Breakdown of Die verdagte het die beursie gesteel.
hê
to have
die beursie
the wallet
die verdagte
suspect
steel
to steal
Questions & Answers about Die verdagte het die beursie gesteel.
Why does the sentence use het ... gesteel instead of just one past-tense verb?
Afrikaans very often uses the perfect tense where English would simply use the past tense.
So instead of a single word meaning stole, Afrikaans commonly says:
- het = auxiliary verb, like has/have
- gesteel = past participle, like stolen
So:
- Die verdagte het die beursie gesteel. literally: The suspect has stolen the wallet/purse but in normal English meaning: The suspect stole the wallet/purse.
In everyday Afrikaans, this is the normal way to talk about completed past actions.
What exactly is het here?
Het is the present-tense form of the verb hê (to have) used as an auxiliary.
In this sentence it helps form the perfect tense:
- het gesteel = stole / has stolen
Unlike English, Afrikaans does not change het for different persons in the same way English changes has/have. You get:
- Ek het
- Jy het
- Hy het
- Ons het
So het is very common and very useful.
Why is gesteel at the end of the sentence?