Keeping your kids’ Afrikaans alive overseas.
Most South African families abroad watch the same thing happen: the children understand every word of Afrikaans and answer in English. By high school the Afrikaans is passive, and a phone call to Ouma is hard work. Playgroups and story hours help, but they are once a week and only in some towns.
Praat gives you five minutes a day at the kitchen table. The lessons are everyday moments a child recognises, breakfast, where did my shoes go, coffee for the grown-ups, the weekend plan, with the Afrikaans first and the English underneath. A parent who speaks Afrikaans can do it with a child who does not; a Kiwi parent can learn alongside them. Speaking practice is there when they want it and never forced.
Level 1 is free with a free account. A pay-once plan makes a good gift from a grandparent.
Start your first lesson, free →Five to ten minutes. Speaking is always optional.
Around the house.
- Waar is my sleutels?Where are my keys?Sleutels is plural, yet is stays exactly as it is; the verb never changes to match.
- Op die tafel.On the table.Op is for resting on a surface, and a short answer like this needs nothing built around it.
- Onder die stoel.Under the chair.Position words come first and the thing second: onder die stoel, onder die bed, onder die trap.
- Langs die deur.Next to the door.Langs is the everyday beside; naas means much the same but sounds decidedly formal.
- Ek kan dit nie kry nie.I cannot find it.The nie ... nie frame is the heart of Afrikaans negation, and the second nie closes the sentence.
- Kan jy my help?Can you help me?Kan opens the question and help drops to the end, leaving my in the middle.
- Hier is dit.Here it is.Hier is puts the verb ahead of the subject, which is how dit ends up last.
- Ek het dit gekry.I found it.Het plus a ge- word makes the past, and gekry waits at the end of the sentence.
At breakfast.
- Wat wil jy eet?What would you like to eat?Wil parks the second verb eet at the end, which is where Afrikaans likes to keep it.
- Ek wil eiers hê.I would like eggs.With wil the hê drops to the end, leaving the thing you want sitting in the middle.
- Ek wil brood hê.I would like bread.Brood needs no a or the in front of it, just as bread often stands bare in English.
- Ek is honger.I am hungry.Afrikaans pairs honger with is, so you say you are hunger rather than that you have it.
- Wil jy vrugte hê?Would you like fruit?Vrugte is already the plural; you would rarely hear the singular vrug at a breakfast table.
- Ek hou van appels.I like apples.Hou van is a fixed pair for liking, and the van can never be left out.
- Ek is vol, dankie.I am full.Adding dankie keeps this friendly; vol on its own can sound like a complaint about the portion.
- Dit proe lekker.It tastes good.Proe describes how something tastes. Dit smaak lekker is also correct; this course uses Dit proe lekker for everyday conversation.
How Praat works.
- 1Hear it. Real situations: the gate, the braai, the shop, the phone call home.
- 2Say it. Practise out loud when you want to, with help that listens.
- 3Remember it. Short reviews bring the words back before you forget them.
Built by a South African in New Zealand.
Praat was made for a Kiwi partner who wanted to follow the conversation. Level 1, sixteen lessons, is free with a free account. Praat Plus opens the rest of the course and the voice coach.
Try the first lesson →