Learn how to say "not" and "don't have"
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| 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 our previous lessons, you learned how to use the verbs is and het. In this lesson, you’re going to learn how to turn these two verbs into their negative forms in order to say "I'm not" and "I don't have." |
| So let's have an example. Imagine you are about to go to a party with a South African friend. You ask him if he’s ready, and he answers Nee, ek is nie klaar nie. That means “No, I’m not ready.” |
| Next, you ask him if he has a car to use to go to the party and he says Nee, ek het nie ‘n kar nie. “No, I don’t have a car.” |
| Not having much luck with your friend, are you? Well, let’s turn things around for the better. |
| Say he *is* ready and *has* a car. This time he’ll say Ek is klaar. meaning “I’m ready.” and Ek het ‘n kar. meaning “I have a car.” |
| Now, let’s compare these sentences with their negative counterparts. |
| Ek is klaar. |
| Nee, ek is nie klaar nie. |
| Ek het ‘n kar. |
| Nee, ek het nie ‘n kar nie. |
| As you can see, in order to turn a sentence negative, first we add the word nee which simply means “no.” Then we just add *two* nie’s which also means “no” or “not” in English. As a general rule, the first nie comes after the subject and the verb, and the second is *always* positioned at the end of the sentence. |
| Nee, ek is nie klaar nie. |
| Nee, ek het nie ‘n kar nie. |
| So now, how would you say "I don't like this restaurant?" For reference, “I like this restaurant” is Ek hou van die restaurant. |
| To make the sentence negative, put nie after hou and at the end of the sentence. Ek hou nie van die restaurant nie. “I don’t like this restaurant.” |
| [slowly] Ek hou nie van die restaurant nie. |
| Easy, don't you think? So now you can turn many sentences into their negative form just by adding the little word nie. |
| Now it’s time for Annemarie’s Tips. |
| To make your sentence more precise, you can simply say a subject, a verb, and then nie meaning “not.” For example, if you want to say “She doesn’t read,” simply say sy lees meaning “She reads” and add the negative nie - Sy lees nie. “She doesn’t read." |
| Get ready for the next lesson because we are going to study a really important part of the Afrikaans language - using adjectives. |
| I’ll be waiting for you in the next Afrikaans in 3 minuten lesson. Lekker dag! |
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