Die vlooi is klein.

The flea is small.

Breakdown of Die vlooi is klein.

• klein: small
• wees: to be
• die vlooi: flea

Questions & Answers about Die vlooi is klein.

Why is Die capitalized?

Because it is the first word of the sentence. In normal Afrikaans, die is not capitalized unless it begins a sentence or is part of a title.

What is die doing in this sentence?

Here, die is the definite article, the word for the.

A useful thing to know is that Afrikaans uses die for:

• singular nouns
• plural nouns
• all genders

So Afrikaans does not make distinctions like de/het in Dutch or der/die/das in German.

How is die pronounced in Afrikaans?

In Afrikaans, die is pronounced roughly like dee.

That is very important for English speakers, because it is not pronounced like the English verb die.

Why is the verb is the same as in English?