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Here is a list of books that I’ve collected over the years about learning Afrikaans which you might find helpful.

Seeing as Johan on the Yahoo Learn Afrikaans group posted it on the discussion page I realised I hadn’t updated it for a while.

TEACH YOURSELF BOOKS

Teach Yourself Afrikaans – Lydia McDermott (link)
This came out in 2005 and comes with two CDs. This and Colloquial Afrikaans (see below) are the best books avilable I think. Highly recommended.

Colloquial Afrikaans – Bruce Donaldson (link)
This is an excellent book. Bruce Donaldson is a professor at the Department of Germanic Studies at the University of Melbourne and also wrote the Colloquial Dutch book in the series. Ignore some of the the reviews on Amazon which seem to have bee written by people who tried to learn the language just through the CDs. It covers pretty much all you need to know. Highly recommended.

Teach Yourself Afrikaans – Helena van Schalkwyk (link)
First book I used. It’s pretty good, but a bit dated and doesn’t come with CD or cassette.

Collins Afrikaans Phrasebook (link)
This is quite a good little phrasebook which pretty much sums up all you need to know about the whole language really.

A Grammar of Afrikaans – Bruce Donaldson (link)
It costs £100 but it is excellent. It is the definitive grammar book available.

The Development of Afrikaans – Fritz Ponelis (link)
An interesting and comprehensive study of the development of the language with selected texts illustrating the linguistic changes.

A Reference Grammar of Afrikaans – George Carcas (link)
For £5 this is an absolute bargain. It’s only 48 pages long as well. Recommended.

Afrikaans: A Handbook and Study Aid – Beryl Lutrin (link)
Not sure how I found it but it cost £5 including postage from South Africa. Excellent little book really, explains the grammar so well. Highly recommended.

Teach Yourself Afrikaans – MPO Burgers (link)
This was first published in 1957 and it shows. Still, it is comprehensive and I bought it on Amazon Zshops for £5.

Learn to Speak Afrikaans – PWJ Groenewald (link)
It’s an old one based on the 1,000 words methods. You can buy it cheaply online and in some bookshops.

Praat en Skryf Afrikaans – PWJ Gorenewald
Not entirely dissimilar to Learn to Speak Afrikaans. It includes exercises and grammar and is all explained in Afrikaans. Available usually second hand on Amazon.

Afrikaans Self-taught: By the Natural Method with Phonetic Pronunciation (Thimm’s System) – Leonard van Os (link)
First published in 1927 and has just been republished. Has phonetic pronunciation guide. It’s cheap at least.

Painless Afrikaans – George Holloway (link)
Another old book from the 1960s. The unintentionally funny title aside, it’s pretty decent actually.

How To Say It In Afrikaans – A phrase book for English-speaking Immigrants/Hoe Om Dit In Afrikaans Te Sê – ‘n Fraseboek vir Engels-sprekende immigrate
Got it second hand on Amazon, as it says it’s just a phrase book.

Afrikaans audiobook (link)
Two cassettes and phrasebook. Not much use to be honest.

Vlot Afrikaans – Vir Standerd 3 – MA Basson.
Another school book with texts and exercises all in Afrikaans. Available at times on Amazon.

Form and Meaning in Word Formation: Study of Afrikaans Reduplication (Cambridge Studies in Linguistics) – Rudolf Botha (link)
I got this cheap somewhere. I haven’t read it in details because it’s a doctoral piece but it is quite interesting.

HIGCSE Afrikaans Eerste Taal Module 1 – Cambridge University Press
Course book for HIGCSE Afrikaans. Available on Amazon, Play and Ebay usually.

Brush up your Afrikaans – Jan Nieuwoudt Tromp
I bought this on Amazon Zshops. It’s unintentionally amusing in an almost Jeeves and Wooster-way and very dated as it was first published in 1941.

Talk Now! Learn Afrikaans (link)
I never liked this one, frankly. I just don’t like computer-based learning but it seems everyone else does now.

Kommunikeer in Afrikaans 6
Was given this by someone on the Internet. It’s a school book but not bad.

Leer Afrikaans: Standerd IX-X – H Askes
Bought this in Foyle’s in London. It’s quite basic.

Leer Afrikaans Makliker – F Strydom, M Heyns, S Potggieter
My grandmother in Johannesburg sent me this. Lots of texts in Afrikaans.

Afrikaans – Conversaphone
One cassette and phrasebook. Bought online from USA when Internet shopping was in its infancy. It’s limited in its range but at least you get to hear it spoken.

DICTIONARIES

Pharos Afrikaans-Engels/Engels-Afrikaans Woordeboek (link)
This is the best and most comprehensive dictionary with over 200,000 which explains the cost. It is also available as a CD Rom.

HAT (Verklarende Handwoordeboek van die Afrikaanse Taal) – FF Odendal & RH Gouws (link)
The definitive Afrikaans dictionary.

Afrikaans-English/English-Afrikaans (Hippocrene Practical Dictionary) – Jan Kromhout (link)
This is really good.

A Dictionary of South African English (link)
Well I like it and find it helpful. It’s Afrikaans-focused, but there are plenty of Afrikaans words and expressions.

Juta’s Pocket – Afrikaans-English/English-Afrikaans Dictionary (link)
It’s quite basic, it doesn’t show different usage of words.

BOOKSHOPS

Grant and Cutler (link) on Great Marlborough Street and Foyles (link) on Charing Cross Road have a better than normal selection of Afrikaans books offering teach yourself books, dictionaries and some novels, usually André Brink and Harry Potter.