Die sanger sing 'n nuwe liedjie.

Yes. die is the Afrikaans definite article, so here it means the.

It is capitalized only because it is the first word of the sentence. Afrikaans does not normally capitalize nouns the way German does.

Also, die does not change for grammatical gender, and it can also be used with plural nouns:

• die sanger = the singer
• die sangers = the singers

Modern Afrikaans does not use grammatical gender the way languages like German do. So die is not a special masculine or feminine form here.

That makes things simpler than in many European languages:

• die man = the man
• die vrou = the woman
• die kind = the child

The article stays the same.

sanger means singer. It is built from the verb sing plus the ending -er, which is an agent ending meaning a person who does the action.

So:

• sing = to sing
• sanger = singer

That is very similar to English.

In Afrikaans, verbs do not change the way English verbs do in the present tense. So you do not add something like English -s for he/she.

You get:

• ek sing = I sing
• jy sing = you sing
• hy sing = he sings
• ons sing = we sing

So Die sanger sing is normal Afrikaans: the verb stays sing.

Yes. This sentence uses the basic main-clause order:

subject + verb + object

So:

• Die sanger = subject
• sing = verb
• 'n nuwe liedjie = object

That is very close to English: The singer sings a new song.

One useful extra note: Afrikaans is a verb-second language in main clauses. So if something else comes first, the verb still stays early:

• Vandag sing die sanger 'n nuwe liedjie. = Today the singer sings a new song.

'n is the Afrikaans indefinite article, so it means a or an.

It is usually pronounced as a very weak uh sound, like the first sound in about. The n is usually not strongly pronounced in careful everyday speech.

A very important spelling detail: even at the beginning of a sentence, 'n itself stays lowercase:

• 'n Nuwe liedjie is mooi.

So the next word gets the capital letter, not 'n.

The basic adjective is nuut = new.

When this adjective comes before a noun, it usually changes to nuwe:

• 'n nuwe liedjie = a new song

But when it comes after a linking verb, you usually use the base form:

• Die liedjie is nuut. = The song is new.

So:

• nuut = base form
• nuwe = form used here before the noun

liedjie is a diminutive form of lied (song). The ending -jie is a very common Afrikaans diminutive ending.

So historically:

• lied = song
• liedjie = little song

However, in real Afrikaans, diminutives are used very often and do not always sound especially small or cute in English. In many contexts, liedjie is simply the natural everyday word for song.

So in this sentence, you usually should not over-translate it as little song unless the context clearly calls for that nuance.

A good rough pronunciation is LEE-kee.

Even though it is spelled -djie, the pronunciation is much simpler than it looks. For many learners, it is easiest to remember:

• liedjie ≈ LEE-kee

You do not need to pronounce every written consonant separately in an English-like way.

A good rough guide is:

• sing ≈ sing with the ng sound at the end, as in English sing
• sanger ≈ SAHNG-er

In sanger, the ng is like the sound in English singer, not like a hard g in go.

So the beginning of sanger should sound more like sang- than san-ger.