hulle

Hulle is the Afrikaans third-person plural personal pronoun and possessive determiner, used to refer to more than one person or thing. It covers the English equivalents they, them, and their, depending on the grammatical function in a sentence.

As a subject pronoun, hulle refers to the people or things previously mentioned or understood from context. For example: Hulle gaan na die winkel. They are going to the store. As an object pronoun, hulle can follow or be the object of a verb or preposition: Ek sien hulle. I see them. As a possessive determiner, hulle marks ownership: Hulle huis is baie groot. Their house is very large. In predicative use, hulle can stand after a copular verb to express possession or identity: Dit is hulle. That is theirs.

Hulle does not change form for case or number, making it a relatively simple pronoun to use. It is used across dialects and registers in Afrikaans, from everyday speech to formal writing.

Etymology and relation to other languages: Afrikaans developed from Dutch and other influences in South Africa and Namibia, and hulle is inherited as the common third-person plural pronoun. In Dutch, the equivalent pronouns have distinct forms for subject and object, but Afrikaans uses hulle for multiple functions, similar to how some other languages consolidate pronoun roles.

Usage notes: Be mindful not to confuse hulle with jy/ julle, which are second-person pronouns meaning you (plural). Context and sentence structure usually clarify who is being referred to. Overall, hulle is a versatile, standard element of Afrikaans grammar.