Hy vertel ons hiervan.

A word-by-word breakdown is:

• Hy = he
• vertel = tells / tell
• ons = us
• hiervan = about this / of this / from this depending on context

In this sentence, hiervan is understood as about this, so the whole sentence means He tells us about this.

In Afrikaans, verbs usually do not change form depending on the subject the way they do in English.

So:

• Ek vertel = I tell
• Jy vertel = you tell
• Hy vertel = he tells
• Ons vertel = we tell

The verb stays vertel in all these cases. English adds -s in he tells, but Afrikaans does not.

Ons can mean either we or us, depending on its role in the sentence.

Here it means us, because it is the object of the verb:

• Hy vertel ons hiervan = He tells us about this.

Compare:

• Ons vertel hom hiervan = We tell him about this.

So the meaning depends on sentence function, not on a different form.

That is a very common learner question.

In Afrikaans, with verbs like vertel, you can often say either:

• Hy vertel ons hiervan
• Hy vertel vir ons hiervan

Both are used and both are correct. The version without vir is perfectly normal. The version with vir can sound a bit more explicit or colloquial in some contexts.

So ons by itself is fine here.

Hiervan is a combination of:

• hier = here / this
• van = of / from / about

Together, hiervan often means:

• of this
• about this
• sometimes from this

In the sentence Hy vertel ons hiervan, the natural meaning is about this.

So Afrikaans often uses a compact word where English uses a preposition phrase.

Afrikaans commonly joins certain prepositions with words like hier, daar, and waar into one word.

For example:

• hiervan = of/about this
• daarvan = of/about that
• waarvan = of/about what / of which

This is a normal spelling pattern in Afrikaans, so hiervan is not two separate words here.

The sentence has a very normal Afrikaans word order:

• Hy = subject
• vertel = verb
• ons = object
• hiervan = prepositional idea (about this)

So the structure is basically:

Subject + Verb + Object + Prepositional element

That makes Hy vertel ons hiervan a straightforward main clause.

Yes, you may hear variations like that, especially in speech, but Hy vertel ons hiervan is the cleanest and most straightforward version.

Other possible forms include:

• Hy vertel vir ons hiervan
• Hy vertel hiervan aan ons (less common in everyday speech for this meaning)

For a learner, Hy vertel ons hiervan and Hy vertel vir ons hiervan are the most useful patterns to remember.

The difference is similar to this versus that in English.

• hiervan = about this / of this
• daarvan = about that / of that

So:

• Hy vertel ons hiervan = He tells us about this
• Hy vertel ons daarvan = He tells us about that

Afrikaans uses this hier- / daar- contrast a lot.

Yes, this is the simple present form.

But in Afrikaans, the present tense can cover several meanings that English often separates:

• He tells us about this
• He is telling us about this
• sometimes even a habitual sense like He tells us about this regularly

The exact meaning depends on context.

Often yes, but not always in exactly the same way.

Vertel can mean:

• tell
• narrate
• relate

Examples:

• Hy vertel 'n storie = He tells a story.
• Vertel my! = Tell me!
• Sy vertel ons daarvan = She tells us about it.

So in this sentence, vertel works very much like English tell.