Die balkon kry sonlig.

Die is the normal definite article in Afrikaans, so here it means the in the balcony.

Afrikaans does not use grammatical gender the way languages like German or Dutch do. That means you do not have to learn different words for the depending on whether a noun is masculine, feminine, or neuter. In most ordinary cases, die works for all nouns in the singular and also for plurals.

So:

• die balkon = the balcony
• die huis = the house
• die kinders = the children

That is much simpler than in many other European languages.

Yes. Kry very often means get, receive, or obtain.

In this sentence, Die balkon kry sonlig, the idea is that the balcony gets or receives sunlight. In natural English, you might translate it as:

• The balcony gets sunlight
• The balcony receives sunlight
• The balcony gets sun

So kry is a very normal and common verb here.

No. One helpful feature of Afrikaans is that verbs usually do not change form in the present tense depending on the subject.

In English, we say:

• I get
• you get
• the balcony gets

But in Afrikaans, the verb normally stays the same:

• Ek kry = I get
• Jy kry = you get
• Die balkon kry = the balcony gets

So kry does not need an extra ending.

This sentence uses the basic Afrikaans main-clause word order:

Subject + Verb + Object

So:

• Die balkon = subject
• kry = verb
• sonlig = object

That makes the sentence very straightforward for an English speaker.

However, Afrikaans also follows a verb-second pattern in main clauses. That means if another element comes first, the verb still stays in second position. For example:

• In die oggend kry die balkon sonlig.
  = In the morning, the balcony gets sunlight.

So the simple sentence looks English-like, but Afrikaans word order becomes more noticeable when you move other parts to the front.

Because Afrikaans, like Dutch and German, often forms compound nouns as a single word.

Here:

• son = sun
• lig = light
• sonlig = sunlight

This is very normal in Afrikaans. English sometimes writes similar ideas as one word, two words, or with a hyphen, but Afrikaans strongly prefers a single compound form in many cases.

Other examples:

• huisdeur = house door / front door
• seevakansie = beach holiday / seaside holiday

So sonlig as one word is exactly what you should expect.

Because sonlig is being used in a general, uncountable sense, much like sunlight in English.

Compare:

• Die balkon kry sonlig.
  = The balcony gets sunlight.

You would not normally say gets a sunlight in English, and Afrikaans works similarly here.

If you wanted to make the noun more specific in some other context, you might add more detail, but in this sentence the bare noun sonlig is the natural choice.

A useful English approximation is kray, but that is only approximate.

A few points:

• The kr- sounds like English cr- in crab
• The y in kry is a diphthong sound, roughly like the vowel in English day or say, though not exactly the same in all accents

So kry is often approximated for learners as something like kray.

Also:

• Die is usually pronounced roughly like dee
• balkon is roughly bal-KON
• sonlig is roughly SON-likh or SON-lig, depending on accent and how accurately you produce the final consonant sound

It is very similar to English balcony, but the Afrikaans form is balkon. It is related to equivalent words found in several European languages.

For a learner, the important thing is:

• balkon is a normal Afrikaans noun
• it means balcony
• it is easy to recognize because it resembles the English word

So yes, it is one of those words that feels familiar to an English speaker, even though the Afrikaans form is a little different.

Yes, but kry is the most natural everyday choice here.

For example, you could say:

• Die balkon ontvang sonlig.

That would mean The balcony receives sunlight, but ontvang sounds more formal and is less idiomatic in this context.

So if you want the most natural everyday Afrikaans, Die balkon kry sonlig is a very good sentence.

In this sentence, die means the.

Afrikaans die can also appear in other grammatical roles, especially in relative clauses or in certain set patterns, but for a beginner the safest thing is to read die here simply as the definite article the.

So in Die balkon kry sonlig, do not overthink it:

• die = the
• balkon = balcony
• kry = gets
• sonlig = sunlight