Sy het die gehoor hande hoor klap.

Here die gehoor is a noun phrase meaning the audience.

A few clues show that:

• die is the definite article the
• gehoor can be a noun meaning audience
• in Afrikaans, common nouns are not capitalized, so gehoor stays lowercase

So in this sentence, die gehoor is not the past participle of hoor. It is simply the noun audience.

Because Afrikaans usually uses het to form the past tense of most verbs.

So:

• Sy het ... literally looks like She has ...
• but in normal English translation, it often corresponds to a simple past
• that is why Sy het ... hoor klap can mean She heard ... clap

Afrikaans does not rely on a simple past form as much as English does. The het construction is the normal way to talk about past events.

This is a very important Afrikaans pattern.

When a verb like hoor is followed by another verb, Afrikaans often uses a double infinitive in the past tense. That means both verbs stay in their basic form:

• hoor
• klap

So instead of something like gehoor geklap, Afrikaans says:

• het ... hoor klap

The tense is already carried by het, so hoor stays as an infinitive here.

A similar example:

• Ek het hom hoor sing = I heard him sing

This is a standard construction after verbs like hoor and sien.

Because after perception verbs like hoor and sien, Afrikaans normally uses a bare infinitive.

So you say:

• Ek hoor hom sing
• Sy het die kinders sien speel
• Sy het die gehoor hande hoor klap

Not:

• Ek hoor hom om te sing
• Sy het die gehoor hande hoor om te klap

After hoor, the next verb comes directly without om te.

It does two jobs at once, in a way.

In meaning, die gehoor is:

• the thing/person that she heard
• the group that is doing the clapping

This is similar to English in a sentence like:

• She heard the audience clap

Here, the audience is the object of heard, but it is also the understood subject of clap.

So in Sy het die gehoor hande hoor klap, die gehoor is the group whose action she heard.

Because hande klap is a natural Afrikaans expression meaning to clap hands or simply to applaud.

Afrikaans often leaves out the possessive when it is obvious whose body part is meant. Here it is clear that the audience is clapping their own hands, so hulle is unnecessary.

So:

• hande klap = clap hands
• in natural English, this is usually just clap or applaud

You could make the possession explicit in some contexts, but here it would sound less natural.

Because Afrikaans often places non-finite verbs toward the end of the clause.

In this sentence, hoor klap forms a verb cluster at the end:

• Sy het die gehoor hande hoor klap

A useful way to see the structure is:

• Sy het = past tense marker
• die gehoor = the audience
• hande = hands
• hoor klap = hear clap

English keeps these verbs earlier, but Afrikaans likes to stack them near the end.

It can absolutely mean applaud.

Literally, it is clap hands, but in normal usage it often just means clap in the sense of showing approval or appreciation.

So depending on context, the sentence could be understood as:

• she heard the audience clap their hands
• she heard the audience applauding

Both ideas fit the Afrikaans wording.

Yes. This is a common pattern with verbs of perception and a few similar verbs.

For example:

• Ek het haar sien dans = I saw her dance
• Ons het hulle hoor lag = We heard them laugh
• Hy het my voel bewe = He felt me tremble

So the pattern is:

• het + person/thing + infinitive + infinitive

In your sentence:

• het + die gehoor + hande + hoor + klap

Once you get used to it, this kind of sentence becomes much easier to recognize.