Sy lees die getuienis.

No. In Afrikaans, verbs usually do not change according to the subject in the present tense.

So you get:

• ek lees = I read
• jy lees = you read
• hy lees = he reads
• sy lees = she reads
• ons lees = we read

Unlike English, Afrikaans does not add an -s for he/she/it in the present tense.

In this sentence, sy means she because it is the subject of the sentence.

Afrikaans sy can also be a possessive word meaning his, depending on the sentence. For example:

• Sy lees die boek. = She reads the book.
• sy boek = his book

So context tells you which meaning is intended.

Here, die is the definite article, so it means the.

Afrikaans uses die for:

• singular nouns
• plural nouns
• all genders

So Afrikaans does not have separate words like English the versus gendered forms like some other languages do. It is simply die.

No. Afrikaans nouns do not have grammatical gender the way nouns do in languages like German or French.

That means:

• the article stays die
• adjectives and nouns do not change for masculine/feminine gender in the way learners may expect from some other languages

The only gender you see here is natural gender in the pronoun sy, because it refers to a female person.

Yes. This is standard main-clause word order:

• Sy = subject
• lees = verb
• die getuienis = object

So it follows the common Subject–Verb–Object pattern, just like English:

• She reads the testimony.

Yes, very often.

In Afrikaans, the simple present can cover both:

• she reads
• she is reading

So Sy lees die getuienis can mean either, depending on context.

If you want to make the ongoing action extra clear, Afrikaans can use a structure like:

• Sy is besig om die getuienis te lees. = She is busy reading the testimony. / She is reading the testimony.

But in everyday Afrikaans, the simple form is very common.

Getuienis is a noun. In this sentence, it is singular.

It usually means something like:

• testimony
• evidence
• sometimes witness statement, depending on context

If you wanted the plural, you would normally use getuienisse.

So:

• die getuienis = the testimony
• die getuienisse = the testimonies

A very common past-tense form in Afrikaans is:

• Sy het die getuienis gelees.

This uses:

• het = auxiliary verb
• gelees = past participle of lees

So English She read the testimony is usually expressed this way in standard Afrikaans.

Afrikaans usually makes negatives with nie ... nie.

So:

• Sy lees nie die getuienis nie.

This means:

• She does not read the testimony.
• or, depending on context, She is not reading the testimony.

The first nie comes after the verb, and the second nie goes near the end of the clause. This double-negative pattern is a very important feature of Afrikaans.

No. In Sy lees die getuienis, lees is a finite verb in the present tense.

The infinitive form is also lees, but you can recognize the difference from the sentence structure.

For example:

• Sy wil die getuienis lees. = She wants to read the testimony.

Here, the second lees is the infinitive.

So Afrikaans often uses the same form for:

• the dictionary form
• the present-tense verb

Context tells you which one it is.