I Say Tomato...You Say Tamatie...

Oh.  My.  Goodness.

First, I feel for anyone trying to learn English.  I know it is ridiculously hard.  I felt some of your pain today.  The jump from 3rd grade Afrikaans to 4th might put me in the cuh-razy house.  Last year, Noah just had to learn vocabulary.  This first month of 4th grade, though, is huge leap into grammar.

For example, to make a word plural:

1.  If the word ends in "f" and it's a double vowel, you drop one vowel and add "we" to the end.  Stoof becomes stowe.

2.  BUT, if the word ends in "f" and it's a short vowel, you add "wwe" to the end.  Stof becomes stowwe.

3.  BUT, if the word does not end in "f" and has a short vowel, you double the consonant and add an "e."  Hek becomes hekke.

4.  OR, if the word does not end in "f" and has a long vowel, you take away one vowel and add an "e" at the end.  Baan becomes bane.

5.  If there are two vowels and they differ, you just add an "e."  Stoen becomes stoene.

6.  OR, if there are two vowels and they are separated by a consonant, you just add an "s."  Tafel becomes tafels.

I don't even want to begin to explain the rules on how to describe a word to make it smaller.  For example, a cup (kop) versus a small cup (koppie).  BUT, if the word has a short vowel sound and ends in "m" or "n," you double the consonant and add "etjie..."

Unless, OF COURSE, it ends in "m" and there's a long vowel sound, then you just add "pie." Because, what the heebie doo, of course.  Convert THAT into a smaller, plural heebie doo.

Now, the beauty of trying to understand these rules with Noah is that THE ENTIRE LIST OF RULES WAS WRITTEN IN AFRIKAANS.  So, not only did we have to learn the rules, we had to first figure out the explanation of the rules.  OH. MY. GOODNESS.