Die doellyn is naby.

The try line is nearby.

Breakdown of Die doellyn is naby.

• wees: to be
• naby: near
• die doellyn: try line; goal line

Questions & Answers about Die doellyn is naby.

Is die pronounced like the English word die?

No. In Afrikaans, die is usually pronounced roughly like dee.

That is a very common beginner trap, because it looks exactly like the English word die, but it does not sound the same in Afrikaans.

What does die mean here?

Die is the definite article, so it corresponds to English the.

A useful thing to remember is that Afrikaans does not have different forms for grammatical gender here. English learners often expect something like the/he/she distinctions from other languages, but Afrikaans simply uses die.

It is also used for plural nouns:

• die boek = the book
• die boeke = the books

Why is doellyn written as one word?

Because Afrikaans very often writes compound nouns as one word.

Doellyn is made up of:

• doel = goal
• lyn = line

So Afrikaans joins them into doellyn.

This is very normal in Afrikaans, and English speakers need to get used to compounds being written together more often than in English.