Dialogue

Vocabulary

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Lesson Transcript

INTRODUCTION
In this lesson, you'll learn another extremely important phrase, "Do you speak English?" Using this phrase, as opposed to just speaking English to someone, is important for many reasons. For one, if the person you're speaking to doesn't understand English, they'll at least be able to understand what you're asking. Furthermore, it shows a lot of respect on your part that you've made an effort to learn a little bit of the local language. For these reasons and many more, we're going to cover this important phrase.

Lesson focus

In Afrikaans "Do you speak English?" is Praat u Engels? Let's break it down by syllable. (slow) Praat u Engels ?
Praat u Engels?
First we have Praat u, which means, "Do you speak?"
(slow) Praat u,
Praat u,
Praat is a verb meaning "to speak." Here it’s used with the pronoun U, meaning “you.”
Next, we have the word for “English.” In Afrikaans, it’s Engels.
(slow) Engels
Engels
To recap, the whole phrase for "Do you speak English?" is Praat u Engels?
To make your request more polite, you can add “sir” or “ma’am” in Afrikaans.
“Sir” in Afrikaans is meneer, and “ma’am” is mevrou. With these you can say.. Praat u Engels, meneer? “Do you speak English, sir?” or Praat u Engels, mevrou? “Do you speak English, ma’am?”
The phrase we just learned is perfect in a formal setting. So it will sound more polite if you add “Excuse me,” which is verskoon my, at the beginning of the sentence.
Verskoon my. Praat u Engels, meneer.
“Excuse me. Do you speak English, sir?
(slow) Verskoon my. Praat u Engels, meneer.
Verskoon my. Praat u Engels, meneer.
You should always use this phrase with people you don't know or elders.
When speaking to someone you know or people around your own age, we can use a less formal expression to ask “Do you speak English?” Praat jy Engels? Now we'll break it down by syllable.
(slow) Praat jy Engels?
Praat jy Engels?
In this less formal phrase we used the informal second person pronoun jy. Here’s the entire phrase once again.
(slow) Praat jy Engels?
Praat jy Engels?
Now, let's try this phrase with a different language in place of English. Let's try Spanish. In Afrikaans, Spaans is the word for “Spanish.”
(slow) Spaans
Spaans
With this word you can say “Do you speak Spanish?” in Afrikaans. Formally, it’s Praat u Spaans?
(slow) Praat u Spaans?
Praat u Spaans?
Or, informally, you can say Praat jy Spaans?
(slow) Praat jy Spaans?
Praat jy Spaans?

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