Learn about the top five mistakes people make when learning Afrikaans
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| Eric: Hello everybody! Welcome back to AfrikaansPod101.com. This is All About, Lesson 12, The Top 5 Afrikaans Classroom Phrases. I’m Eric. |
| Pieter: Hallo, my naam is Pieter. |
| Eric: In this lesson, we’ll review the five most useful classroom phrases for learning Afrikaans. |
| Pieter: There's no better way to learn Afrikaans than to use Afrikaans. |
| Eric: So even if you’re not attending a class, but just studying with some friends, these phrases will be incredibly useful. Now here they are, as promised. The top five phrases for you as you begin to learn Afrikaans are… |
| Pieter: Kan u dit asseblief herhaal? |
| Eric: "Please repeat that." |
| Pieter: Hoe sê ek.... in Afrikaans? |
| Eric: "How do I say…in Afrikaans?" |
| Pieter: Mag ek iets vra ? |
| Eric: "May I ask something?" |
| Pieter: Ek verstaan dit nie. |
| Eric: “I don't understand." |
| Pieter: Kan u dit ‘n bietjie stadiger herhaal? |
| Eric: "Can you repeat that a bit more slowly?" Let's take a closer look at these phrases. What’s the first one? |
| Pieter: Kan u dit asseblief herhaal? |
| Eric: This is useful because you can use it anytime…outside the classroom, too. |
| Pieter: Yes, this will come in handy any time you didn’t catch what someone said and you would like to hear it again. Kan u dit asseblief herhaal? |
| Eric: Can you break this down? |
| Pieter: Kan u means "Can you." The next word, dit, means "it" or "that." The next word, asseblief, means “please,” and the last word, herhaal, means "repeat." |
| Eric: So a literal translation would be something along the lines of "Can you it please repeat?" Okay, now the next phrase. |
| Pieter: Hoe sê ek.... in Afrikaans? |
| Eric: Now this is a great phrase. You get to rediscover the world again through the eyes of an Afrikaans speaker. |
| Pieter: Yes, you will learn very quickly if you point at things and ask a lot of questions. So you can use the "point" method…just point and say Hoe sê ek.... in Afrikaans? Or, if the person you’re talking to knows some English, you can try it like this…Hoe sê ek dog in Afrikaans? |
| Eric: My advice is to write down the answer. Then you can review it later and you won't forget the vocabulary you just learned. |
| Pieter: This phrase will help you learn more Afrikaans words faster. Hoe sê ek.... in Afrikaans? Here we have Hoe which means "how," in Afrikaans. This is followed by sê ek, which is the verb for "I say." After that, you insert the word or point at what you want to know, and last, you say in Afrikaans, which of course is "in Afrikaans.” |
| Eric: Piece of cake! Learn this phrase and you'll always have something to talk about with a South African! |
| Eric: Now the next phrase. |
| Pieter: Mag ek iets vra? |
| Eric: Now, not only is this a great phrase to learn so that you can ask the teacher a question, but it's also a great phrase to get you what you want! |
| Pieter: Oh yes, especially if you need to ask for favors! |
| Eric: Okay, so take us through this one, please. |
| Pieter: Mag ek iets vra? Mag ek, in this case, means "May I," or "Can I.” Iets means “something.” Vra means "to ask." So literally, this means "May I something ask…" |
| Eric: Okay, that phrase might come in handy as well if you need to politely ask where the toilet is. |
| Pieter: Yes, it’s very useful! |
| Eric: Okay, now the next phrase. |
| Pieter: Ek verstaan dit nie. |
| Eric: This phrase can also be used on all occasions. It's one of my personal favorites! |
| Pieter: Yes, sometimes South Africans assume you can understand everything if you know how to say hallo. |
| Eric: But use this phrase and everyone will forgive you for that blank look on your face. |
| Pieter: So let's have a closer look. Ek verstaan dit nie... Ek stands for “I”, "Understand" is verstaan in Afrikaans, dit means “it” and nie here is a negative and translates as "not" so this sentence literally means "I understand it not." |
| Eric: Seriously, this is probably the phrase I’ve used the most during my Afrikaans studies! It's useful and easy to say, so you’ll never be confused again! |
| Pieter: The next phrase is also very handy because South Africans tend to speak very quickly at times. Kan u dit ‘n bietjie stadiger herhaal? |
| Eric: So this useful phrase means "Can you repeat that a bit more slowly." When you're in a group of Afrikaans speakers, you will be very thankful to us for teaching you this phrase! |
| Pieter: Yeah, we go at lightspeed when we talk to each other. |
| Eric: So, Pieter, get us through this one please! |
| Pieter: Sure. First, we have Kan u, which is the polite way of asking "Can you." dit, as we mentioned earlier, is "it" or "this," and herhaal means "repeat." So far, so good! It’s just like the first phrase, but we have added "a little slower," which is n bietjie stadiger. ’n bietjie means "a bit" and stadiger is "more slowly." So literally, we have "Can you it a bit more slowly repeat ?" |
| Eric: It's really fun when South Africans slow down Afrikaans for you too. And the great thing about these phrases is that you can use them right away. |
| Pieter: Yes, they're so practical! |
| Eric: We hope this lesson helped, listeners. Whether you're in an Afrikaans class, on the streets of South Africa, or in your local Afrikaans-speaking community, try them out. Okay, that’s it for this lesson. |
| Pieter: Thank you for listening! |
| Eric: And we’ll see you next time. |
| Pieter: Totsiens! |
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