Die steek is klein.

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Breakdown of Die steek is klein.

• wees: to be
• die steek: stitch

Questions & Answers about Die steek is klein.

What does die mean here, and why is it capitalized?

Die is the Afrikaans definite article, equivalent to English the.

It is capitalized here only because it is the first word of the sentence. In the middle of a sentence, it would normally be written die, not Die.

A useful thing to know is that Afrikaans uses die much more simply than many other languages:

• no grammatical gender changes
• no case changes
• the same form is also used with plural nouns

So die is a very flexible article.

Is die pronounced like the English word die?

No. As an article, die is usually pronounced roughly like dee.

That often surprises English speakers, because it is spelled the same as the English verb die, but it is a completely different word.

So in this sentence, you should not read it like English die steek is klein. Think dee ... is klein instead.

Why is is the same as in English?