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Lesson Transcript

Hallo almal! Ek is Annemarie. Hi everybody! I’m Annemarie. Welcome to AfrikaansPod101.com’s Afrikaans in 3 minuten. The fastest, easiest, and most fun way to learn Afrikaans.
In the previous lesson, you learned the most common forms of greetings in Afrikaans. Do you remember them?
In this lesson you’re going to learn a very useful phrase- “Do you speak English?”
If you find yourself in a situation where you need assistance in English, this phrase can be a lifesaver. And because you’re asking it in Afrikaans, you can be sure that everyone will understand what you’re saying, even if their answer is no.
Here's the informal way to say it.
Praat jy Engels?
[slowly] Praat jy Engels?
Here, praat is the verb “to speak”, jy is the informal way of saying “you”
And as you might have recognized - Engels means “English.”
Praat jy Engels?
“Do you speak English?”
Now let’s make this sentence formal, as you’d probably be asking a stranger this question. It’s very easy though, so don’t worry!
You only need to use the formal version of “you”, which is u.
So Praat *jy* Engels? becomes Praat *u* Engels?
[slowly] Praat u Engels?
Adding skuustog, meaning "excuse-me" to the beginning makes the sentence even more polite-
Skuustog, praat u Engels?
[slowly] Skuustog, praat u Engels?
Can you say it?
[slowly] Skuustog
Make the G sound using the back of your throat… “Ggg”
Skuustog
Skuustog, praat u Engels?
Now, the responses you will receive could be one of these three-
Ja. "Yes."
[slowly] Ja.
‘n Biki. "A little."
[slowly] ‘n Biki.
Nee, ek praat nie Engels nie. "No, I don’t speak English."
[slowly] Nee, ek praat nie Engels nie.
Because this last response is a negative statement, you can find the word nie used twice as Afrikaans uses a double negative pattern when saying negative sentences. Ik praat *nie* Engels *nie.*
Now it’s time for Annemarie’s Tips.
For those of you who are not only English speakers, you can use this question with any language you need. South African people study other languages at school, so maybe you'll get lucky! Just substitute Engels with...
Italiaans for ”Italian”.
Duits for “German”.
Spaans for “Spanish”.
Franse for “French”.
In this lesson we mentioned the expression Skuustog. In the next lesson you will learn more about this word and other ways to get someone’s attention and apologize in Afrikaans. I'll see you in the next “Afrikaans in 3 minuten” lesson.
Lekker dag!

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