Learn Afrikaans in Australia.
Australia has the biggest South African community outside the United Kingdom: almost 190,000 people born in South Africa, and Afrikaans spoken in close to 50,000 homes from Perth to the Gold Coast. If your partner, your in-laws or your kids’ grandparents speak it, you have heard a lot of Afrikaans and understood less of it than you would like.
Praat teaches the Afrikaans that families actually use, in short lessons built around real situations: greeting someone at the gate, coffee, the braai, a trip to the shops, plans for the weekend. It was made by a South African living abroad, and every phrase is checked by native speakers.
Level 1 is sixteen lessons and free with a free account. Praat Plus opens the rest, priced in New Zealand dollars, which works out cheaper in Australian ones.
Start your first lesson, free →Five to ten minutes. Speaking is always optional.
Eight phrases for the braai.
- Welkom!Welcome!The w is said like an English v, so this greeting opens with a vee sound.
- Kom sit hier.Come and sit here.Two commands can run straight together with no and between them: kom sit, kom kyk, kom eet.
- Wil jy iets drink?Would you like something to drink?Iets means something, and drink is pushed out behind it to the end because of wil.
- Water, asseblief.Water, please.The a is a short ah, nothing like the English aw, and the final r is lightly rolled.
- Wil jy nog hê?Would you like more?Nog here means more or another helping, not still, which is its sense elsewhere.
- Net ’n bietjie, asseblief.Just a little, please.Net means just or only, and ’n bietjie is the standard way to ask for a small amount.
- Die kos is lekker.The food is nice.Kos means food in general, and it is also the verb to cost, so the sentence tells you which.
- Dankie vir die lekker aand.Thank you for the lovely evening.Dankie vir introduces what you are grateful for, and lekker stretches easily to a whole evening.
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 →