Cellar Door - Afrikaans in 1 year

[Jaleel10]

dié = not sure about this one, further research needed

Damn, I remember in Grade 12 we received a shitty pdf of a 500-page, 1993 Afrikaans grammar reference. The legality of which I am not entirely sure of You made me delve into the virtual attic that is my Google Drive folder. I hope this helps you:

Afr.jpg

Geniet die naweek

[Cellar Door]

Baie dankie!

I did a reverse google search and found that grammar book. Information overload!

Update

I am over 175 words in Anki and cruising along well. I have ~800 on my "must learn for beginners" list. I am adding 20 new words per day so I am making good progress. I am going to wrap up chapter 1 in CA and start looking at chapter 2, which dives into verbs.

[Cellar Door]

Today I covered 30 new words and reviewed 120. I am starting to get ~120 word reviews per day and I am finding that I am at about 90% retention. Once I get these 800 basic words down I am going to be doing well.

I also started chapter 2 in CA. The dialogues are already getting much more complicated so it looks like these lessons are going to take longer than anticipated.

The first grammar lesson in this chapter is forming plurals. Luckily, it seems pretty easy. Most words you just add -e, but there are many exceptions that add -s, and my sources say these must be memorized. There are also two rules about what happens when you have short vowels and twin vowels before a word-final consonant. No sense in trying to memorize this stuff - I'm just going to keep rolling and eventually I will get used to it.

Kan ek u help, Mevrou?
Can I help you, ma'am?
Nee, dankie. Ek kyk net.
No thanks. I'm just looking.
Ekskuus tog, Meneer. Wat kos hierdie reënjasse?
Excuse me, sir. How much are these raincoats?
Hulle is op die uitverkoping. Hulle is op die oomblik baie goedkoop. Hulle was R120 en kos nou net R75.
They're on sale. They are very cheap at the moment. They were R120 but now they are R75.
O! Dis rêrig goedkoop. Gee vir my een van dié reënjasse, asseblief, 'n medium.
Oh! That's really cheap. Give me one of these raincoats, please, a medium.
Sal ek dit in 'n sak sit?
Shall I put it in a bag?
Ja, asseblief.
Yes, please
Baie dankie, Mevrou
Thank you, ma'am
Baie dankie, Meneer
Thank you, sir
Plesier. Tot siens. Geniet die dag.
My pleasure. Goodbye. Have a nice day.

[Cellar Door]

From Easy Afrikaans - Afrikaans verbs are in some ways simpler than English verbs because they do not decline and there are only three main tenses. These are past, present and future.

Best news I've ever heard while learning a language

Present Tense
No declinations and the only irregulars are hê and wees

Past Tense
Use the particle het and attach -ge to the main verb (which is normally the last word in the sentence)
Verbs beginning with -be, -er, -her, -ont, and -ver don't attach -ge. Irregulars are again hê (het) and wees (was)

Future Tense
gaan = going to
sal = will

Examples
Ek lees die boek
Ek het die boek gelees
Ek gaan lees die boek

[Jaleel10]

Ek gaan lees die boek

This is like one of those where you could have also said ''Ek gaan die boek lees'' Any verb paired with any of the following auxiliary verbs: bly, gaan, kom, laat & loop, can either be at the end or paired with auxiliary verb.

Toe bly sit die kinders onder die boom vs Toe bly die kinders onder die
boom sit.

Kom ons gaan drink 'n bier/Kom ons gaan 'n bier drink

Because 99% of Afrikaans sentences follow the rule that 'main verb is always at the end when there is an auxiliary verb present' it sounds more natural (or it will come more natural to you) to say Ek gaan die boek lees. But no one would and should correct you if it's paired with those 5 auxiliary verbs

[Cellar Door]

I'd rather follow one rule instead of trying to remember tons of exceptions so if it is more natural to say Ek gaan die boek lees, that is what I will use. Would you also say Ek sal die book lees?

Baie dankie!

[Cellar Door]

Glanced at my word list and realized I am at 270 words! (which is 540 flashcards!!!). I am still stuck on chapter 2 of CA - I am trying to absorb the dialogues and grammar points as much as possible before I move on.

On a learning note, I have decided that I am going to strictly focus on Colloquial Afrikaans (+CDs), a dictionary, and tutoring on italki. I was wasting too much time going through different resources and frankly, it was information overload. There are some serious gaps in this current source, but I want to finish this book and then I can go back and fill in.

Luckily, Afrikaans grammar isn't super complicated and I can already pick out patterns when I read basic texts.

[qeadz]

During my school years Afrikaans was the one subject which I was borderline failing each year. In my final year of school we were going to do 10 minute unprepared speeches in front of the class, and the fear of that day actually kept me up at night.

Luckily my family emigrated just a few weeks prior, avoiding a likely failing-grade train-wreck.

Funny thing is that I can still understand some spoken Afrikaans _all_ these years later. Its been 20 years!

So I don't think its hard at all for an English speaking person to learn. I was very lazy at school. I put no effort in and didn't care for it. Yet I'm still able to read/comprehend some everyday speech. So, despite my school-year experiences, I think you'll do well! Just be careful to work on pronunciation - the deeper vowel sounds which are typical for a South African accent are important (IMHO).

[Elenia]

Cool to see someone learning Afrikaans! I have a couple of Afrikaans speakers in my life, and I've always wanted to give the language a try, but I felt like I should go for Dutch first. As Dutch seems to refuse to allow itself to be added into my study, I've decided 'come what may'. And seeing as I've already consumed about 150% more Afrikaans media than Dutch...

[Cellar Door]

Anton, wat wil jy vanaand doen?
Anton, what do you want to do tonight?
Niks nie. Ek is gedaan. Ek wil net by die huis bly.
Nothing. I am exhausted. I just want to stay at home.
Ag nee, man, ons kan dit nie doen nie. Dis Jannie se verjaarsdag. Ons moet iets doen, en ek wil ook iets doen, maar wat?
Oh no, husband, we can't do that. It's Jannie's birthday. We have to do something, and I also want to do something, but what?
Jy mag doen wat jy wil, maar ek gaan doen wat ek wil - ek kan nie en wil nie uitgaan nie.
You may do what you want, but I am going to do what I want - I can't and don't want to go out tonight.

---

I'm not sure if the author did this on purpose, but this dialogue seems very unnatural.

1. Ek wil net by die huis bly = I've noticed that Afrikaans uses articles where english does not - something to be aware of.
2. Is "man" the common word a wife would call a husband?
3. Is the past tense form on "mag" - "mog"? i.e. Ek mog al die kos eet.