Die troffel lê tussen die plantbakke.

Because die is the definite article in Afrikaans for both singular and plural nouns.

So:

• die troffel = the trowel
• die plantbakke = the planters / plant boxes

Afrikaans does not change the word for the based on gender, and it also does not have different singular/plural forms of the definite article the way some other languages do.

Also, Die is capitalized here only because it starts the sentence. In normal writing, nouns are not automatically capitalized in Afrikaans.

Afrikaans often prefers a position verb instead of a plain verb like is when describing where something is.

Here, lê means lies or is lying. It suggests that the trowel is resting in a horizontal position.

So Die troffel lê tussen die plantbakke sounds more natural and more specific than simply using is.

You can sometimes hear is in location sentences, but lê is the more idiomatic choice here because a trowel is normally thought of as lying down rather than standing upright or sitting.

These are very common Afrikaans location verbs:

• lê = lie / be lying
• sit = sit / be situated
• staan = stand / be standing

Afrikaans uses them more often than English does.

A simple way to think about them:

• lê: for things that are flat, horizontal, or resting on a surface
  
  • Die boek lê op die tafel.
• staan: for things that are upright
  
  • Die bottel staan op die tafel.
• sit: often for things that are in a place, attached, contained, or simply located there
  
  • Die sleutel sit in die deur.

In your sentence, troffel fits lê well because a trowel would normally be lying on the ground or resting between the planters.

It can mean either, depending on context.

• If there are two clear objects, English often prefers between.
• If there are several surrounding objects, English may prefer among.

Afrikaans tussen can cover both ideas.

So tussen die plantbakke could be understood as:

• between the planters
• or, in some contexts, among the planters

The exact English choice depends on the scene, but the Afrikaans word stays tussen.

Plantbakke is the plural of plantbak, which is a compound noun:

• plant = plant
• bak = container / box / tray / tub

So plantbak is something like a plant container, planter, or flower box, depending on context.

The plural of bak is bakke, so:

• plantbak → plantbakke

The doubled kk is a normal spelling pattern in Afrikaans when a short vowel is kept short before the plural ending -e.

Two important pronunciation points:

• die is pronounced roughly like dee, not like the English word die
• lê is pronounced with a long open vowel, roughly like leh or somewhat like the vowel in there without the r

A rough pronunciation of the whole sentence could be:

dee TROF-el lay / leh TUSS-en dee PLANT-bak-uh

That is only an approximation, but it helps avoid the most common mistake, which is pronouncing die like English die.

Yes. Afrikaans allows you to move parts of the sentence for emphasis, but the verb usually stays in the second position in a main clause.

So besides:

Die troffel lê tussen die plantbakke.

you can also say:

Tussen die plantbakke lê die troffel.

That version emphasizes the location first: Between the planters lies the trowel.

This is a very common Afrikaans pattern:

• put the location or time expression first
• keep the verb second
• move the subject after the verb

Afrikaans usually uses a double nie in negative sentences.

So the negative version is:

Die troffel lê nie tussen die plantbakke nie.

Pattern:

• first nie goes after the verb or verb phrase
• second nie goes near the end of the clause

So:

• lê nie ... nie

This double-negative structure is one of the most important basic patterns in Afrikaans.

No. Afrikaans does not normally use grammatical gender the way languages like German or Dutch do.

So troffel is not treated as masculine, feminine, or neuter in everyday grammar. That is one reason the article system is simpler:

• die for the
• ’n for a / an

So you do not need to memorize noun genders for a sentence like this.