Learn how to recognize an implied subject in Afrikaans
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Intro |
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| Antoni: Is it common to omit the subject in Afrikaans sentences? |
| Dewan: And why? |
| Antoni: At AfrikaansPod101.com, we hear these questions often. Imagine a scene where Carolina Van der Merwe is apologizing to her friend Sasha Lee. She apologizes by saying, |
| "I'm sorry." |
| Carolina Van der Merwe: Ek is jammer. |
| Dialogue |
| Carolina Van der Merwe: Ek is jammer. |
| Sasha Lee: Geen probleem. |
| Antoni: Once more with the English translation. |
| Carolina Van der Merwe: Ek is jammer. |
| Antoni: "I'm sorry." |
| Sasha Lee: Geen probleem. |
| Antoni: "No worries." |
Lesson focus |
| Antoni: In this lesson, we are going to be discussing whether it is common to omit the subject in Afrikaans sentences or not. We’ll also look at the reasons for this. |
| Afrikaans is what is called a non-null-subject language. What that means, in short, is that, in Afrikaans, just like in English, one does not usually omit the subject in sentences. Languages where it is acceptable to omit the subject in independent clauses are called null-subject languages. While Afrikaans is not one of these, there are instances in which it is common, and even expected, for the subject to be dropped. We will be looking at a few of these constructions. |
| One area in which it is common to omit the subject in a sentence in Afrikaans is when you're greeting another person or persons. For instance, in Afrikaans, when someone is leaving by car, a common greeting is |
| Dewan: Mooi ry! |
| Antoni: This translates directly to “beautiful drive,” but it actually implies that the speaker is wishing the person a safe and uneventful drive. In this case, it is acceptable to omit the subject. A similar greeting is |
| Dewan: Mooi bly! |
| Antoni: which means “stay well” and is said when you are the person leaving and the other person is staying. |
| Another context in which it is common to omit the subject is when using the imperative in Afrikaans. For instance, “Go away!” in Afrikaans is |
| Dewan: Gaan weg! |
| Antoni: As you can hear, there is no subject in that command. If one did add a subject pronoun, it would be for emphasis, as in |
| Dewan: Gaan weg, jy! |
| Antoni: which is “Go away, you!” in English. Similarly, a command like “Be quiet!” or |
| Dewan: Bly stil! |
| Antoni: can be given emphasis by adding the pronoun for “you.” It would then sound like this: |
| Dewan: Bly stil, jy! |
| Antoni: or “Be quiet, you!” |
| There are certain colloquial expressions that also allow the user to drop the subject. Consider this one, for instance: |
| Dewan: Lief jou! |
| Antoni: This translates directly to “Love you!” There is a good chance that this is actually an anglicism. Just for the record, the full Afrikaans sentence, with the subject included, would be |
| Dewan: Ek is lief vir jou. |
| Antoni: Sometimes, in Afrikaans, you can omit the subject if you are replying to a question such as “How are you?” or |
| Dewan: Hoe gaan dit met jou? |
| Antoni: This question translates to “How’s it going with you?” and a common answer would be |
| Dewan: Goed, dankie, |
| Antoni: which means “good, thanks." The full reply might have been “I’m good, thanks” |
| or |
| Dewan: Dit gaan goed met my, dankie. |
| Antoni: This doesn’t mean that only questions about one’s health in the context of a greeting can be answered in this way. It’s quite common to answer questions and omit the subject. Imagine, for instance, someone asking a friend, “Where are you going?” or |
| Dewan: Waarheen gaan jy? |
| Antoni: It would be perfectly acceptable to answer this question by simply replying, “Home” or |
| Dewan: Huistoe. |
| Antoni: The full reply in this instance would have been “I am going home” or |
| Dewan: Ek gaan huistoe. |
| Antoni: Now, you have a better idea of how subject omission occurs in Afrikaans. Let’s have a look at the dialogue for this lesson and discuss what they said. |
| [Recall 1] |
| Antoni: Do you remember how Carolina says, "I'm sorry"? |
| (pause 4 seconds) |
| Dewan as Carolina Van der Merwe: Ek is jammer. |
| Antoni: Here Carolina is saying, “I’m sorry,” but, just as with English, she could also simply have said, “Sorry!” or |
| Dewan: Jammer! |
| Antoni: We will assume that maybe she wanted to be more polite or formal, in which case the dropping of the subject would not be a good thing because it comes across as less formal. |
| [Recall 2] |
| Antoni: Now, let’s take a look at our second sentence. |
| Do you remember how Sasha says "No worries"? |
| (pause 4 seconds) |
| Dewan as Sasha Lee: Geen probleem. |
| Antoni: The direct translation of Sasha’s reply would be “no problem” and the extended sentence would probably be, “I have no problem” or |
| Dewan: Ek het geen probleem nie. |
| Antoni: As you can hear, the subject has been dropped in order to form the colloquial expression. |
| [Summary] |
| Antoni: In this lesson, you learned that it is not common to omit the subject in Afrikaans sentences. Afrikaans is similar to English in this regard because both of these languages are non-null-subject languages, which means that they require a subject in most sentences. That said, there are certain contexts in which the subject can be omitted in Afrikaans. These contexts include greetings, instructions, or commands, answers to certain questions, and colloquialisms. Let’s have a look at some more examples of these. Another version of the greeting |
| Dewan: Mooi bly, |
| Antoni: for instance, is |
| Dewan: Lekker bly. |
| Antoni: The word |
| Dewan: lekker |
| Antoni: is a good one to learn if you don’t already know it. This is because it is incredibly versatile and can be used in many expressions. It means “nice” or “good” and has even become a slang word in South African English. We will say a bit more about this later. Now, let’s talk about what you can say if someone is doing something unpleasant. You can tell them to |
| Dewan: Hou op! |
| Antoni: or “Stop it." This is another example of how the subject is dropped when using the imperative. And here’s another example of an answer to a question that leaves out the subject. The question is, “What are you looking for?” or |
| Dewan: Wat soek jy? |
| Antoni: And the answer is “My glasses!” or |
| Dewan: My bril! |
| Antoni: When it comes to colloquialisms that omit the subject in Afrikaans, there aren’t that many. In fact, the ones we’ve been able to think of so far are likely to be anglicisms. This one, for instance, is also probably an anglicism: |
| Dewan: Klink goed. |
| Antoni: This is just like the English “sounds good,” and it is said in response to suggestions, such as “Let’s go out tonight,” or |
| Dewan: Kom ons gaan vanaand uit. |
| Antoni: The important thing to remember is that these examples of the subject being dropped are the exceptions, not the rule. The question that we asked at the beginning of this lesson was: Is it common to omit the subject in Afrikaans sentences? And, as you will have now learned, the answer is, “No, it is not common." |
| Expansion/Contrast (Optional) |
| Antoni: A common exclamation in South Africa is |
| “Local is lekker." This is just one of many expressions in which the word |
| Dewan: lekker |
| Antoni: is used in South Africa. As we mentioned before, it means “nice” or “good” in many contexts, but its original meaning is “delicious” or “tasty,” and it was used to refer to food. In modern parlance, it still refers to tasty food, but it is used only in informal situations and can even be used as an informal affirmation, such as in response to a question like, “How’s it going?" |
| Dewan: Lekker, man. |
| Antoni: This is another example of the subject being omitted. This quite a common occurrence when this word is used–probably because it’s used in so many informal expressions. Here’s another example: |
| Dewan: Hoe was die partytjie? |
| Antoni: This question means, “How was the party?” and the answer can be as simple as |
| Dewan: Lekker, dankie. |
| Antoni: As you can tell, it really is a very versatile word, and it is practically ubiquitous in Afrikaans as well as in South African English. |
| Cultural Insight/Expansion (Optional) |
| Antoni: In this lesson, we also talked about imperatives that omit the subject and one of the most expressive, and effective, imperatives is the Afrikaans word |
| Dewan: voertsek! |
| Antoni: which is also pronounced |
| Dewan: voetsek! |
| Antoni: It is a rather offensive word if you direct it at a person. It means “go away,” but it is usually directed at dogs or other creatures that happen to be annoying. Interestingly, it is based on the expression |
| Dewan: voort sê ek |
| Antoni: which means “Onward, I say!” and was probably used by the Boer people when talking to the animals that used to draw their wagons. Most South African people would agree that this expression is far more assertive than any equivalent English expression. Hence, it should be used with caution. |
Outro |
| Antoni: Do you have any more questions? We’re here to answer them! |
| Dewan: Totsiens! |
| Antoni: See you soon! |
| Credits: Dewan (Afrikaans, Pietermaritzburg), Antoni (English, synthetic voice) |
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