Afrikaans is the youngest language in the world, having only been in existence since the seventeenth century. It began as the Dutch spoken by working-class farmers and mariners settling at the southernmost tip of Africa. During this era, Africa was a melting pot of cultures from all over the Eastern Hemisphere – from Western and Central Europe down to the Cape of Good Hope – and many representatives of these diverse cultures found themselves intermingling with the Dutch settlers. By the middle of the nineteenth century, an entirely new language had emerged – one that was dependent on Dutch, but had Afrikaans grammar and characteristics.

Let’s take a look at Afrikaans grammar, and see what makes sets it apart from Dutch. For one thing, it’s much simpler than Dutch in many ways. Dutch has two definite articles, while Afrikaans only has one. Afrikaans has only one indefinite article as well.

But it is in the treatment of verbs that Afrikaans grammar displays its sublime simplicity. In Afrikaans, verbs don’t decline; in the present tense, the same verb ending is used regardless of person. To indicate the future tense, just use the word “sal” (shall) and the verb’s infinitive form. Afrikaans also uses fewer tenses than most Germanic languages – another factor which makes Afrikaans easy to learn.

Believe it or not, Afrikaans grammar even has a rule governing the order in which words should be arranged in a sentence. Called the STOMPI rule, it dictates that words should fall in this order: “Subject, First Verb, Time, Object, Manner, Place, Second Verb, Infinitive.” Even if your sentence only uses three or four of those components – say, a subject, first verb, time, and infinitive – you’ll always know the order in which the components are to appear.

Clearly Afrikaans is more than simplified Dutch – it has many unique features, such as the Afrikaans grammar we’ve discussed above, that make it a distinct language. But the two languages do share many common elements, which raises the question of whether speakers of one language can understand the other. In general, it’s easier for a Dutch person to understand Afrikaans than it is for an Afrikaner to understand Dutch, but it wouldn’t take either one long to adapt himself to the other language.

The good news for students of the world’s youngest language is that the structure of Afrikaans grammar makes it easy for anyone to learn, regardless of your native tongue. Give it a try – you’ll be amazed at how quickly you’ll be speaking Afrikaans!

I recommend you use the Byki Afrikaans language course to learn to speak Afrikaans fast starting today. Learning a language can be fun…

Be sure to check out Talk Now Afrikaans from our store.

Also, be sure to check out our post on Learning the Afrikaans Language.

Related posts:

1. Learning Afrikaans Grammar This is a link for a very brief review of...
2. Learning Afrikaans, Month 7: nanowrimo Technically, it should’ve been Month 5: nanowrimo, but the...
3. Learn Spanish Verb Spanish Verb Conjugations, where should we start? Well, the first...
4. Learning Afrikaans, Week 5: Body Parts & Plural Forms Video series charting my progress with Afrikaans. Tags: Afrikaans...
5. Learn Spanish Grammar When learning a new language, it is always useful to...