Learn a few phrases you can use to understand Afrikaans better
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Intro |
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| Eric: Hi everyone, Eric here, and welcome back to AfrikaansPod101.com. This is Basic Bootcamp Lesson 3 - Useful Phrases for Learning Afrikaans. This is the third in a five-part series that will help you ease your way into Afrikaans. |
| Pieter: Hallo, my naam is Pieter! I’m Pieter! |
| Eric: In this lesson, you’ll learn several essential phrases to help you learn Afrikaans. |
| Pieter: The conversation takes place at a classroom, and it’s between a teacher and a student. |
| Eric: They use formal Afrikaans. Let’s listen to the conversation! |
Lesson conversation |
| Pieter: Verskoon my, hoe sê ek "Cheese" in Afrikaans? |
| Zani: Kaas. |
| Pieter: Sorry, ek verstaan dit nie. Kan u dit herhaal? |
| Zani: Kaas. |
| Pieter: Kan u stadiger praat? |
| Zani: Ka-as. |
| Pieter: Kan u dit vir my opskryf asseblief? |
| Eric: Let’s hear it slowly now. |
| Pieter: Verskoon my, hoe sê ek "Cheese" in Afrikaans? |
| Zani: Kaas. |
| Pieter: Sorry, ek verstaan dit nie. Kan u dit herhaal? |
| Zani: Kaas. |
| Pieter: Kan u stadiger praat? |
| Zani: Ka-as. |
| Pieter: Kan u dit vir my opskryf asseblief? |
| Eric: And now with the translation. |
| Pieter: Verskoon my, hoe sê ek "Cheese" in Afrikaans? |
| Eric: Excuse me, how do you say "Cheese" in Afrikaans? |
| Zani: Kaas. |
| Eric: Cheese. |
| Pieter: Sorry, ek verstaan dit nie. Kan u dit herhaal? |
| Eric: I'm sorry, I didn't understand. Can you repeat that? |
| Female: (slowly) Kaas. |
| Eric: Cheese. |
| Pieter: Kan u stadiger praat? |
| Eric: Can you speak more slowly? |
| Female: Kaas. |
| Eric: Che-ese. |
| Female: Kan u dit vir my opskryf asseblief? |
| Eric: Can you write this down for me, please? |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Pieter: Now you’ll never be at a loss for words again. |
| Eric: That's right. Even if you find yourself in one of the major tourist spots, where people are used to non-Afrikaans speakers, there’s no longer any excuse to not try out these phrases. I guarantee you it will improve your Afrikaans! |
| Pieter: With these expressions, you can make everyone you meet into a walking, talking dictionary. |
| Eric: Of course, that shouldn’t be your main reason to learn these phrases. |
| Pieter: But the South Africans you meet will love the fact that you’re making an effort by trying to communicate in Afrikaans. |
| Eric: Maybe they’ll even give you a tip on how to find your way to some of the other cultural treats that South Africa has to offer. |
| Pieter: Yes, a guidebook can only get you so far, so it’s definitely a good idea to ask the locals where to go for the authentic South African experience. |
| Eric: There are just so many hidden spots that you can’t learn about from a book. |
| Pieter: And there’s no experience quite like totally immersing yourself in another culture. |
| Eric: With these important Afrikaans phrases, you’ll be on your way in no time! |
| Pieter: So, what exactly were all these words? Let's break them down. |
| Eric: Okay, now onto the vocab. |
| Vocabulary and Phrases |
| Eric: Let’s take a look at the vocabulary for this lesson. First we have: |
| Pieter: verskoon my [natural native speed] |
| Eric: excuse me, I'm sorry |
| Pieter: verskoon my [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Pieter: verskoon my [natural native speed] |
| : Next: |
| Pieter: sê [natural native speed] |
| Eric: say |
| Pieter: sê [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Pieter: sê [natural native speed] |
| : Next: |
| Pieter: kaas [natural native speed] |
| Eric: cheese |
| Pieter: kaas [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Pieter: kaas [natural native speed] |
| : Next: |
| Pieter: verstaan [natural native speed] |
| Eric: understand, to understand |
| Pieter: verstaan [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Pieter: verstaan [natural native speed] |
| : Next: |
| Pieter: nie [natural native speed] |
| Eric: not |
| Pieter: nie [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Pieter: nie [natural native speed] |
| : Next: |
| Pieter: kan [natural native speed] |
| Eric: can, to be able to |
| Pieter: kan [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Pieter: kan [natural native speed] |
| : Next: |
| Pieter: herhaal [natural native speed] |
| Eric: repeat, to repeat |
| Pieter: herhaal [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Pieter: herhaal [natural native speed] |
| : Next: |
| Pieter: stadiger [natural native speed] |
| Eric: more slowly |
| Pieter: stadiger [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Pieter: stadiger [natural native speed] |
| : Next: |
| Pieter: praat [natural native speed] |
| Eric: speak, to speak |
| Pieter: praat [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Pieter: praat [natural native speed] |
| : Next: |
| Pieter: vir [natural native speed] |
| Eric: for |
| Pieter: vir [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Pieter: vir [natural native speed] |
| : Next: |
| Pieter: opskryf [natural native speed] |
| Eric: write down |
| Pieter: opskryf [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Pieter: opskryf [natural native speed] |
| : And last: |
| Pieter: asseblief [natural native speed] |
| Eric: please |
| Pieter: asseblief [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Pieter: asseblief [natural native speed] |
| KEY VOCABULARY AND PHRASES |
| Eric: Let’s take a closer look at the usage for some of the words and phrases from this lesson. |
| Pieter: The first one is Verskoon my. With a few exceptions, Verskoon my can be used as "Excuse me" and "I'm sorry." |
| Eric: Could you say that one more time slowly? |
| Pieter: ver-skoon my |
| Eric: Okay. And next. When you make a request or you hand someone something, which word can you use? |
| Pieter: You can use asseblief which means “please” or “here you are.” |
| Eric: So what will they say at customs when they ask for your passport? |
| Pieter: U paspoort asseblief which means “your passport please” |
| Eric: And what will you say when you hand it over? |
| Pieter: asseblief meaning “here you are” |
| Eric: That’s a very useful expression. Okay, now onto the lesson focus. |
Lesson focus |
| Eric: The focus of this lesson is using Afrikaans phrases to learn more Afrikaans. |
| Pieter: The first phrase we had was, Verskoon my, hoe sê ik “Cheese” in Afrikaans? |
| Eric: This means "Excuse me, how do we say Cheese in Afrikaans?" |
| Pieter: The first word is Verskoon my which means "Excuse me" if you put it at the beginning of a question sentence. |
| Eric: But it can also mean "I'm sorry" if you use it in the context of the English "Sorry." |
| Pieter: The next word is hoe Which means "how." |
| Eric: Okay, what’s next? |
| Pieter: Sê. This means "to say." We have, Hoe sê, and you just add ek, meaning “I” to get Hoe sê ek, which literally means "how do I say." And then, just add the word you want to know, followed by “in Afrikaans.“ |
| Eric: which means “in Afrikaans.” All you need here is hope that your companion speaks enough English to understand and say it in Afrikaans for you! |
| Pieter: So all together, we have Verskoon my, hoe sê ek “Cheese” in Afrikaans?” |
| Eric: "Excuse me, how do we say Cheese in Afrikaans?" Okay, Pieter, how would we use the same phrase, but change “cheese” for “ticket”? |
| Pieter:Verskoon my, hoe sê ek “ticket” in Afrikaans? |
| Eric: "Excuse me, how do we say “Ticket” in Afrikaans?" Okay, let's move to the second phrase. |
| Pieter: Sorry, ek verstaan dit nie. Kan u dit herhaal? |
| Eric: I'm sorry, I didn't understand. Can you repeat that? |
| Pieter: The first word is Sorry which has the same meaning as the English “Sorry.” |
| Eric: That’s easy to remember! |
| Pieter: Sure is! Then we have Ek, which in English is the pronoun “I.” |
| Eric: And what’s next? |
| Pieter: We have Verstaan which means "understand". |
| Eric: And the next one is the pronoun meaning “it” right? |
| Pieter: That’s right. Dit, which means “it”. |
| Eric: So all together we have... |
| Pieter: Ek verstaan dit. |
| Eric: Meaning “I understand it.” But we actually need to say “I don’t understand it.” How can we do that? |
| Pieter: You just need to add the word Nie which is like the English word “not.” It makes the sentence negative. So you get Sorry ek verstaan dit nie! |
| Eric: “Sorry, I don’t understand.” |
| Pieter: The next three questions start with Kan u meaning “Can you”, |
| Eric: And the verb meaning “to repeat” is.. |
| Pieter: herhaal. |
| Eric: All together.. |
| Pieter: Kan u dit herhaal? |
| Eric: It means "Can you repeat it?" Great! Let's repeat the whole phrase again. Listeners, listen carefully, and repeat. |
| Pieter: Kan u dit herhaal? |
| Eric: “Can you repeat it?” Let's move to sentence number three. |
| Pieter: It is Kan u stadiger praat? We start again with, Kan u. |
| Eric: Again, it means “Can you.” |
| Pieter: Then we have stadiger, which means "slower." In case you’re wondering how to say "slow" in Afrikaans, it is stadig. |
| Eric: So altogether, we have.. |
| Pieter: Kan u stadiger praat? {pause} |
| Eric: “Can you speak it slowly?” And finally, the last phrase for this lesson. |
| Pieter: Kan u dit vir my opskryf asseblief? |
| Eric: Can you write this down for me, please? |
| Pieter: Here, let’s take a look at the phrase vir my, which means “for me” in English. And next, we have opskryf which literally means "to write down." |
| Eric: And the last one means “please”, right? |
| Pieter: That’s right. Asseblief, means “Please" in Afrikaans. |
| Eric: Listeners, listen to the whole phrase again, and repeat out loud. |
| Pieter: Kan u dit vir my opskryf asseblief?{pause} |
| Eric: “Can you write it down for me?” |
Outro |
| Pieter: Okay, that’s it for this lesson. |
| Eric: Thanks for listening. |
| Pieter: Totsien! |
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