Hulle het ons voor die verhoog sien dans.

In Afrikaans, het is the usual auxiliary used to form the past tense with many verbs. Very often, this perfect form does the job that simple past does in English.

So Hulle het ... can often be translated as either:

• They saw ...
• They have seen ...

In everyday Afrikaans, the perfect is extremely common where English would often just use a simple past.

This is because of the double infinitive pattern.

With certain verbs, especially verbs like sien (see), hoor (hear), laat (let/make), and the modals, Afrikaans often uses:

• het + infinitive + infinitive

instead of:

• het + past participle

So in this sentence, sien stays as sien, not gesien, because it is followed by another infinitive, dans.

That is why you get:

• Hulle het ons ... sien dans

rather than:

• Hulle het ons ... gesien dans

Because the sentence means something like They saw us dance or They saw us dancing.

Here:

• sien = see
• dans = dance

The first verb is the verb of perception, and the second is the action that was perceived.

So the structure is:

• They saw [us dance]

Afrikaans commonly keeps this little verb cluster together near the end of the clause.

After verbs like sien, Afrikaans uses the bare infinitive.

So you say:

• ons sien dans
• haar hoor sing

not:

• ons sien te dans
• haar hoor te sing

This is similar to English, where we say see someone dance, not see someone to dance.

In Afrikaans, ons can mean both we and us.

Unlike English, Afrikaans does not change this pronoun between subject and object forms.

So:

• Ons dans. = We dance.
• Hulle sien ons. = They see us.

In your sentence, ons is the object of sien, so it means us.

Because ons is the object of sien, but it is also the understood subject of dans.

So the sentence means:

• They saw us dance
• not They saw us while they danced

A useful way to think about it is:

• They saw [us dancing]

The person or people immediately before the infinitive often act as the doer of that infinitive.

Because Afrikaans often puts location, time, and other adverbial phrases before the final verb cluster.

So this is very natural:

• Hulle het ons voor die verhoog sien dans.

The phrase voor die verhoog belongs with the action and tells you where it happened.

Afrikaans likes to keep the final verbs together at the end, so a phrase like voor die verhoog often comes right before them.

A version like Hulle het ons sien dans voor die verhoog may be possible in some contexts, but voor die verhoog sien dans is a very normal order.

Here, voor means in front of, not before in time.

So:

• voor die verhoog = in front of the stage

Afrikaans voor can be either:

• spatial: in front of
• temporal: before

You decide from context. In this sentence, because verhoog is a physical place, the meaning is clearly spatial.

Yes, depending on context.

The Afrikaans perfect with het can cover both:

• a simple past meaning: They saw us dance
• a present perfect meaning: They have seen us dance

In many situations, context tells you which English translation sounds best. If this is a story about one completed event, English usually prefers They saw us dance.

Yes. In Afrikaans, the infinitive and the present-tense form of many verbs are often identical.

So dans can mean:

• dance as a verb form in Ons dans
• to dance in an infinitive-like function after another verb

In this sentence, dans is functioning as a bare infinitive after sien.

The pattern is:

• Subject + het + object + adverbial phrase + infinitive + infinitive

So here:

• Hulle = subject
• het = past auxiliary
• ons = object
• voor die verhoog = location
• sien dans = final verb cluster

A very literal breakdown would be:

• They have us in front of the stage see dance

But natural English is:

• They saw us dance in front of the stage.