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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 last lesson, you learned how to ask "where" questions in Afrikaans.
This time, we're going to ask questions with the question word wanneer meaning "when?" Let’s go!
Imagine you want to ask when your roommate is coming back home. You will ask Wanneer kom jy terug?
[slowly] Wanneer kom jy terug?
Let’s break down this question.
First we have wanneer, which is the question word meaning "when" in Afrikaans.
Kom is the verb "to come."
Then jy, which is the word for "you."
And finally terug which is "back."
So, all together it is Wanneer kom jy terug?
"When will you come back?"
Again, as in English, the question word is placed in the first position, then the verb, and then the subject.
So let’s have a look at another example.
How can you say "When did you arrive?"
It’s exactly the same pattern – Wanneer het jy gekom?
[slowly] Wanneer het jy gekom?
[F screen]
First we have Wanneer, which is "when."
The second word is het which is like the word “did” in English and makes the verb into the past tense.
Then we have jy, meaning “you.”
And finally gekom, which means “arrive.”
Did you notice a difference between the sentences Wanneer kom jy terug? and Wanneer het jy gekom?
The first one is talking about a future action – "When are you coming back home?", whereas the second one is referring to the past - "When did you arrive?"
In conclusion, you can use the question word wanneer to talk about any moment, whether past or future.
Now, let’s say you want to meet a friend. How would you ask "When shall we meet?" in Afrikaans? It’s easy because you can translate it directly. It becomes Wanneer sal ons ontmoet?
Wanneer is, of course, the question word “when”
Then sal, which is the verb which means “shall.”
Next we have “we,” which is ons in Afrikaans,
and finally ontmoet, which means “to meet.”
Altogether, Wanneer sal ons ontmoet? means "When shall we meet?"
Now it’s time for Annemarie’s Tips.
To ask how long an action has been taking place in Afrikaans, we say Hoe lank. It sounds a lot like “how long” in English!
And the sentence is similar in structure, too. For example, Hoe lank het jy gewag? That means "How long have you been waiting?"
Ok, so in this lesson, you learned how to correctly use the Afrikaans question word for "when," wanneer, and also a bit about hoe lank. In the next lesson you’ll learn about asking questions with "who” in Afrikaans.
I’ll be waiting for you in the next Afrikaans in 3 minuten lesson. Lekker dag!

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