaand gebeur.

to have

Breakdown of Die voorval het vanaand gebeur.

• vanaand: tonight
• gebeur: to happen
• die voorval: incident

Questions & Answers about Die voorval het vanaand gebeur.

Why does the sentence start with die? Does Afrikaans have different words for the depending on gender?

Die is the Afrikaans definite article, meaning the.

A very learner-friendly feature of Afrikaans is that die does not change for grammatical gender. In other words, you do not have to learn separate forms like in some other European languages.

So:

• die voorval = the incident
• die man = the man
• die vrou = the woman
• die kinders = the children

The same form die is used very widely for both singular and plural nouns.

What does voorval mean exactly? Is it the same as event?

Voorval usually means something like incident, occurrence, or event.

It often suggests that something specific happened, and very often something notable, unexpected, or possibly unpleasant. So incident is often a very good English match.

Compared with a broad word like event, voorval can sound a bit more specific and concrete.

Why is the past expressed with het ... gebeur instead of a simple past form?