Die plantbak dreineer sonder dat ons water op die balkon mors.

Plantbak is a compound noun: plant + bak. Afrikaans, like Dutch and German, often combines nouns into one word.

So instead of writing plant bak, you write plantbak.

A plantbak can mean a planter, flower box, or plant container, depending on context.

Die is the definite article in Afrikaans, meaning the.

Afrikaans does not have grammatical gender for nouns, so you do not need to learn separate forms like masculine, feminine, or neuter articles. The same die is used for:

• singular nouns
• plural nouns

So:

• die plantbak = the planter
• die balkon = the balcony

This makes Afrikaans articles much simpler than in many European languages.

In Afrikaans, verbs usually do not change according to the subject in the present tense.

So you get:

• ek dreineer
• jy dreineer
• ons dreineer
• die plantbak dreineer

The verb stays dreineer each time.

That is why die plantbak dreineer simply means the planter drains or the planter is draining, depending on context.

Sonder dat means without (the fact that)... or more naturally in English, without ...ing / without ... happening.

It introduces a full clause after it.

In this sentence:

• sonder dat ons water op die balkon mors

literally means something like:

• without that we spill water on the balcony

Natural English would usually say:

• without us spilling water on the balcony

So sonder dat is the normal way to say without when a full clause follows.

Dat introduces a subordinate clause.

After sonder, if you want to follow with a complete clause containing its own subject and verb, Afrikaans normally uses dat:

• sonder dat ons ... mors

English often leaves out that, but Afrikaans usually keeps dat in this kind of structure.

So dat is not optional here in normal standard Afrikaans.

Because dat creates a subordinate clause, and in Afrikaans subordinate clauses the conjugated verb normally goes to the end.

Compare:

Main clause:

• Ons mors water op die balkon.
• We spill water on the balcony.

Subordinate clause:

• ... dat ons water op die balkon mors.
• ... that we spill water on the balcony.

So the pattern is very typical:

• dat
  • subject + other information + verb at the end

That is why mors comes last.

No. In this sentence, ons means we, not our.

So:

• ons water op die balkon mors

should be understood as:

• we
  • water
    • spill on the balcony

Here water is the object, and ons is the subject.

This can confuse English speakers because Afrikaans ons can also be possessive in other contexts, meaning our. But word order tells you what is happening here.

In this sentence:

• ons = we
• water = the thing being spilled

Mors usually means to spill, to make a mess with, or sometimes to waste.

In this sentence, the most natural sense is spill:

• water op die balkon mors = spill water on the balcony

It is a very common everyday verb for messiness or accidental spilling.

Examples:

• Moenie die melk mors nie. = Don’t spill the milk.
• Hy mors met die kos. = He is making a mess with the food.

Op is the normal preposition for on when talking about a surface or area like a balcony.

So:

• op die balkon = on the balcony

That fits the idea of water ending up on the balcony floor/surface.

If you wanted to say off the balcony, you would need a different expression, such as:

• van die balkon af

So op die balkon is exactly what you would expect here.

Not naturally in this exact form.

Sonder om ... te ... is usually used when the subject is the same as the subject of the main clause, or when the subject is left unexpressed:

• Hy het weggegaan sonder om te groet.
• He left without greeting.

But in your sentence, the main clause subject is:

• die plantbak

and the second clause has a different subject:

• ons

Because the second part has its own explicit subject, sonder dat is the better structure:

• sonder dat ons water op die balkon mors

So this is a good example of when sonder dat is preferred.

Yes.

The first part:

• Die plantbak dreineer

is a normal main clause with the usual Afrikaans word order:

• subject: Die plantbak
• verb: dreineer

Then the sentence adds a subordinate clause:

• sonder dat ons water op die balkon mors

So the whole sentence is built from:

1. a main clause
2. a subordinate clause introduced by sonder dat

That contrast also helps explain why dreineer comes early but mors goes at the end.