No. 343 in Afrikaans
lees
"Lees" means "read" in English.
In a sentence
Ek lees 'n interessante boek.
I am reading an interesting book.
Here, the word 'lees' is used in its most common sense, meaning 'to read', indicating the action of reading written material.
Hy lees die situasie fyn om beter besluite te neem.
He carefully reads the situation to make better decisions.
In this sentence, 'lees' is used metaphorically, meaning to 'analyze' or 'assess' a situation.
Die lig lees as rooi, so ons moet wag.
The light reads as red, so we must wait.
Here, 'lees' is used to describe interpreting or understanding the state of an indicator, such as a light signal.
Hear it in real podcasts
The recording above is a synthetic voice. Hear how people say “lees” in actual Afrikaans podcasts.
Find “lees” in podcastsLearn it from shows you like
LangTurbo plays Afrikaans podcasts with a transcript and the English under every line. Tap a word like this one and it tells you what it means right there. For iPhone, iPad and Android.
Afrikaans books and courses on Amazon (an affiliate link: a purchase through it supports this site).