English Afrikaans Dictionary
Free offline English-Afrikaans dictionary with 12,000+ words. Translate instantly without internet. Great for travelers to South Africa.
Key Features
100% Offline
Look up Afrikaans words anytime, anywhere — no internet connection needed.
Fast Search
Instant results as you type. Find the word you need in milliseconds.
Completely Free
No hidden costs, no subscriptions, no in-app purchases required.
Android & iOS
Available on both Google Play Store and Apple App Store.
12,000+ Words
A rich database of 12,000+ words and phrases for thorough translations.
Bidirectional
Search from English to Afrikaans or Afrikaans to English seamlessly.
About English Afrikaans Dictionary
This English-Afrikaans dictionary provides offline access to over 12,000 words. Afrikaans is one of the 11 official languages of South Africa and is also spoken in Namibia.
About Afrikaans
Afrikaans is spoken by about 7.2 million people as a first language, primarily in South Africa and Namibia. It evolved from Dutch and is the youngest Germanic language, having developed in the 17th-18th centuries.
Who is this app for? Travelers to South Africa, Afrikaans learners, South African diaspora.
Dutch with the grammar filed off
Afrikaans developed from the Dutch spoken by settlers at the Cape from the seventeenth century, with input from Malay, Portuguese, Khoisan languages and others. What emerged is recognisably Dutch in vocabulary and dramatically simplified in grammar.
Verbs do not conjugate for person or number at all — the same form serves for I, you, he, we and they. Grammatical gender is gone. The past tense is largely formed with one auxiliary plus a participle rather than a set of endings. For an English speaker, and especially for a Dutch or German speaker, Afrikaans is one of the fastest-acquired languages available.
The double negative
The most distinctive grammatical feature is obligatory double negation. Ek verstaan nie is "I do not understand", but a longer sentence requires nie twice, bracketing the clause: the first marks the negation, the second closes it at the end.
This is not optional or emphatic, as a double negative would be in English. Leaving out the second nie is simply ungrammatical, and it is the error that most reliably marks a learner.
Who speaks it
Afrikaans has roughly seven million first-language speakers and a large number more who use it as a second language, principally in South Africa and Namibia. It is one of South Africa's eleven official languages.
Its speaker community is diverse and frequently misdescribed abroad: a substantial proportion of first-language Afrikaans speakers are Coloured South Africans, particularly in the Western and Northern Cape, and the language's history and politics are correspondingly more complicated than a summary can carry.
Frequently Asked Questions
How similar is Afrikaans to Dutch?
Very close in vocabulary and much simpler in grammar. Dutch speakers generally understand written Afrikaans with little difficulty, while Afrikaans speakers can find spoken Dutch harder. Afrikaans dropped verb conjugation and grammatical gender entirely.
What is the double negative in Afrikaans?
Afrikaans requires nie twice in most negative sentences, bracketing the clause — one marking the negation and one closing it. This is obligatory rather than emphatic, and omitting the second nie is ungrammatical.
Is Afrikaans easy for English speakers?
Among the easier options. Verbs do not conjugate for person or number, there is no grammatical gender, and much vocabulary is recognisable from English and German. The double negative and word order take the most adjustment.
Where is Afrikaans spoken?
Mainly South Africa and Namibia, with roughly seven million first-language speakers and many more second-language users. It is one of South Africa's eleven official languages and its speaker community is considerably more diverse than is often assumed abroad.
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