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Afrikaans

Afrikaans family words

Family words come up early in Afrikaans. Here are two sets: the people at home, like ma, pa, broer and suster, and the wider family, like oom, tannie, neef and niggie. Tap a word to hear it.

Watch the capitals. These words get a capital when they are used as a name, like Ma or Oupa on their own, and a small letter after my, as in my ma. Copy them exactly as the school list writes them: the app checks capitals.

🔊 Tap a word to hear it.

At home

10 words
Practise these words

Opens the free app with these words filled in. Change any word to match your child’s list.

The wider family

10 words
Practise these words

Opens the free app with these words filled in. Change any word to match your child’s list.

Words that work differently from English

familie and gesin both mean family. gesin is the people who live together at home, and familie is all your relatives. neef is a male cousin or a nephew, and niggie is a female cousin or a niece.

oom (uncle) and tannie (aunt) are also polite words children use for any older man or woman, so the neighbour may be tannie too.

How to say them

broer sounds like “broo-r”, with a rolled r. oupa and ouma start with ou, which sounds a bit like the o in go. tannie sounds like “tun-nee”, and dogter has the rough Afrikaans g in the middle, like the ch in loch.

Got this week’s list from school?

Type it in once. The app reads every word out loud and marks your child’s spelling. Free, no sign-up.

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