Die strafskop is moeilik.

to be

Breakdown of Die strafskop is moeilik.

• moeilik: difficult
• die strafskop: penalty kick

Questions & Answers about Die strafskop is moeilik.

Why does the sentence start with die?

Die is the Afrikaans definite article, so here it means the.

A useful thing for English speakers to know is that Afrikaans does not change the definite article for gender or number:

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

So die is much simpler than English the plus gendered systems found in some other languages.

What is strafskop exactly?

Strafskop is a compound noun, which is very common in Afrikaans.

It is made up of:

• straf = penalty / punishment
• skop = kick

So strafskop literally means something like penalty kick.

Afrikaans often writes compounds as one word where English may use two words.

Why is the word order Die strafskop is moeilik?

This is the normal word order for a simple statement in Afrikaans:

subject + verb + complement

So here:

• Die strafskop = subject
• is = verb
• moeilik = complement/adjective

It works very much like English The penalty kick is difficult.