Fredrik Zhang
Some Afrikaans sentences are confusing 1) jy het jou nie aan Ronel se ouers voorgestel nie. 2) toe jy te veel gedrink het, het jy jou aan die hele geselskap onttrek om op die toilet te gaan slaap. 3)Ek kan my nie voorstel dat die van der Merwes hulle in die minste aan my gedrag gesteur het nie. I can't understand them.
Sep 6, 2011 7:45 PM
Answers · 2
1
Hi Frederik, 1) This first sentence seems to have a fault in it. It should read like this: "Jy het jouself nie aan Ronel se ouers voorgestel nie" It means you didn't introduce yourself to Ronel's parents Ouers = Parents 2) The second sentence literally means: When you had to much to drink, you withdrew yourself from the conversation to go and sleep on the toilet. The word "geselskap" can be interpreted in a few different ways. It can refer to a group of people doing various things together, which is the case in this particular sentence. It also literally means "a conversation". 3) I cant picture to myself that the Van der Merwes would in the least have bothered to notice my behavior. Or you could say "I can't imagine that the Van der Merwes..... It seems the key word here is "voorstel". In the first sentence it refers to introducing yourself to someone, whereas in the 3rd sentence, this same word has a complete different meaning. Kan jy jouself voorstel as jy arm moet wees? - Can you imagine yourself as being poor? Sal jy jouself aan my vriende voorstel? - Will you introduce yourself to my friends? So you have to be careful and learn in which context it is to be correctly applied.
September 14, 2011
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Fredrik Zhang
Language Skills
Afrikaans, Chinese (Mandarin), English, German, Hebrew, Korean, Portuguese, Swiss German
Learning Language
Afrikaans, German, Hebrew, Swiss German