Die veld is groen.

Here, die means the.

A few useful notes:

• die is the normal definite article in Afrikaans.
• It is used with both singular and plural nouns: die veld = the field, die velde = the fields.
• It is pronounced roughly dee, not like the English word die.

Yes, in this simple statement it is basically the same:

• Die veld = subject
• is = verb
• groen = adjective

So the pattern is:

Subject + is + adjective

That is very close to English The field is green.

If you turn it into a yes/no question, Afrikaans usually puts the verb first:

Is die veld groen? = Is the field green?

Because Afrikaans and English are related Germanic languages, so some very common words look similar.

In Afrikaans, is is the present-tense form of to be, and it stays is with all persons:

• ek is = I am
• jy is = you are
• hy/sy is = he/she is
• ons is = we are
• hulle is = they are

So unlike English, Afrikaans does not switch between am / is / are.

Groen is an adjective meaning green.

In Die veld is groen, it comes after is, so it is describing the subject as a quality or state. In that position, Afrikaans uses the basic adjective form.

You can also put it before the noun:

die groen veld = the green field

So in this case, groen stays groen both after the verb and before the noun.

Often yes in simple translation, but veld can have a slightly broader feel.

In Afrikaans, veld often refers to open land, grassland, or countryside, especially in a Southern African context. So depending on context, it can mean more than just a fenced agricultural field.

You may also have seen the English borrowing veldt, which comes from the same word.

A rough English-friendly guide is:

dee felt iss ghroon

More carefully:

• die → dee
• veld → roughly felt
  
  • the final d is pronounced like t
• is → iss
• groen → roughly ghroon
  • g is a guttural sound, like the ch in Scottish loch or German Bach
  • oe sounds like oo in food

Accent varies, but that will get you close.

This is because Afrikaans often devoiced final consonants in pronunciation.

So a word may be spelled with d, but at the end of the word it sounds like t:

• veld sounds roughly like felt

This is normal and not something unusual about this word specifically.

You would say:

Die velde is groen.

Important things to notice:

• veld becomes velde in the plural
• die stays die
• is stays is

So Afrikaans does not change the verb the way English changes is to are.

You would say:

'n veld is groen.

Here, 'n means a/an.

A useful spelling note:

• 'n is always written in lowercase, even at the start of a sentence.
• So at the beginning of a sentence you would write: 'n Veld is groen.