Ons sien diegene wat werk.

Diegene means those or those ones / the ones. In this sentence, Ons sien diegene wat werk, it refers to a group of people: those who are working.

It is a more formal or written-style word than something like mense (people). In everyday speech, Afrikaans speakers might often choose a simpler wording depending on context.

In this sentence, wat introduces a relative clause: wat werk = who work / that work / who are working.

Afrikaans uses wat very often where English uses who, that, or which. So in this sentence:

• diegene wat werk = those who work

Even though English usually prefers who for people, Afrikaans commonly uses wat.

This is the normal Afrikaans structure for a noun followed by a relative clause:

• diegene = those
• wat werk = who work

So the sentence is built like this:

• Ons = we
• sien = see
• diegene wat werk = those who work

Afrikaans relative clauses are often quite straightforward, and in this case the verb werk stays at the end of the small clause because the clause is very short.

No. In Afrikaans, verbs usually do not change according to the subject the way they do in English.

So:

• ek sien = I see
• jy sien = you see
• ons sien = we see
• hulle sien = they see

The same verb form sien is used with different subjects. This is much simpler than English.

Afrikaans verbs do not usually add endings like English -s for he works.

So:

• ek werk = I work
• hy werk = he works
• ons werk = we work

Also, Afrikaans often uses the simple present where English might use either the simple present or the present continuous, depending on context.

So wat werk can mean:

• who work
• who are working

Both are possible depending on the situation.

It can often be understood in both ways.

werk is a present-tense form, but Afrikaans often uses the simple present in places where English uses:

• work
• are working

So diegene wat werk may mean:

• those who work (general meaning)
• those who are working (right now)

The exact meaning depends on context.

Afrikaans is different from English here. English distinguishes:

• who for people
• which for things
• that for either, in many cases

Afrikaans often uses wat very broadly in relative clauses. So even for people, wat is normal.

That means:

• die man wat werk = the man who is working
• die mense wat kom = the people who are coming

This is standard Afrikaans usage.

Yes, but it means something slightly different.

• Ons sien diegene wat werk = We see those who work / those who are working
• Ons sien mense wat werk = We see people who work / people who are working

Diegene is more specific and a bit more formal. It points to a particular group: those ones.
Mense is more general: people.

In this sentence, diegene is functioning as a plural idea: those.

It refers to more than one person:

• diegene wat werk = those who work

If you want to refer to one person, you would normally use a different structure, such as:

• die een wat werk = the one who is working

A rough guide for an English speaker:

• Ons ≈ ons with a short vowel
• sien ≈ sounds a bit like seen
• diegene ≈ roughly dee-GHEE-nuh
• wat ≈ similar to vut or wuht, depending on accent
• werk ≈ like verk, with w pronounced like English v

A few useful pronunciation notes:

• Afrikaans w is usually pronounced like English v
• g in diegene is not a hard English g; it is a throat sound in careful Afrikaans pronunciation
• sien is close to English seen

Grammatically, werk can mean work in the sense of do a job, but also function / operate in some contexts.

However, because diegene usually refers to people, the natural meaning here is:

• those who work
• those who are working

If the sentence were about machines or systems, Afrikaans would usually use different nouns rather than diegene.

Because wat werk is not a separate noun phrase. It is a relative clause describing diegene.

So the structure is:

• diegene = those / the ones
• wat werk = who work

English works similarly:

• those who work
• not those the who work

So nothing is missing—wat werk is simply modifying diegene.