Sy beplan 'n vergadering.

Here Sy means she.

A useful extra point: lowercase sy can also mean his in other sentences, for example sy boek = his book. In Sy beplan 'n vergadering, it is clearly the subject pronoun, so it means she.

Afrikaans verbs usually do not change for different subjects in the present tense.

So you get:

• Ek beplan = I plan / I am planning
• Jy beplan = you plan / are planning
• Sy beplan = she plans / is planning

This is much simpler than English, where you have I plan but she plans.

It can mean either one, depending on context.

Afrikaans often uses the simple present where English might use:

• she plans
• she is planning

So Sy beplan 'n vergadering can be understood as either She plans a meeting or She is planning a meeting, depending on the situation.

'n is the Afrikaans indefinite article, equivalent to English a or an.

A few important things about it:

• It is used for both a and an
• It is written with an apostrophe
• It is pronounced very weakly, like a schwa: roughly uh

So 'n vergadering means a meeting.

You usually pronounce 'n as a very short uh sound, not like the English word an.

So this sentence is not pronounced like she beplan an vergadering. The article is much lighter:

• Sy beplan 'n vergadering
• roughly: say buh-PLAHN uh fer-KHAA-duh-ring

The exact sound varies by speaker, but the key point is that 'n is unstressed and very short.

Vergadering means meeting.

It is a common word for a formal or organized meeting, such as a work meeting, committee meeting, or planned discussion.

Its plural is vergaderings = meetings.

In this simple sentence, yes. It follows the pattern:

• Sy = subject
• beplan = verb
• 'n vergadering = object

So it is basically subject + verb + object, just like English: She plans a meeting.

A broader Afrikaans rule is that the finite verb is usually in the second position in a main clause, but in this basic sentence that gives the same order as English.

A rough English-friendly guide is:

Sy beplan 'n vergadering
say buh-PLAHN uh fer-KHAA-duh-ring

A few pronunciation notes:

• Sy sounds roughly like say
• beplan has the stress on the second syllable: be-PLAN
• v in Afrikaans often sounds close to f
• g in vergadering is the guttural sound heard in Scottish loch or German Bach

Afrikaans does not have grammatical gender for nouns in the way some European languages do.

That means:

• 'n stays the same
• the noun vergadering does not change because the subject is female
• you do not need to learn masculine/feminine noun classes for this sentence

The only gender here is natural gender in the pronoun Sy = she.

You would usually use the Afrikaans double negative:

Sy beplan nie 'n vergadering nie.

That means She is not planning a meeting or She does not plan a meeting.

Notice the two nie words:

• one after the verb
• one at the end of the clause

You put the verb first:

Beplan sy 'n vergadering?

That means Is she planning a meeting? or Does she plan a meeting?

This kind of verb-first order is very common for yes/no questions in Afrikaans.