Afrikaans Verbal Morphology
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General Information
Afrikaans verbs do not conjugate by person. The infinitive and present tense are the same, except for the verb wees 'to be', which is is in the present tense, and hê 'to have', which is het in the present tense. The preterite found in Dutch has been repaced by the past perfect, except for wees (preterite was), kan 'can' (preterite kon), sal 'shall' (pret. sou), moet 'must' (pret. moes), and wil 'will' (pret. wou). Also, less commonly, dink 'to think' (pret. dag), and weet 'to know' (pret. wis). Afrikaans has two moods, the indicative and the conditional, and two voices, active and passive.
Perfect Tense
The preterite tense is usually made by way of the perfect. (also common in spoken German). To construct the perfect, the past participle of the verb is added to "het". So, to say "The student wrote", one would take the past participle of "to write" (geskryf), and put het (present of hê 'have') before it: Die student het geskryf.
Now, if you have an object also, the het serves as a "kicker" of sorts, and kicks the past participle to the end of the sentence. So, to say "The student wrote an essay", one would say "Die student het ’n essay geskryf.". No matter how many objects there are, the past participle is always kicked to the end. (This is very similar to German and Dutch.)
Past Participle
To form the past participle, the prefix ge is appended to the infinitive. So, the past participle of skryf 'to write' is geskryf. These words are exceptions, they have different past participles:
- hê (to have), past participle gehad.
- Seperable prefix verbs, like reghelp, which becomes reggehelp.
- Verbs beginning with ver- and ont- stay the same.
Future Tense
The future tense is constructed by putting sal 'shall' (which is also a kicker) plus the infinitive. Examples:
Present: Die student skryf (the student writes).
Future: Die student sal skryf (the student will/shall write.)
The same rules as the preterite apply to the future tense as to objects in the sentence.
Conditional Mood
The conditional mood expresses if an action is going to occur. It is often introduces subordinate clauses. In English, the conditional is expressed by using "would" plus the infinitive. In Afrikaans, it is sou plus the infinitive.
Passive Voice
In the active voice, which all above examples are, the subject is the agent (the doer) of the verb. In the passive voice, the subject is what undergoes the action of the verb. Compare:
Active: "I hit the man." I is the agent, and the subject.
Passive: "I am hit by the man" I is still the subject, but this time is being hit.
In Afrikaans, the passive voice (present tense) is formed by the verb word 'would' (a "kicker") plus the past participle. In the past tense, it is formed by is 'is' (kicker) plus the past participle.
