Die speler voorkom 'n drie.

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Breakdown of Die speler voorkom 'n drie.

• die speler: the player
• die drie: rugby try
• voorkom: to prevent

Questions & Answers about Die speler voorkom 'n drie.

Why does the sentence start with Die? Does it mean the?

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

A few useful points:

• Die is used for singular and plural nouns.
• Afrikaans does not have different forms like English the vs gendered articles such as German der/die/das.
• It is capitalized here only because it is the first word of the sentence. In the middle of a sentence, it would normally be die.

What does speler mean, and how is it formed?

Speler means player.

It is built from:

• speel = to play
• -er = a common ending meaning someone who does the action

So:

• speel → speler
• similar to English play → player

This -er pattern is very common in Afrikaans.

Why is the verb voorkom not changed to match die speler? Shouldn't it have a special he/she/it form?